Computer
From our UK edition
That problem with the computer — solved it.’
The Spectator
Thursday
Relate 4
From our UK edition
‘Well isn’t this nice — the whole family sitting down together at Christmas.’
Curse
From our UK edition
‘It’s the curse of the pyramids.’
Tinnitus
From our UK edition
‘I thought I’d written a new song but it turned out to be tinnitus.’
Dumped
From our UK edition
‘Isn’t that a bit cowardly... dumping her by text?’
Newt
From our UK edition
‘I’m sorry — I have a newt allergy.’
Punk 2
From our UK edition
‘Well, what did you think an ageing punk looked like?’
Smoke Police
From our UK edition
Cave 3
From our UK edition
Clickbait
From our UK edition
‘I hate the way these news websites use clickbait headlines to lure you in.’
Letters: In defence of Italy, and the rise and fall of the military moustache
From our UK edition
Italy’s to-do list Sir: You would expect a long letter of rebuttal by a piqued senior diplomat in response to the many barbs that Nicholas Farrell packed into his piece about Italy (‘The dying man of Europe’, 25 October). