Guest judges Adrian de Ferranti Adrian de Ferranti is an engineer, venture capital investor, financier and farmer who has worked in Silicon Valley as well as in the UK. He was chairman of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, 2007-10. Caroline Theobald CBE Caroline Theobald CBE is the founder of Bridge Club Ltd which has
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The unclued lights (paired at 1D/17) can all be preceded by FIVE and are verifiable in Brewer. First prize Julian Connors, Ashford, Kent Runners-up David Threasher, London W5; Susan Bell, Reeth, N. Yorks
Craic down Sir: If Ireland had been investing in infrastructure as Ross Clark writes (‘Bog down’, 21 September), Dublin would have a metro, Galway a ring road, and primary school parents wouldn’t be forced to pay for basic necessities. And when the only local hotel cancels wedding and birthday parties because government has block-booked it
What the heckler No party conference would be complete without a heckler or two, but where did the term come from? A heckle was originally a tool for combing flax or hemp, and a heckler someone who worked with such a device. The term was first applied to politics in the 1820s when the notoriously
Home Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, in his speech to the Labour party conference in Liverpool, said that ‘if we take tough long-term decisions now’ Britain would much more quickly reach the ‘light at the end of this tunnel’. He was cheered when he promised to return the railways to public ownership and restore
Are the Conservatives in a fit state to choose a new leader? The party that gathers in Birmingham next week needs to face a difficult fact: no matter how bad things are, they may become a lot worse. The party has lost, but not learned. They preach liberty while preparing to vote for a smoking
As the four candidates prepare to make their pitch at the Conservative party conference in Birmingham, we quizzed them about their ideas and ambitions. Why did the Tories lose the general election? JAMES CLEVERLY: We lost the ear of the British public. They stopped listening to us. We over-promised and under–delivered on a load of
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Mass appeal Sir: The upcoming ‘rave’ at Peterborough Cathedral follows the trajectory of using this sacred space as a mere entertainment venue (‘Raving mad’, 14 September). Previous secular attempts to commercialise include ‘experiences’ of the moon, dinosaurs, the deep sea and light shows. I assume the rave organisers did not witness the cathedral in June
The first nimby Who coined the term ‘nimby’? — The expression, from ‘Not In My Backyard’, entered the political sphere in Britain in 1989 when it was used by the then environment secretary Nicholas Ridley to describe people who were in favour of house-building in general, just not near where they lived. He was later
Home Sir Keir Starmer met Giorgia Meloni, the Prime Minister of Italy, in Rome and said that sending funds to Tunisia and Libya ‘appears to have had quite a profound effect’ in cutting the number of migrants arriving in Italy. In the seven days to 16 September, 1,158 migrants arrived in England in small boats;
The unclued lights are the surnames of the ‘Queens of Crime’ and of their famous detectives: 1A/16, 19/15, 29/32 and 38/42. First prize G.R. Snailham, Windsor Runners-up Bill Ellison, Caversham, Reading; John and Di Lee, Axminster, Devon
Growth, growth, growth: that was what Keir Starmer told us would be his government’s priority in his first press conference as Prime Minister. Nearly three months on, as the Labour party heads into its first conference in power for 15 years, it is becoming ever harder to reconcile Starmer’s promise with the policies that his
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Californication and tiring of travel
