The Spectator

The grid quotation was from the JOURNEY OF THE MAGI (T S ELIOT). Initial letters of superfluous words spelled out ‘Heap on more wood, the wind is chill / But let it whistle where it will / We’ll keep our Christmas merry still’, from MARMION (Sir Walter SCOTT). Unclued works by these authors were the SACRED WOOD, FOUR QUARTETS, the HOLLOW MEN, ASH WEDNESDAY, the WASTE LAND, the ROCK (Eliot), the FAIR MAID OF PERTH, ROB ROY, the HEART OF MIDLOTHIAN, the LADY OF THE LAKE, the PIRATE, IVANHOE (Scott). The light to be highlighted was CATS (based on Eliot). The grid quotation was from the JOURNEY OF THE MAGI (44 82) (T S ELIOT)(116).

In this week's issue, James Forsyth reveals the strategy that David Cameron will use to campaign for Britain to stay in the EU. He’ll campaign not just on the economics, but on security – arguing that Britain is safer as part of the EU collective: safer from the Russians, safer from terrorism. Isabel Hardman, the new presenter of the Spectator podcast, is joined by James and Fraser Nelson to discuss the implications of such a strategy. Much of the week's news has been overshadowed by the death of David Bowie. But what exactly made Bowie such an important figure? In his column this week, Rod Liddle argues that it's simply because he was a terrific musician. Kaite Welsh disagrees.

From ‘The Position of the Government’, The Spectator, 15 January 1916: Any man who knew the nature of Englishmen, or rather, let us say, of the English-speaking race, during war, would have been able to foretell that an enactment to compel shirkers to do their duty would be certain of something like universal acceptance… Our people is a brave people in deeds, if not in words. It is, however, the disconcerting way of Englishmen to be perfectly illogical at times of crisis. For example, they feel not the slightest difficulty in telling you that they are dead against ‘conscription’ and will never agree to it, but that they are quite determined to compel men by law to serve their country in arms if they show any signs of shirking their duty in that respect.