Boris vs Corbyn: ITV election debate live blog
Boris Johnson has clashed with Jeremy Corbyn in the first leaders’ debate of the snap December election. Here are all the highlights as they unfolded:
The Spectator
Tuesday
Friday
The winners of the Economic Disruptor of the Year Awards 2019
Who are the companies that are rewriting the rules, the game-changers that are redefining their own marketplace? The Spectator and Julius Baer have once again come together to present the Economic Disruptor of the Year Awards – a celebration of creative entrepreneurship throughout the UK. In front of more than 120 guests from across the
Thursday
How many countries have been ruled by a Boris?
Leaders called Boris How many countries have been ruled by a Boris? — Russia has had two Borises in charge. Boris Godunov was tsar between 1598 and 1605, during the Time of Troubles, and was credited with improving education in the country, importing foreign teachers and sending Russian children abroad for schooling. Boris Yeltsin was president
Letters: Why I’ll vote for Boris
A bad idea Sir: Your editorial in favour of an amnesty for illegal immigrants (‘The case for amnesty’, 9 November) flies in the face of extensive evidence. Italy, Spain and France have, between them, granted any number of amnesties; almost without exception, each one prompted further waves of illegal immigration. In 2005 the French Interior
Our flood defences aren’t fit for the climate we have now
This week’s political fuss over whether the floods in Yorkshire constitute a ‘national emergency’ misses the point. It is too easy to declare an emergency for political purposes, to give the impression that the government is taking an issue seriously. It’s quite obvious that the scenes we have seen this week represent an emergency —
Portrait of the week: Farage’s climbdown, Yorkshire’s floods and Australia’s fires
Home Nigel Farage, the leader of the Brexit party, climbed down from his resolution to field 600 candidates in the general election, promising not to contest the 317 seats won by the Conservatives in 2017. The Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats said they would spend large sums of taxpayers’ money on things that might
to 2431: Pride of place
Each of the pairs of unclued lights is a CITY (formed from the letters in the yellow squares) and its nickname: 6D/11, 9/34, 13/29 and 28/18. First prize Mike Whiteoak, Ilford, Essex Runners-up Virginia Porter, Gwaelod-y-Garth, Cardiff; Trevor Evans, Drulingen, France
Books and Arts | 14 November 2019
Books of the year – part two
Richard Ingrams A book that gave me great enjoyment (for all the wrong reasons) was Harvest Bells: New and Uncollected Poems by John Betjeman (Bloomsbury Continuum, £16.99). The compiler, Kevin J. Gardner, professor of English at Baylor University, Texas, claimed that all the poems in the book had been subjected to his ‘rigorous scrutiny’; yet
Thursday
Letters: How to squash a Speaker
No special protection Sir: Rod Liddle’s joke that the election might be held on a date when Muslims cannot vote, thereby reducing support for Labour, has apparently led to outrage. There has been no similar outrage over your front cover (‘A vote is born’), which satirises the Christian nativity by portraying Johnson, Corbyn and Swinson
Do ‘Workington Man’ and ‘Worcester Woman’ decide elections?
National characters How useful is it to characterise an election with a single anthropological specimen such as ‘Workington Man’? ‘Worcester Woman’ was identified by Tory strategists ahead of the 1997 election as a key voter who had helped John Major win, against expectations, in 1992. Worcester was then a Conservative seat. Has the city followed
Portrait of the week: Bercow steps down, Hoyle steps up and an election begins
Home Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Labour MP for Chorley and deputy Speaker since 2010, was elected Speaker by the Commons. His first words were: ‘No clapping.’ Nigel Farage, the leader of the Brexit party, proposed an electoral pact with the Conservatives, but only if Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, repudiated the agreement on Brexit that
The case for amnesty: why it’s time to offer citizenship to illegal immigrants
There is an unspoken truth about British life: we have two classes of citizen. The first are those born or formally settled here, who have all the rights and protections of the law. Then there are perhaps a million others who may have lived here with their families for years but without the proper documents.
to 2430: Petite traveller
On 19 October John le Carré turned eighty-eight (hinted at by TWO FAT LADIES (19/26/20)). His real forenames are DAVID JOHN MOORE (1A). The titles suggested were A Perfect Spy (GOLDEN MOLE: 16), The Looking Glass War (RAW: 29), A Small Town in Germany (BAD REICHENHALL: 46), The Russia House (ROMANOV: 21) and The Little Drummer
Books and Arts | 07 November 2019
Books of the year – part one
Philip Hensher The best novels of the year were Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys (Fleet, £16.99) and James Meek’s To Calais, In Ordinary Time (Canongate, £17.99). These days, novels are often praised for the gravity of their subjects, but what elevates Whitehead’s treatment of race and American brutality is the elegance of its style and
Thursday
Letters: What would be the point of a second referendum?
Another referendum? Sir: Matthew Parris’s article ‘What question should a second referendum ask?’ (26 October) occasioned a wry smile from me this morning. His first question — whether Britain should remain in or leave the European Union — has already been asked and answered, at great expense and trouble, in 2016. The only logical reason why
How unusual is a December general election?
A December election How unusual is a December general election? Of the 56 elections held since 1800, 5 essentially took place in December: in 1868, 1900, 1910, 1918 and 1923, although prior to the first world war voting took place over several days and weeks and so cannot be pinned down to a single date.