The Spectator

Wednesday

The Spectator

Letters: Should conservatives be worried that high-spending Boris has a majority?

From our UK edition

My father’s imprisonment Sir: Harald Maass’s piece on the plight of Uyghurs in China (‘A cultural genocide’, December 14) captures the grim reality of what has been happening. Articles like this draw vital attention to the crisis. I am an ethnic Uyghur and live in Belgium with my wife and children. My father, a 58-year-old secondary school teacher from Xinjiang, was jailed in China in April 2018. No reason was provided by the authorities as to why, and there was no trial or any other legal procedure. He was obviously imprisoned just because he is a Uyghur. After 18 months in prison, he was finally released recently and is at home in Xinjiang. Even so, we have only been in touch once — he and all my family members in China are too afraid to be open with me.

The Spectator

Portrait of the year: From May to a December election

From our UK edition

January ‘If parliament backs a deal, Britain can turn a corner,’ Theresa May, the Prime Minister, said. The Commons defeated her withdrawal agreement with the EU by 432 to 202. Patrols found 15 people on inflatable craft off Kent. The Argentine footballer, Emiliano Sala, 28, died when a light aircraft crashed into the Channel. Off Libya and Morocco, 170 migrants drowned in two shipwrecks. Patisserie Valerie went into administration. US President Donald Trump refused to approve a federal budget without funds for a wall with Mexico. A fatberg 210ft long was found blocking a sewer beneath Sidmouth. February Seven MPs resigned from the Labour party, objecting to anti-Semitism and lukewarmness towards a second referendum on Brexit.

The Spectator

What did psychics predict was going to happen in 2019?

From our UK edition

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 in Pembury, Kent, on the grounds they each weighed more than 4kg. — Children banned from sending more than one Christmas card each to classmates at Belton Lane Primary School, Grantham, on the grounds that cards are environmentally unfriendly. — Glitter banned from Marks and Spencer cards, wrapping paper and decorations.

The Spectator

Democracy redux: the lessons of 2019

From our UK edition

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 of lessons for those with an eye to see them. The communities so often patronised as ‘left behind’, typically in northern and coastal towns, have now demonstrated that they are powerful enough to decide elections. During the Blair and Cameron eras they were written off as a declining demographic: older, poorer, less educated and often stuck in the past. The ‘modernising’ politicians, it was argued, needn’t worry too much about them.

The Spectator

Eggs and hard liquor: Spectator writers on their favourite examples of meals in literature

From our UK edition

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 to death or fattens it for the kill. And she does so in prose that is poetry: ‘You have to ask yourself if there was ever a time people just ate something and got on with it. Every time I open the refrigerator I feel like I’m staring into a library of self-help books with air-conditioning.

The Spectator

What have you changed your mind about? A Spectator Christmas survey

From our UK edition

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 — it contained a lot of perverted sex, dysfunctional parenting and mercilessly mocked the process of psychotherapy. In 1992 our daughter Flo had just been born and my wife Philippa seemed to have read every parenting book under the sun. Our house was full of the jargon and ideas associated with psychotherapy.

The Spectator

Quiz Answers | 18 December 2019

From our UK edition

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 Brexit 7. Xi Jinping, the ruler of China 8. The Queen at Sandringham Women’s Institute 9. President Donald Trump of the United States, in a tweet 10. Philip Hammond, in a speech in Washington. Crown me! 1. Fur 2. The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall 3. The heavy Imperial State Crown 4. Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor (though he is by courtesy the Earl of Dumbarton) 5. John Henry Newman 6. The Duke of York 7. Olivia Colman 8.

The Spectator

A coalowner on coal

From our UK edition

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 be exhausted some day, and that a few hundred years make no difference to his argument, but this is not a political view.

Friday

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‘A huge great stonking mandate’: Boris’s Tory HQ victory speech

From our UK edition

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 have won from Workington to Woking, we have won in Bishop Auckland, in Darlington, in seats that Conservatives have not won for 100 years or more. Wrexham! Tony Blair's old seat in Sedgefield. We have turned Redcar 'Blue-car'. We have won in Clwyd South, which I first contested 22 years ago and was soundly thrashed. We win in Kensington and we win in Clwyd South – that is a party that speaks for the entire country and it is a tribute to all of you here, all of you unbelievable young thrusters.

The Spectator

Watch: Jeremy Corbyn’s resignation speech

From our UK edition

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:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMlqlJOjK48&feature=youtu.

The Spectator

Election live blog: Boris Johnson leads Tories to huge victory

From our UK edition

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 and Sedgefield Labour heading for its lowest number of seats since 1935 Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson, has lost her seat.

Thursday

The Spectator

Letters: Why have the Conservatives decided Chesterfield is a lost cause?

From our UK edition

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 the Conservatives have decided Chesterfield is a lost cause, even though it would on the face of it seem promising territory for them. With an average age higher than the national average and no university, it is one of those ‘left behind’ areas with a lot of traditional working-class voters who dislike Corbyn. A good local candidate and some active canvassing could at least have made a dent in Labour support. So what did the Tories do?

The Spectator

How common are volcanic eruptions?

From our UK edition

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, has been in a constant state of eruption since at least 1774. — Santa Maria, in Guatemala, has been erupting continuously since 1922. — In terms of distinct eruptions, Mount Etna on Sicily can claim to be the world’s most active volcano, with 219 known eruptions within the past 10,000 years.

The Spectator

Politics has fractured along new fault lines – those elected must repair the cracks

From our UK edition

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 Tories are changing, and they have a message that was directed at – and understood by – a new cohort of voters. It has the potential to transform British politics. It’s wrong to say – as many do – that the phrase ‘One Nation Tory’ is senseless. Its meaning comes from Disraeli’s dictum, in Sybil, that Britain was divided into two nations: the rich and the poor.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Trains stop, a volcano erupts and the nation goes to the polls

From our UK edition

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. After 22 years, Virgin Trains relinquished the franchise to run the West Coast Main Line, which was granted to Avanti West Coast, a partnership between Aberdeen-based firm FirstGroup and Italy’s Trenitalia. All 27,000 chickens on a farm in Suffolk were culled after cases of avian influenza were found.