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Deployment of a GRABBING CRANE (1D) is required to complete entries at 11, 13, 21 and 23. 1A, 19 and the puzzle’s TITLE (35) are synonyms of GRABBING; 5, 18 and 41 are types of CRANE, which is also the surname of Washington Irving’s character whose first name is ICHABOD (28).
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Theresa May's reshuffle is underway. Here are the key points so far: Justine Greening has quit the government; Damian Hinds is the new Education Secretary David Gauke becomes the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice Esther McVey becomes work and pension secretary Karen Bradley is the new Northern Ireland Secretary after James Brokenshire resigns due to ill health Matt Hancock is the new Culture Secretary David Lidington appointed minister for the Cabinet Office Claire Perry is the new minister of state for business Brandon Lewis is new Tory party chairman following confusion over Chris Grayling's reported appointment.
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Among the many new political maladies of our age, one has been left largely undiagnosed. This is Trump Derangement Syndrome, a condition whereby intense dislike of the 45th president renders sufferers unable to understand what he is trying to do or allow that he is capable of success. Trump is hard to admire, it’s true, and seems to revel in his ability to appal. But therein lies the secret of his power: with a few tweets, he can set the world’s news agenda and drive his critics to distraction. Take this week, when he tweeted that his nuclear arsenal is larger than that of Kim Jong-un. His comments were seized upon as yet another example of his idiocy and his playground logic.
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A church for all people Sir: I enjoyed reading Ysenda Maxtone Graham’s account of debates in the Church of England in the interval between our parish mass for Advent 3 and our service of nine lessons and carols (‘Mission impossible?’, 16 December). She asks whether the church is planning ‘a back-door “evangelical takeover”’. The simple answer is no. Yes, the Archbishops’ Council has helped to fund churches such as St Luke’s Gas Street in Birmingham, St Philip’s in Salford, and St George’s Gateshead — though it is a bit harsh to dismiss these churches, which are effective in reaching students, young people and families, as ‘centres for instant conversion’.
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Did that happen? What psychics foresaw for 2017: — ‘Crash in euro, Denmark and Italy leaving the EU; North and South Korea becoming one country as Kim Jong-un is overthrown; a worldwide flu epidemic’ (Craig Hamilton-Parker, ‘psychic who predicted Brexit, Trump and Nice attack’, the Sun, 20 January 2017). — ‘Moon will turn green; two volcanoes will erupt in Italy; leaning tower of Pisa collapsing; Cuba becomes 51st US state; pandas will start eating each other in China; cows will start to disappear in the Swiss Alps, leading to a chocolate shortage’ (Nikki, ‘psychic to the stars’.
From our UK edition
Among the many new political maladies of our age, one has been left largely undiagnosed. This is Trump Derangement Syndrome, a condition whereby intense dislike of the 45th president renders sufferers unable to understand what he is trying to do or allow that he is capable of success. Trump is hard to admire, it’s true, and seems to revel in his ability to appal. But therein lies the secret of his power: with a few tweets, he can set the world’s news agenda and drive his critics to distraction. Take this week, when he tweeted that his nuclear arsenal is larger than that of Kim Jong-un. His comments were seized upon as yet another example of his idiocy and his playground logic.
From our UK edition
Home In a message for the New Year, as though it were an immemorial custom, Theresa May, the Prime Minister, said: ‘Most people just want the government to get on and deliver a good Brexit, and that’s exactly what we are doing.’ It seemed a long time since, just before Christmas, Damian Green had resigned as the First Secretary of State, in a letter beginning, ‘I regret that I’ve been asked to resign’ and going on to ‘accept that I should have been clear in my press statements that police lawyers talked to my lawyers in 2008 about the pornography on the computers [in his parliamentary office], and that the police raised it with me in a subsequent phone call in 2013. I apologise that my statements were misleading on this point.
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The unclued lights are former and current F1 teams. First prize Ronald Morton, Basingstoke, Hants Runners-up Revd J.
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From The Spectator, 2 January 1847: The New Year opens for England with heavy clouds in the sky, but with no sunless horizon. Never did the country enter upon a year with more work to be done. Ireland alone presents a task without precedent: England has there to reorganize an old country... The progress of the new free-trade policy has to be looked after. The public law of Europe is unsettled, and an eye must be kept on that. But with all this Herculean amount of work, the country never had better means of performance. The very urgency and momentous importance of the tasks compel earnest zeal. The decay of party-spirit releases the ablest man from smaller services to cooperate in serving the largest interests of the country.
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The last full year before Britain leaves the EU has been foretold by some as a time of increasingly desperate negotiation. According to this view the government is drifting towards an economically painful Brexit, so consumed by the whole sorry business that it is unable to address any of the country’s other problems. Yet there is no reason why 2018 should turn out this way, and every reason to hope that it will prove to be the year when the Conservatives finally emerge from the tumult of the referendum to achieve other things. While the deal struck between the government and the EU in December -- and the prospect of Britain paying a ‘leaving bill’ of around £40 billion -- has offended some Brexiteers, it has transformed the political landscape.
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January ‘No deal for Britain is better than a bad deal for Britain,’ Theresa May, the Prime Minister, declared in a speech at Lancaster House. Britain would leave the single market and customs union on leaving the European Union, she said. The Supreme Court ruled that only by an Act of Parliament could Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty trigger Britain’s departure. Mrs May held the hand of President Donald Trump as they walked down a declivity at the White House; she asked him to make a state visit in 2017, but it was not to be. Mr Trump suspended entry to America for people from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. A man shot dead 39 people in an Istanbul nightclub.
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Slipping behind Some things which were supposed to happen in 2017: — Hinkley Point C nuclear power station. In 2007 Vincent de Rivaz, chief executive of EDF, said that in 2017 we would be able to cook our Christmas turkeys from electricity generated by the plant. Anyone relying on his promise will have had cold turkey. The latest estimate for completion is 2027. — Universal Credit. When introduced in 2013, it was intended that the roll-out would be complete by 2017. That has slipped back to 2022, and is in some doubt altogether. — Electrification of the Gospel Oak to Barking line. Due to be completed in 2017 as part of a Department for Transport scheme announced in 2012. Won’t now be open until spring 2018.
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We’re closing 2017 by republishing our twelve most-read articles of the year. Here’s No. 4: Madeleine Kearns on her time at New York University: As a child in Glasgow, I learned that sticks and stones might break my bones but words didn’t really hurt. I’m now at New York University studying journalism, where a different mantra seems to apply. Words, it turns out, might cause life-ruining emotional trauma. During my ‘Welcome Week’, for example, I was presented with a choice of badges indicating my preferred gender pronouns: ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘they’ or ‘ze’? The student in front of me, an Australian, found this hilarious: ‘Last time I checked, I was a girl.’ Her joke was met with stony silence.
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Festive waste: How much do we throw away over the Christmas period? — 1 billion Christmas cards. — 83 sq km of wrapping paper (enough to plaster the whole of Brighton and Hove with festive greetings). — 125,000 tonnes plastic packaging. — Six million Christmas trees (as many as there are trees in Epping Forest and all London’s parks put together). — 4200 tonnes of aluminium foil, enough to manufacture 14 Boeing 747s.
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Christmas splurge How much extra do households spend at Christmas? — £500, according to the Bank of England. Over the course of December our spending on food increases by 10%, alcoholic drinks by 20% and books 35%. — £645, according to OnePoll (2016), including £117 spent on a partner’s gift. — £796, according to YouGov (2015), including £159 on food and drink and £596 on gifts.
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We’re closing 2017 by republishing our twelve most-read articles of the year. Here’s No. 12: Katherine Forster, a mum-of-three, describes her experiences as an intern at the Spectator this summer: My name is Katherine and I’m an intern at The Spectator. What does that say about me? If you had to guess, you’d probably assume I was just finishing university and that I’m perhaps the niece or goddaughter of someone important. Because that’s how the media works, isn’t it? That I’m probably unpaid, but it doesn’t matter because my parents will sort me out — that’s if they didn’t buy this internship for me in a charity auction in the first place. And to be honest, that’s exactly how I imagined interns, too.
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Returning jihadis Sir: Coping with those who pose a terrorist threat to the UK but cannot be prosecuted for a criminal offence has been a perennial problem since 9/11 (‘Bring jihadis to justice’, 9 December). Despite various initiatives, the number of potential attackers has continued to grow. The latest twist to this story is the return of jihadists to the UK from Syria and Iraq. We should assume that anyone returning from Isis-held territory in Syria/Iraq poses a continuing risk. Wherever possible they should be prosecuted. But criminal cases are hard to build, given the fog of war and the problems of gathering evidence from Isis-controlled territory.
From our UK edition
Christmas splurge How much extra do households spend at Christmas? — £500, according to the Bank of England. Over the course of December our spending on food increases by 10%, alcoholic drinks by 20% and books 35%. — £645, according to OnePoll (2016), including £117 spent on a partner’s gift. — £796, according to YouGov (2015), including £159 on food and drink and £596 on gifts. Festive waste How much do we throw away over the Christmas period? — 1 billion Christmas cards. — 83 sq km of wrapping paper (enough to plaster the whole of Brighton and Hove with festive greetings). — 125,000 tonnes plastic packaging.
From our UK edition
January ‘No deal for Britain is better than a bad deal for Britain,’ Theresa May, the Prime Minister, declared in a speech at Lancaster House. Britain would leave the single market and customs union on leaving the European Union, she said. The Supreme Court ruled that only by an Act of Parliament could Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty trigger Britain’s departure. Mrs May held the hand of President Donald Trump as they walked down a declivity at the White House; she asked him to make a state visit in 2017, but it was not to be. Mr Trump suspended entry to America for people from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. A man shot dead 39 people in an Istanbul nightclub.
From our UK edition
Perhaps the most insightful piece of political analysis since the turn of the century came from the Queen in a speech to the United Nations a few years ago. She first addressed the UN in 1957 and returned in 2010 to reflect on what she had learned in the interim. She had seen prime ministers every week and dined with presidents from all over the world — but what struck her was how seldom their schemes translated into real progress. ‘Many sweeping advances have come about not because of governments, committee resolutions, or central directives,’ she pointed out, ‘but instead because millions of people around the world have wanted them.’ Politicians run the government, not the country.
