The Spectator

The Spectator at war: Under the sea

From our UK edition

From a letter to the Editor, ‘The Channel Tunnel’, The Spectator, 27 February 1915: [To the Editor of The “Spectator’] SIR,—Many of us must be wondering what the promoters of the Channel Tunnel enterprise think about the matter now. To those of us who are of the “Island” school it has always appeared that there

Text 2

From our UK edition

‘Hell, this is a dead spot, I’ll just tell you what I was going to text you.’

France

From our UK edition

‘Oh yeah? Well, we used to walk to France for the weekend till you gang of weirdos started that messin’ about with the environment.’

Calling

From our UK edition

‘I’m calling to find out if you got my text about the email I sent regarding the letter I wrote...’

Five more MPs making Malcolm Rifkind’s day rate

From our UK edition

Golden league Some MPs who earn Sir Malcolm Rifkind’s rate of £5,000 a day: — Sir Tony Baldry (Banbury): £3,333 for four hours work as deputy chairman of Woburn Energy. — Greg Barker (Bexhill and Battle): £20,000 for 30 hours providing advice to Ras Al Khaimah Development LLC. — Henry Bellingham (NW Norfolk): £7,500 for

Portrait of the week | 26 February 2015

From our UK edition

Home Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the former Conservative foreign secretary, resigned as chairman of Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee and promised not to stand for Parliament in May after he and Jack Straw, the former Labour foreign secretary, were suspended from their parties. This followed their being separately secretly filmed apparently offering their services for payment

The real problem with our MPs: they’re obsessed with the super-rich

From our UK edition

Had the public been asked, before Monday morning, to identify two MPs who stood for honesty and decency, the names Jack Straw and Sir Malcolm Rifkind would have been prominent among their replies. Both have served as foreign secretary, Straw also as home secretary and justice secretary. Neither seemed unduly driven by personal ambition, nor

The Spectator at war: Animal sentries

From our UK edition

From ‘Animal Sentries’, The Spectator, 27 February 1915: OBSERVERS of birds have been much interested by the evidence, which seems to be fairly satisfactory, that pheasants in as remote a part of England as Westmorland were disturbed by the firing in the North Sea on the day of Sir David Beatty’s action and showed many