The Spectator

Friday

The Spectator

‘There were no stragglers’: The Spectator reports from the Somme, July 1916

From our UK edition

This piece first appeared in the Spectator in July 1916: Our men have advanced with an elan and a spirit to which the history of war affords no parallel. It is a commonplace of esoteric military history that there is a very seamy side to those glories of the assault upon which the ordinary describer of battles loves to dwell. We hear of the rush of the charge, of the cheers, of the officers pressing forward to lead their men and of the men following them to the death. What we seldom hear about is what Milton called the 'raw edge of war', of the ten or fifteen per cent.

Thursday

The Spectator

Letters | 30 June 2016

From our UK edition

A rational vote Sir: There has been a lot of bile poured out about those who voted Leave by the Remainers. Their intelligence, their racial tolerance and their general moral standing has been called into question. I was a Remain voter, but live in an area that was 69 per cent Leave, and work with people who were strongly anti-remaining. To take one example, being anti-free migration is being referred to as racism. For many people migration is not anything to do with race or even nationality: 1,000 people from the next town would create the same degree of concern as 1,000 Poles. When jobs, houses, school places and so on are limited, it is the amount of competition faced that creates the problem, not where the competition comes from.

The Spectator

Barometer | 30 June 2016

From our UK edition

Repeat until fade More than three million voters disappointed by the result of the EU referendum have signed a petition demanding a re-run. — They may have in mind the Danish referendum on the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, rejected by 50.7% of voters. A year later, after exemptions were offered to Denmark, the country voted again and approved the treaty by 56.7%. — Or it could always go like the 1997 Winchester by-election. Having lost his seat by two votes in the general election, Conservative MP Gerry Malone challenged the result. In the re-run, Lib Dem Mark Oaten won with a majority of 21,556. Jam yesterday Concert-goers on the way to Glastonbury were stuck in a five-hour traffic jam. They were the lucky ones.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 30 June 2016

From our UK edition

Home David Cameron, standing in the middle of Downing Street with his wife Samantha alone near him, announced his resignation as prime minister after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union by 17,410,742 votes (51.9 per cent) to 16,141,241 (48.1), with a turnout of 72.2 per cent. The result surprised the government. Mr Cameron said he’d stay on until a new Conservative party leader and prime minister could be chosen, before the party conference in October. In Scotland, 62 per cent of the vote was to remain and in London 59.9 per cent. The area with the highest Leave percentage was Boston, Lincolnshire, with 75.6, and the highest Remain percentage was in Lambeth, with 78.6 (apart from Gibraltar, which recorded 95.9 per cent in favour of remaining).

The Spectator

A vote of confidence

From our UK edition

During the referendum campaign, it seemed at times as if a competition was on to issue the most hyperbolic claim of what might happen should the British public vote to leave the European Union. Now politicians and commentators are competing to come up with the most hysterical assessment of the British decision to leave. Leading the field is Mark Rutte, the Dutch Prime Minister, who declared that ‘England has collapsed: politically, monetarily, constitutionally and economically.’ In other words: without us, you’re nothing. Politics in collapse?

The Spectator

Boris Johnson: I will not be the next Tory leader

From our UK edition

Boris Johnson has ruled himself out of the Tory leadership race. Here is his full speech: Last week the people of this country voted to take a new path and a new direction for Britain in a decision that I passionately support. And it is vital now to see this moment for what it is. This is not a time to quail, it is not a crisis, nor should we see it as an excuse for wobbling or self doubt. But as a moment for hope and ambition for Britain. A time not to fight against the tide of history but to take that tide at the flood and sail on to fortune. This is our chance. This is our chance to build a Britain not just with a dynamic free market economy but an economy where everyone benefits from that success.

The Spectator

‘I’m Theresa May and I’m the best person to be Prime Minister’

From our UK edition

'My pitch is very simple, I'm Theresa May and I think I'm the best person to be Prime Minister', she said. here's the rest of the speech: I want to start by paying tribute to the Prime Minister. It’s easy to forget how far the Conservative Party and our country have come since David Cameron was first elected leader in 2005. Thanks to David we were elected into government for the first time in 18 years, we won a majority in the House of Commons for the first time in 23 years and in difficult times we stabilised the economy, reduced the deficit and helped more people into work than ever before. But David’s legacy is about more than the economic rescue mission we undertook.

The Spectator

Reasons to be cheerful | 30 June 2016

From our UK edition

Noel Malcolm It may sound both Pollyannaish and paradoxical to say this, but leaving the EU will enable us to have stable, friendly, cooperative relations with all our EU neighbours. Being cooped up in a dysfunctional system, where so much depends on backroom arm-twisting and competing for favours in a zero-sum game, doesn’t produce stable friendships. For those of us who feel (as I do) like real Europeans, it will be so much better to be the friendly next-door neighbour than the unwanted in-law in the quarrelling family home. Noel Malcolm is a Senior Research Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford.

The Spectator

Preparing for peacetime

From our UK edition

From ‘Preparation for peace’, The Spectator, 1 July 1916: All industrial development relies in the last resort upon human energy, and the amount of human energy existing in this country has been enormously stimulated by the war. The country is awake, and will remain awake. But this readiness of every man and every woman to ‘do their bit’ in the battle of peace (if we may be allowed so mixed a metaphor) will not save us from great suffering in the first few months that will follow the cessation of hostilities and the return of the troops, if we have not tackled the problem beforehand, but have lulled ourselves with the belief that it will be all right ‘on the night’.

