The Spectator

Thursday

The Spectator

The View from 22 Podcast: Donald Trump, Cameron’s centre-right secret and the racist Oscars

From our UK edition

Donald Trump seems to offer only gloom, insults and arrogance - but America seems to love him for it, says Freddy Gray in this week's issue. Now there are only a few days left before the presidential election process starts, and ‘The Donald’ continues to storm the polls. He probably won’t be president, but it now looks as if he probably will be the Republican nominee — the heir to Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Eisenhower. It’s a mind-boggling phenomenon. Isabel Hardman joins Freddy Gray and Janet Daley from the Telegraph to discuss the rise of Trump, and whether any of the other candidates have a chance of receiving the nomination.

The Spectator

Bad driving

From our UK edition

From ‘The Conscription of Wealth’, The Spectator, 22 January 1916: At recent race meetings streams of motor-cars have proceeded from London carrying down persons engaged solely in the pursuit of their own amusement, wasting petrol, wasting the labour of chauffeurs, and diverting in hundreds of detailed ways energy which ought to have been devoted to the carrying on of the war. A heavy tax on petrol and heavier duties on motor-cars, except where they are used for public work, would prevent this scandal. More generally, it is notorious that in all classes, with the possible exception of the very rich, the scale of expenditure is as high as, or higher than, before the war, and the only way of effectively dealing with the problem is to increase taxation heavily.

Wednesday

The Spectator

Evening Blend: Labour’s day off

From our UK edition

This is tonight's Evening Blend email, a free round-up and analysis of the day's political events. Sign up here.  Today in brief The SNP’s Angus Robertson accused David Cameron of ‘effectively taking part’ in the war in Yemen by selling arms to Saudi Arabia. David Cameron accused Jeremy Corbyn of being prepared to ‘give away’ the Falkland Islands as the pair clashed on student maintenance grants and bursaries for nurses. Labour sources hinted at a free vote in the party on Trident renewal. Yvette Cooper called for an end to Schengen and a return to internal border controls to manage the refugee crisis. Two Tory MPs said they used the drug ‘poppers’ as the Commons voted to ban it.

The Spectator

Jobs for Syrians: Paul Collier’s advice for the Prime Minister

From our UK edition

David Cameron is today expected to urge leaders to ease trade rules between Jordan and the EU to help with the Syrian refugee crisis. During his trip to Davos, Cameron will call for changes to spur economic growth and employment in neighbouring countries to Syria. Where might he have got this idea from? In August, Paul Collier  - an economist Cameron admires - discussed in The Spectator how Britain had a duty to help refugees - and not just the ones who make the journey to Europe: 'The smart way to meet the duty to rescue is to incubate that economic recovery now, before the conflict ends. Europe can do that by fostering a Syria–in-exile economy located in Jordan and other neighbouring countries.

Thursday

The Spectator

Letters | 14 January 2016

From our UK edition

Borderline case Sir: Alex Massie (‘The painful truth for Ruth’, 9 January) correctly identifies the challenges facing the Scottish Conservatives. But he is wrong to say it will ‘never’ be the moment for a Tory revival. Tax devolution is a game-changer. For the first time in years, the Conservative party gets to fight a Scottish battle on its strengths of economic competence; meanwhile, the SNP finally gets to demonstrate how to eliminate austerity and raise public spending — all without raising taxes. (In a low oil-price environment.) Toxic Tories? Not half as toxic as Labour are now. Post-referendum, voter positions are deeply entrenched and a party that can’t even agree on the basics (the Union, tax credits, Trident) is rightly held in contempt.

The Spectator

Pickets of privilege

From our UK edition

Treatment for that once-virulent condition, the British disease of strikes, has largely been successful. The number of working days lost to industrial action in the first ten months of last year was the second-lowest since records began. Pay and conditions have been relentlessly improving. Since the Winter of Discontent in 1979, the average worker’s disposable income has almost doubled. And no thanks to pressure from trade unions: the steady progress comes from the transformative effects of an open economy and a free market. In the 1970s and early 1980, it was miners, steel workers, railwaymen, bin men, and British Leyland car workers who earned the worst reputations for trade union militancy.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 14 January 2016

From our UK edition

Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said that, on Britain’s place in the European Union, ‘what I would like to see is a deal in February, then a referendum that would follow’. The pound sank to its lowest against the US dollar since 2010, after Britain’s manufacturing sector shrank unexpectedly by 0.4 per cent in November. BP said it was cutting 4,000 jobs round the world, 600 of them from its North Sea operations. A split in the Anglican Communion over homosexuality ‘would not be a disaster, but it would be a failure’, said the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd Justin Welby, as 38 primates met at Canterbury. Trains from Lewisham were delayed by ‘strong sunlight’.

The Spectator

Christmas crossword: The winners | 14 January 2016

From our UK edition

The first prize of £100, three prizes of £25 and six further prizes of the Chambers Dictionary of Great Quotations (2015) go to the following. The first four prizewinners also each receive a bottle of champagne. First prize Andrew Dymond, London SE24 Runners-up Mrs P. Bealby, Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland; David Norwood, Puddletown, Dorset; Roderick Burgess, Cantsfield, Carnforth Additional runners-up Jacqui Sohn, Gorleston-on-Sea, Norfolk; F.A.

The Spectator

Christmas crossword solution

From our UK edition

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).