The Spectator

Wednesday

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

Friday

Thursday

The Spectator

What weather records were broken in 2019?

From our UK edition

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. She bore two daughters who both died in infancy. — King Rama V of Siam (1868-1910), also known as Chulalongkorn, is reputed to have had 77 children with 92 different consorts, four of whom were his half-sisters. — Princess Nahienaena of Hawaii (1815-1836) bore a daughter with her brother, Prince Kauikeaouli. The baby died.

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Letters: Governments should be promoting marriage, not discouraging it for the sake of equality

From our UK edition

Look closer to home Sir: In your interview with Boris Johnson (‘Austerity was not the way forward’, 30 November) he attributes the EU referendum result to ‘regional inequality… parts of the UK were simply being ignored… leaving people behind’. Yet he says his remedy for this is ‘infrastructure and education and technology’. In other words, people voted Leave for reasons that had nothing to do with the EU: they were ‘left behind’ because of the austerity policies of the British government. The remedy he identifies is also entirely within the power of our own government.

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This is the most important election in modern history – so vote, and vote Tory

From our UK edition

Next week, voters will decide the future of the government, of Brexit, and perhaps of the Union. Jeremy Corbyn has been admirably clear on what he offers: a radical experiment in far-left economics, going after the wealthy to fund the biggest expansion of government ever attempted in this country. Boris Johnson proposes to complete Brexit and restore much-needed stability to government. But given that about half of voters still oppose Brexit, the race is close. Corbyn offers a new referendum on Brexit. It is easy to snigger at his declaration that he would be neutral during this campaign. But his pledge to be an ‘honest broker’ conceals the deceit that his referendum represents.

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Portrait of the week: Terror in London, Trump in London and a resignation in Malta

From our UK edition

Home Usman Khan, aged 28, out of prison on licence after serving eight years of a 16-year sentence for preparing acts of terrorism, stabbed to death Jack Merritt, aged 25, and Saskia Jones, aged 23, at Fishmongers’ Hall and wounded three others before being stopped on London Bridge by members of the public and shot dead by police. A Polish kitchen worker called Lukasz Koczocik tried to disarm him with a pole; another man grabbed a narwhal tusk from the wall at the hall where Khan had been attending a conference on rehabilitation while a third let off a fire extinguisher to distract him from further bloodshed. One man who pursued the killer was said to be a murderer present at the conference.