The Spectator

From ‘The Financial Emergency’, The Spectator, 5 June 1915: In these columns the late Government have often been criticized for the way in which they permitted the national expenditure to grow in time of peace. Let us admit, however, quite frankly that the nation before the war began was so rich that it could afford without serious injury even the enormous growth in expenditure which has characterized the last five or six years. To that extent the authors of that expenditure are justified in arguing that their policy was not necessarily injurious at the time to the country as a whole, and that it did attain certain social objects which were worth attaining.

Technology has the huge potential to transform the healthcare system. In this View from 22 podcast special, The Spectator's Sebastian Payne discusses how technology is revolutionising healthcare with Professor Simon Wessely, the president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Dr James Kingsland, the President of the National Association of Primary Care and Kate Newhouse, the CEO of Doctor Care Anywhere. Are new technologies helping to alleviate pressures on the health service? Is the NHS making the best use of the newest technologies available? And does Britain's current GP system meet the patient's increasing demands for flexibility?

From ‘The Zeppelin Raid on London’, The Spectator, 5 June 1915: LONDON is to be complimented on having come through its first Zeppelin raid with complete composure and little material damage. We have always assumed that the raids so far have been trial trips, and we have little doubt that the Germans mean to come again with more aircraft and more bombs. The self-possession of London will not be by any means diminished by this prospect. It is indeed the acceptance of something as inevitable which creates coolness. The conditions which throw people into an agony of speculation as to their chances of escape are present only when the danger is something that may be evaded by good luck or precaution.

From 'A Besieged Empire', The Spectator, 29 May 1915: All that can be seen at the present moment is that the Germans seem to be capable of supplying themselves with all essential requisites in spite of the almost complete blockade maintained by their enemies. There is, however, one consideration which points clearly to their final failure unless that blockade be relieved. Their own resources in materials may be, on the hypothesis most favourable to them, ample, at any rate for a very long period; but their human resources certainly are not inexhaustible. This statement does not mean merely that the number of fighting men they can put in the field is less than that of their opponents, though here alone the disproportion is very great.

From 'The National Government', The Spectator, 29 May 1915: We have got our backs to the wall. There is no alternative to the present Ministry. If they fail us, there is nothing left. This thought should not lead to dread or anxiety, but to the very opposite. They are Englishmen, and they are not going to fail us. They are going to succeed. Each man knows that he is taking not only his own political life in his hands, but the life of the country, and that if he allows personal feeling, personal ambition, indolence, want of nerve, or failure to take responsibility to ruin the cause, he will be thrice accursed, and that he can never be forgiven for his offence. The country is not, of course, going to be unjust to its servants, or to expect miracles from them.