The Spectator

Friday

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The winners of the Economic Disruptor of the Year Awards 2018

Which UK companies are rewriting the rules and redefining their marketplaces? Earlier this year, The Spectator and Julius Baer launched the inaugural Economic Disruptor Awards to celebrate the most creative entrepreneurs in the UK. Over the past six months, over 100 nominations have been reviewed by our panel. Last night, we announced the winners at a gala dinner hosted by Andrew Neil, Chairman of The Spectator, and attended by over 120 guests from across the world of business. We are delighted to announce that the 2018 Economic Disruptor of the Year is Pockit – a low-cost, easy-access banking app aimed at helping Britain’s ‘unbanked’.

Thursday

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Barometer | 1 November 2018

On the wagon A ‘caravan’ of several thousand Central American migrants was reported to be travelling through Mexico towards the southern US border. The concept of a caravan comes from karwan, a Persian word for a group of merchants who would travel together to take advantage of safety in numbers. In its turn it is believed to have derived from the Sanskrit word for camel. It is first recorded in English in the late 17th century for a large number of people travelling together, and soon afterwards became a word for a covered wagon — predating the motor car by two centuries.

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Letters | 1 November 2018

Political vitriol Sir: Vitriol and incivility seem to be everywhere in politics just now. In the last issue (27 October) John R. MacArthur linked a ‘rise in national coarseness’ to the election of Donald Trump, while Freddy Gray hints at a longer historical perspective when he writes that American politics ‘has always been unpleasant’. That ‘always’ is not hyperbole: in Alexander Hamilton Ron Chernow describes in vivid detail the ‘vile partisanship’ of the 1790s, stoked by newspapers that were often ‘scurrilous and inaccurate’. ‘Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper,’ said Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States.

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Portrait of the Week – 1 November 2018

Home Austerity was ‘finally coming to an end’, Philip Hammond, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said in the Budget. He was helped by what he did not call a magic money sapling, in the form of revised estimates of public borrowing in 2018, £11.6 billion lower than forecast. Debt as a share of GDP, from a peak of 85.2 per cent in 2016-17, would still be 74.1 per cent by 2024. Mr Hammond repeated a pledge of an extra £20.5 billion for the NHS over the next five years, with an extra £2 billion a year for mental health services. Councils would get £700 million more for care. The personal tax allowance would rise from £11,850 to £12,500, a year earlier than announced, benefiting 31 million employed people by at least £130 a year.

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Unhealthy spending

Since the Budget, economists have pointed out that Britain is turning into a health service with a government attached. The NHS was protected from what Philip Hammond calls ‘austerity’, yet it has emerged as the big winner from his abandonment of the old Tory idea that government should live within its means. The plan is for more debt, more spending, more tax and a lot more NHS. At the start of the last decade, the NHS accounted for 23 per cent of government spending on public services: this figure is now set to rise to 39 per cent. And then, no doubt, further still. Simon Stevens, the chief executive of the NHS, will soon run an organisation that has more people and money than some European Union countries.

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to 2380: Dedover

The unclued Across lights are US state capitals and the unclued Down ones are the states. The title refers to DELAWARE (DE) and its capital DOVER.   First prize D.P.

Monday

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Full text: Philip Hammond’s Budget statement 2018

Mr Deputy Speaker, Today, I present to the House a Budget for Britain’s future; A budget that shows the perseverance of the British people finally paying off. A Budget for hard working families, who live their lives far from this place and care little for the twists and turns of Westminster politics. People who get up early in the morning to open up factories, shops, and building sites, to drop their kids off at school to check on elderly relatives and neighbours. The strivers, the grafters and the carers who are the backbone of our communities and our economy.

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Live: Budget 2018 – Philip Hammond announces the end of austerity

Philip Hammond has delivered his final Budget before Brexit. The Chancellor said that the era of austerity is coming to an end as he pledged extra cash for no deal preparations and slapped a digital services tax on tech giants such as Facebook and Google. He also revealed that the OBR has upped its growth forecast to 1.6 per cent for 2019/20. Here are the key announcements: Government abolishes the use of Private Finance Initiatives Extra £420m to repair potholes An extra £20.

Thursday

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Letters | 25 October 2018

Irish problem Sir: What James Forsyth calls ‘the EU plan’ to keep Northern Ireland in the customs union after Brexit (‘The Irish problem’, 20 October) would no more ‘ease Northern Ireland away from the UK and push it more towards Dublin’s orbit’ than it has already done itself through numerous legislative differences. With regard to social issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage, Northern Ireland is far closer to the Republic (as it once was) than to the rest of the UK. It would therefore be no great stretch to avoid awkwardness of land border checks (and respect the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement) by having such checks at the sea ports.

