The Spectator

Thursday

The Spectator

The Conservatives should be the party of immigrants — and here’s how they can be

From our UK edition

For a long while, the Conservatives have been puzzled about their lack of popularity among immigrants. In theory, the Conservative party should be the natural home of new voters who are ambitious, entrepreneurial, hard-working and family-orientated. The immigrant vote — to the extent it can be considered a coherent block at all — ought to be fertile Tory territory. By and large, these are families who have moved to Britain to get ahead and to avail themselves of what Michael Howard called ‘the British dream’. Yet at the last election fewer than one in five ethnic minority voters endorsed Conservative candidates and the party is unlikely to fare much better in May.

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Portrait of the week | 19 March 2015

From our UK edition

Home In a Budget intended to have ‘no gimmicks, no giveaways’, George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, offered pensioners with annuities the chance to cash them in and blow the lot. Borrowing in the coming year would be a fraction of a billion less than feared and the annual deficit was to be eliminated by 2019. The income tax personal allowance was raised. Business rates were to be reviewed. Duty on beer, cider and spirits came down a touch, but not on wine. A higher bank levy was predicted to raise £900 million. North Sea oil and gas producers were offered tax reductions. About 15 million people would have to update their tax returns online through the year. The minimum wage would rise in October by 20p an hour to £6.

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The Spectator at war: Unofficial news

From our UK edition

From ‘Unofficial News’, The Spectator, 20 March 1915: THE exclusion of war correspondents from the firing line has greatly reduced the volume of unofficial news available for the enlightenment of the general public. What remains, moreover, has to run the gauntlet of the Censorship. How some of it manages to get through is a mystery which we cannot pretend to fathom. Fortunately all that appears on the tape does not always appear in the newspapers. But disregarding what may be described as "freak" news, it may be worth while to set down some rough aide towards estimating the credibility and value of unofficial intelligence which have been suggested by the experiences of the last eight months.

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What the censors miss

From our UK edition

From ‘Unofficial News’, The Spectator, 13 March 1915: The exclusion of war correspondents from the firing line has greatly reduced the volume of unofficial news available for the enlightenment of the general public. What remains, moreover, has to run the gauntlet of the Censorship. How some of it manages to get through is a mystery which we cannot pretend to fathom. Fortunately all that appears on the tape does not always appear in the newspapers.

Wednesday

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Budget 2015: Full text of Ed Miliband’s response

From our UK edition

Mr Deputy Speaker, never has the gap between the Chancellor’s rhetoric and the reality of people’s lives been greater than it was today. This is a Budget people won’t believe from a government that’s not on their side. Because of their record. Because of their instincts. Because of their plans for the future. And because of a Budget, most extraordinarily, that had no mention of investment in our National Health Service and our vital public services. It is a budget people won’t believe from a government they don’t trust and this chancellor has failed the working families of Britain. For the first time since the 1920s people are earning less at the end of a government than they were at the beginning. People are £1,600 a year worse off.

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Budget 2015: key announcements and figures

From our UK edition

George Osborne delivered his final Budget of this Parliament today. Here is what you need to know. Key announcements Personal Savings Allowance: From April next year, the first £1,000 of the interest on all savings will be tax-free. Tax free allowance up to £11,000: The personal tax-free allowance will rise to £10,800 next year and to £11,000 the year after. Osborne said it will means the typical working taxpayer will be over £900 a year better off. Help to Buy ISA: From the autumn, for every £200 put into a deposit, the government will top it up with £50 more. 'Fully flexible' ISAs will be introduced to allow savers to withdraw money without losing their tax-free allowance.

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The Spectator at war: Preparations and peril

From our UK edition

From ‘Prolonging the War’, The Spectator, 20 March 1915: Owing to our mad refusal to think war possible or to prepare for it, we neglected to keep by us a sufficient store of extra rifles and equipment. A large portion of the nation even went so far as to regard preparation for war as partaking of the crime of making war without a just cause. Shortage due to the want of preparation in peace time is, however, spilt milk which it is useless to cry over. No regrets, no outcries of "I told you so!" can add one rifle or one round of ammunition to our store. Therefore they are to be deprecated. Much worse than the shortage due to this cause is the shortage due to the fact that even since the war began we have not done as much as we ought to have done or as we could have done.

Tuesday

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The Spectator at war: Russia’s prize

From our UK edition

From ‘News of the Week’, The Spectator, 20 March 1915: From the Dardanelles there is not much news, due no doubt to the fact that the operations have now reached a critical stage, and that the publication of the progress made might be injurious. All we know is that we have cleared the Straits for about eleven miles, but that the problem of how to get through the Narrows without too great loss still confronts us. It is stated that the 'Amethyst,' in the course of certain operations, was hit many times by the enemy's shells and that the casualties on board her were severe. We have no official knowledge of the nature of the work in which the 'Amethyst' was engaged.

Monday

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The Spectator at war: Siege fighting

From our UK edition

From ‘News of the Week’, The Spectator, 20 March 1915: When we wrote last week we were only able to chronicle very briefly the news that on Wednesday, March 10th, we had achieved a considerable local success at Neuve Chapelle. Now, however, that we have the details of the action contained in the spirited despatch from "Eyewitness" we are able to realize that the battle was not one of those confused events which are brought on by accidental circumstances, but a deliberate and well-planned attack by our troops.

Sunday

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The Spectator at war: Defence of the realm

From our UK edition

From ‘The Defence of the Realm’, The Spectator, 13 March 1915: BEFORE dealing with the merits of the Defence of the Realm (No. 2) Bill which Mr. Lloyd George introduced into the House of Commons on Tuesday, it is necessary to say a few words about the manner of the introduction. This is a measure which Mr. Bonar Law, whose power of effective criticism seems to grow each week, accurately described as one of the most drastic proposal ever laid before Parliament. It is, in brief, a proposal to authorize the Government to take over any factory or workshop that they think they may want for the production of war material or any unoccupied building they want for the housing of workmen.

Saturday

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The Spectator at war: Taking one’s pleasure

From our UK edition

From a letter, ‘Ascot in Wartime’, The Spectator, 13 March 1915: [To the editor of The Spectator] Sir,—"Pleasure as usual" is "certainly a vile motto," say you in your note to "Schoolmaster's" letter regarding Ascot in last week's Spectator. You are profoundly comprehensive. I had, by the way, turned to your note almost immediately after reading the following on your front page: "in human affairs, military as well as moral and political, nothing absolute can be affirmed." But I will leave that to take care of itself. I should like to ask whether your condemnation includes all usual pleasures, and if not which of them are outside it and which are not. For example, reading the Spectator weekly is a genuine pleasure to me, as to others, and a usual one.

Friday

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The Spectator at war: Reviewing the troops

From our UK edition

From ‘The King and the National Reserve’, The Spectator, 13 March 1915: The King has made it his business not only to see every corps in the kingdom, old and new, and to share as it were in every new military development, but he has taken upon himself the duty of saying words of farewell and encouragement to the various units of the Army before they leave the country for foreign service. Hence if the King's movements had been chronicled the enemy would have become cognisant of military facts which it is essential to conceal from them.

Thursday