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‘TRUMPETY TRUMP, TRUMP, TRUMP, TRUMP’ (1A/36A/1D/4D) is from the song NELLIE THE ELEPHANT (21D/15D). She escaped from the CIRCUS (31D) at NIGHT (35D). Title: another extract from the song. First prize Juliet Burgess, Narberth, Pembrokeshire Runners-up Jonathan Jones, Oxford James Slack, Bakewell, Derbyshire
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Marathon sprints The Kenyan marathon runner Sabastian Sawe broke the world record by running the first official sub-two-hour marathon. – The world’s first official sub-three-hour marathon was also run in London, at the 1908 Olympics at White City. – The record could have gone to an Italian, Dorando Pietri, but he collapsed just short of
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Home The House of Commons voted 335 to 223 against a Conservative-led motion to refer Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, to the Privileges Committee over his claims about the vetting of Lord Mandelson; 14 Labour MPs voted for the motion. Morgan McSweeney, the Prime Minister’s former chief of staff, who had recommended the appointment
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I’d not go out there now if I were you – not unless you have a taste for fire falling in flakes, for clouds of dust that leave an acrid chalky residue on wigs and epaulettes. If I were you I’d be inclined to stay inside at least until the ground had ceased to shake,
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In March, just before Artemis II rounded the far side of the Moon, the Transport Secretary had her own lunar encounter. Heidi Alexander claims that a ‘moon crater’-sized pothole forced her Mini off the road in Oxfordshire. She is far from alone. Pothole casualties in Britain rose from 270 in 2020 to 393 in 2024,
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Pennies pinching Sir: I agree with much of this week’s editorial, except for two points (‘Nunc dimittis’, 25 April). As a formerly Positively Vetted civil servant, I cannot see what point there is in vetting an applicant for a job if the outcome of the vetting (as opposed of course to the private details) is
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Watch the live recording of The Fight for the Right. On Wednesday 29 April, we pit the Conservatives, represented by Nick Timothy and Claire Coutinho, against Reform UK, represented by Matt Goodwin and Danny Kruger, to see which party truly represents the future of the right. The debate will be chaired by Isabel Hardman, The Spectator’s
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Balls to that Why are elections called ‘ballots’? — The word ballot comes from the Italian, pallotta, meaning a small ball. In Venice in the 16th century voters deposited a pallotta in a pot. The same system was used in an election in Barnstaple, Devon, in 1689, where voters were given a ball and asked
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Home Sir Keir Starmer tried to explain himself to parliament after Sir Olly Robbins was sacked as permanent under-secretary of state at the Foreign Office, its chief civil servant. Sir Keir complained that as Prime Minister he had not been told that Lord Mandelson had failed to satisfy UK Security Vetting when he took up
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The Book of Common Prayer asks that those who ‘suffer for the sake of conscience’ might be strengthened. Those prayers were answered on Tuesday morning. Sir Olly Robbins, the not so permanent under-secretary at the Foreign Office, demonstrated a calmness and strength of purpose in upholding the duties of his office which shamed the prime
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The unclued lights form the chain (which may start at any of the words) as follows: LUSTRE/TREMOR/MORTAR/TARPON/PONCHO/CHOSEN/SENSEI/SEICHE/CHESTY/STYLUS and then back to LUSTRE. First prize David Hutt, Stourbridge, West Midlands Runners-up Jenny Atkinson, Amersham, Bucks; Jeffrey Frankland, Storth, Cumbria
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Flat broke Sir: John Power’s article on the property squeeze (‘Flatlined’, 18 April) identifies a symptom of a deeper problem, the overregulation of property. Buyers are deterred by spiralling service charges, which are themselves driven by layers of legislation, insurance premium hikes and rocketing labour costs. Those still willing to take the plunge are then
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A bad night for a scattering. The river’s mouth was full. Sucked in its draught the last of him seemed indissoluble. So once again she’d got things wrong. His vinegary grin acidulous with dentures gone, the snarl, the spite left in a glass of water by the sink where, magnified,
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Last week our cookery writer Olivia Potts scooped the world by revealing that AB World Foods was to cease production of Gentleman’s Relish – on the eve of the 200th anniversary of the anchovy paste first gracing our dinner tables. For The Spectator, itself approaching its 200th anniversary, this was a loss that could scarcely
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When Britons go to the polls next month, the results will likely reveal just how un-United the Kingdom has become. Separatist parties are poised to win in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The established parties of government – Labour and Conservative – are likely to sustain losses. The former may be deserved, and the latter
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Home Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, the former secretary general of Nato, said: ‘We are under attack. We are not safe… Britain’s national security and safety is in peril.’ The government ran out of time to pass legislation to give the Chagos Islands to Mauritius before the end of the current session of parliament. Sir
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Unclued lights are leaders of the Labour party. First prize E.P. Ryan, Bath Runners-up John Foster, Yearsley, York; Roy Sharp, Kelburn, Wellington, New Zealand
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Hero worship Peter Magyar, the new PM of Hungary, has the unique distinction among world leaders of bearing the name of the country he leads. Why do we call the country Hungary when the natives call it the ‘land of the Magyars’? – ‘Hungary’ is literally, the land of the Huns. However, Middle English didn’t
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Same old Sir: In Michael Simmons’s otherwise excellent yet alarming essay on ‘Benefits treats’ (11 April), one sentence spoiled the rest of my day: to say that pensioners are ‘protected from and by every government decision’ is maddening nonsense. Pensioners are affected in exactly the same way as everyone else whenever the government of the
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Watch the live recording of Is AI a threat to humanity?. Michael Gove, The Spectator’s editor, was joined by Louis Mosley, head of leading AI firm Palantir Technologies UK, Martin Wolf, the FT’s chief economics commentator, former health secretary Matt Hancock and Stephanie Hare, technology broadcaster and journalist, to discuss whether AI will save – or destroy – the global economy, the