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Portrait of the Week – 25 October 2018

Home Theresa May, the Prime Minister, found herself in another crisis over Brexit. Backbenchers whispered that 48 letters were being collected to present to the chairman of the 1922 Committee to trigger a vote of confidence. What annoyed some of her own MPs was a scheme (intended to make less likely the imposition of a backstop agreement over the Irish border) to extend by up to a year the Brexit implementation period that was supposed to end on 31 December 2020. During an emergency cabinet conference-call, Esther McVey, the Work and Pensions Secretary, was said to have told Mrs May that she was ‘devastated’ by the provision. An unnamed Conservative former minister told the Sunday Times: ‘The moment is coming when the knife gets heated, stuck in her front and twisted.

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Hammond’s House of Horrors

What is the point of Philip Hammond? Most chancellors have an agenda, but it’s hard to discern any purpose or direction from the current one. Gordon Brown’s project was to oversee the largest expansion of government spending in peacetime history — which he achieved, albeit with ruinous results. George Osborne spoke about trying to wind this programme back. The results were decidedly mixed, but at least he had an idea about what he sought to achieve. Mr Hammond, by contrast, has spent his time in the brace position preparing for Brexit. When he delivers his Budget on Monday, he might have to admit that the country does not seem to be quite so worried. Companies have been hiring at a rate never seen before. Youth unemployment is at an all-time low.

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to 2379: Shocking

The word is ‘pink’. Definitions of the eight headwords are: CARNATION (9), STAB (43), CHAFFINCH (22D), SMALL SAILING SHIP (41/1A/13), YELLOW LAKE PIGMENT (11/45/14), BLINK (40), SMALL (41) and SAMLET (8). PINK (in the eighth column) was to be shaded.   First prize Mrs C.J.

Thursday

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Barometer | 18 October 2018

Twists and turns Jeremy Hunt, taking a group of EU foreign ministers around the maze at Chevening House in Kent, likened it to Brexit. It is not surprising if he finds the maze at Chevening difficult, because it was deliberately designed by the 2nd Earl of Stanhope, a mathematician, to be a greater challenge than garden mazes which preceded it. Most at the time had a simple rule: if you kept your hand on one hedge you would eventually reach the centre. This was known as a ‘simply connected’ maze. Chevening, however, was one of the first ‘multiply connected’ mazes, which don’t have a simple rule to find the centre. Procreating royals The Duchess of Sussex is expecting a baby ‘next spring’.

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Letters | 18 October 2018

Ireland’s day of reckoning Sir: John Waters is more right than he knows when he talks about the Irish attitude to Brexit (‘Paddy powerless’, 13 October). We Irish and our media have developed a consensus gene across many issues — without exception, all comfortably on the left. There is no significant media outlet in Ireland that would challenge in any way the prevailing orthodoxy here, which is that Brexit is an act of national self-harm. There is a certain smugness too, which is getting in the way of the reality, which is that we of all people should want Brexit to work to the benefit of both the EU and the UK. Our day of reckoning is coming.

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Modern family

Whether it was intended so or not, the decision by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to choose Australia as the place to announce that they are expecting their first child was a public relations triumph. For years the royal family was criticised for having a tin ear when it came to reading and dealing with the public, but no one could say this now. The tone of the younger royals’ tour to the southern hemisphere has been one of approachability, without compromising the dignity of the positions which Harry and Meghan hold. Their visit also runs counter to the conventional wisdom of some republicans — in Britain as well as Australia — that support for the monarchy is dependent on personal affection for the Queen and that the institution will be doomed upon her death.

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Portrait of the week | 18 October 2018

Home Brexit was in crisis as the European Council (of heads of state or government) met. Theresa May, the Prime Minister, told the House of Commons that it was time for ‘cool, calm heads to prevail’. These proved in short supply. Dominic Raab, Jeremy Hunt, Michael Gove, Penny Mordaunt, Chris Grayling, Liz Truss and Geoffrey Cox openly ate pizza in the office of Andrea Leadsom. The EU rejected Mrs May’s proposal that the UK as a whole could remain under the EU customs union for a definitely limited time after 2020 (when the planned transition period ends). Some hoped for no deal; some hoped for no Brexit. Mary Midgley, the philosopher, died aged 99. Failure of overhead electricity lines led to services from Paddington being cancelled.

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to 2378: Boundary

LIMES (22), a term for a boundary of the ROMAN EMPIRE (7 30), is a DEFINITION (19) of five items reading clockwise in the perimeter.   First prize Geoff Telfer, Shipley, W. Yorks Runners-up R.B.

Thursday

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Barometer | 11 October 2018

Global warnings How much time do we have to save the world from catastrophic climate change? 5 years         (according to the WWF, 2007) 5 years         (International Energy Agency, 2011) 3 years      (Christiana Figueres of the United Nations, 2017) 12 years   (IPCC, 2018) Doctor the figures The NHS estimated it had been defrauded of £1.29 billion in 2016-17. By whom? Patients £341m NHS staff £94m Opticians £79m Dentists £126m Chemists £111m GPs £88m   Home stretch What percentage of 25-34-year-olds can afford the cheapest local properties with the aid of a mortgage worth 4.