Bah humbug Some of the things reported to have been banned this Christmas: — Mulled wine banned from being sold by street traders at Christmas fayres in Castleford, West Yorkshire, on the grounds it would break a Public Spaces Protection Order designed to stop street drinkers. — Christmas lights banned by health and safety officers
Britain’s parliamentary democracy is easily mocked: the medievalisms, the men in tights, the ayes to the right. But it has been preserved because it tends to work. It focuses minds and makes order out of chaos. Yet again we have a general election result that almost no one predicted — and one that offers plenty
The unclued lights are all words derived from names in the work of Charles Dickens. First prize David Brewis, Windsor, Berks Runners-up F.A. Scott, Enfield, Middlesex; John Murray, Compton Chamberlayne, Wilts
P.J. O’Rourke I love poems but hate poetasters, love wine but detest oenophiles, love food but can’t stand foodies. Therefore my favourite passage about food in fiction is Lionel Shriver’s entire book Big Brother. In her tale of obese totalitarianism and comestible fascists Shriver destroys every pretention and abstract conception about food — starves it
Grayson Perry In 1992 I created a graphic novel called Cycle of Violence. Reading it now, the initially striking thing is that it predicts the rise of cycling culture in the UK and a working-class boy called Bradley winning the Tour de France. But it mainly reflected the state of my mind at the time
They said it 1. Greta Thunberg (to the UN) 2. The Duke of York 3. Dawn Butler, as the shadow secretary for women and equalities 4. Donald Tusk, as the President of the European Council 5. Sir Lindsay Hoyle, as his first words as the newly elected Speaker 6. Boris Johnson, of applying for delay to
From 16 June 1866: Mr Stanley Jevons, Mr Mill, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer are all agreed that there is imminent danger of exhausting the British store of coal, are almost willing to legislate upon that annoying datum… The philosopher may of course argue that it is all a question of time, that the coal must
The nation’s newspapers reflect what is the largest political revolution in a generation. Boris Johnson has been able to turn the tide and return a majority of 76 seats after an election in which he promised to ‘Get Brexit Done’. The Telegraph The Sun The Daily Mail The Guardian The Daily Express The Financial Times
Boris Johnson has just addressed Tory HQ following the Tories’s huge election win. Here is the full text of what he had to say: Well this is the most incredible…It is a day that many of us have dreamed of, a day when the Conservative party genuinely speaks for every part of the country. We
Jeremy Corbyn has been re-elected in Islington North. But after leading his party to a second election loss, the Labour leader also announced that he would stand down before the next campaign. Watch Corbyn’s resignation speech here:
Election headlines (all 650 seats now declared) The Tories have secured a majority of 80, with a vote share of 44% – higher than achieved by any party in any election since 1970 Labour’s ‘red wall’ demolished as Tories take 28 seats from Labour across the north of England, including Blackpool South, Darlington, Blyth Valley, Grimsby
Given up on Chesterfield? Sir: Matthew Parris makes some interesting and accurate points about growing Tory support in the north and Midlands (‘The Tory push north will end in failure’, 7 December). He did not mention Chesterfield in his article, but it is a good example of what he talks about. It seems to me that
Volcanic eruptions At least six people were killed when White Island, a volcano off New Zealand’s North Island, erupted. How common are volcanic eruptions? — According to the Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Programme, there are 45 volcanoes around the world in an active state of eruption. — Yasur, on the South Pacific island of Vanuatu,
Boris Johnson stood for party leader as a One Nation Tory, he fought the campaign as a One Nation Tory and this is the agenda that has given him the largest Tory majority since 1987. Much is being made of the collapse of the Labour party’s vote, but something more profound is under way. The
Home The nation went to the polls. Engineering works compounded the misery of passengers on the South Western Railway where the RMT union is holding a strike until the end of the year. Leatherhead was utterly cut off. Hundreds of Greater Anglia services were cancelled when a signals failure turned into problems with rolling stock.
Unclued lights are DWARFS. First prize Bill Stewart, Leicester Runners-up Mark Roberts, Luxembourg;John Bartlett, Solihull
Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn clashed in a head-to-head in tonight’s live BBC debate. The two leaders faced off in front of a studio audience for their final clash before election day. Here is all the action as it unfolded:
Keeping it in the family A study by the Middle East Technical University claimed to prove that the pronounced chin of Charles II of Spain and many of his Habsburg relatives was the result of marriage between cousins. Some royals who went even further: — Tutankhamun’s wife Ankhesenamun is believed to have been his half-sister.