Monday

The Spectator

David Cameron’s Commons statement on the EU referendum – full text

From our UK edition

With permission, Mr Speaker, I would like to make a Statement on the result of the EU referendum. Last week saw one of the biggest democratic exercises in our history with over 33 million people from England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Gibraltar all having their say. We should be proud of our Parliamentary democracy. But it is right that when we consider questions of this magnitude, we don’t just leave it to politicians but rather listen directly to the people. And that is why Members from across this House voted for a referendum by a margin of almost 6 to 1.

Friday

The Spectator

Britain votes for Brexit

From our UK edition

The final results are in: Britain has voted to leave the European Union. Scroll down for our full coverage from throughout the night. And join us on our daytime live blog  where the Prime Minister has announced his decision to step down. Results: Leave 52%, Remain 48% with 382/382. Turnout 72.2% Remain: 16,141,241;  Leave: 17,410,742 Britain has voted to leave the European Union. The pound has plunged heavily, as the markets react to Brexit. Wales has voted Leave, with 18 of its 22 authorities having declared. Scotland has voted Remain by a margin of 62 per cent to 38 per cent, with all 32 council areas voting to stay in the EU. Turnout in the referendum was 72.2 per cent - the highest since the 1992 election.

Thursday

The Spectator

Can you forgive him? | 23 June 2016

From our UK edition

David Cameron bet everything on winning this European Union referendum. He lost. His resignation was inevitable, but the timing was not. Indeed, scores of pro-Brexit Tory MPs had signed a letter asking him to stay as Prime Minister - or, at the very least, not walk out of No.10 on the morning after the vote. Yes, he would not be the best person to lead Brexit talks – but these talks could be several months, perhaps years away. So there was no reason to rush for the exit and plenty reason not to do so. Brexit vote was always going to create uncertainty in the financial markets. Adding political uncertainty, in the form of a Prime Ministerial resignation, was never going to help.

Wednesday

The Spectator

Letters | 22 June 2016

From our UK edition

European identity Sir: Alexander Chancellor (Long life, 18 June) echoes the widely accepted view of the European Union as a ‘bulwark against the nationalism that is rising again’. The European project was, of course, conceived as a means of averting the catastrophes that nationalism wreaked upon Europe during the 20th century. However, in practice the EU has stoked nationalism within its constituent member states. As a top-down, elite-driven process, EU integration has crucially failed to mobilise the masses in favour of a common European identity that transcends national allegiances. Combine this with a simultaneous erosion of state sovereignty and the EU’s democratic deficit, and it is not difficult to understand why nationalist sentiment has again resurfaced.

The Spectator

Barometer | 22 June 2016

From our UK edition

Big game hunt Wales beat Russia 3–0 to finish above England in their group at the European Football Championships. Which is bigger in Wales, football or rugby? — The Football Association of Wales was founded in 1876, five years earlier than the Welsh Rugby Union. However, rugby then took off rapidly in south Wales while football remained stronger in the north. — Wales lost their first matches to England in both football (2–1) and rugby (8–0). — Rugby and football matches have both filled Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium (capacity 76,000), though in a recent Wales Online poll, rugby was still reckoned more important, by 56% to 44%.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 22 June 2016

From our UK edition

Home One week before the United Kingdom voted in a referendum on membership of the European Union, Jo Cox, a Labour MP and married mother of two, aged 41, died after being shot and stabbed at Birstall, West Yorkshire, on her way to a constituency surgery. A passer-by, Bernard Kenny, a retired miner aged 77, tried to protect her and was wounded. A constituent, Thomas Mair, aged 52, was charged with her murder and, on being asked his name in a magistrates’ court, said: ‘Death to traitors. Freedom for Britain.’ Parliament was recalled the following Monday so that tributes could be made.

The Spectator

Who is this again?

From our UK edition

From ‘English or British?’, The Spectator, 25 June 1916: We wish that this question of ‘England’ or ‘Britain’ could be settled satisfactorily, for the outbursts of the touchy champions of ‘Britain’ rather overwhelm us at times. Besides, it is always disagreeable to find that one has offended friends when no offence was intended. Peace and security might be attained, people tell us, by making an absolute rule never to say ‘England’ and ‘English’ (except, of course, when we are talking of England as a geographical area distinct from Scotland, Wales, and Ireland) when we mean ‘Britain’ and ‘British’…  But an absolute rule is not practicable.

Tuesday

The Spectator

Highlights: EU referendum Wembley debate

From our UK edition

Boris Johnson, for Leave, and his successor as London Mayor Sadiq Khan, for Remain, were among six panellists who took part in the two-hour BBC debate at Wembley Arena. And here's the coverage from the evening as it played out...

Thursday

The Spectator

Letters | 16 June 2016

From our UK edition

The population problem Sir: Matthew Parris (11 June) dismisses worries over immigration as being based on race. This is a touch unfair. Although it would be misleading to deny that Brexiteers are concerned about cultural issues, especially when countries such as Albania are on the pathway to EU entry, there is also cause for concern over population density. England is already one of the most densely populated countries in the world, and the government’s own estimates (always an underestimate) show that the UK’s population increase (of which immigration would be a great part) will be half a million a year, equivalent to a city such as Leicester. This puts unsustainable pressure on traffic, schools, doctors, and housing.

The Spectator

Barometer | 16 June 2016

From our UK edition

Houses of ill repute The Austrian interior minister has suggested that his government will demolish the house where Adolf Hitler was born in 1889. Some other properties which have succumbed to the architectural equivalent of the death penalty: — 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester, home of Fred West, was demolished in 1996 and turned into a pathway into the next street. — 5 College Close, Soham, where Ian Huntley murdered the schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, was razed in 2004 and is now a patch of grass. — The cottage in Ceinws, Powys, where Mark Bridger murdered April Jones was demolished in 2014. — 10 Rillington Place, home to the serial killer John Christie, initially survived his trial in 1953, although the street was renamed Bartle Road.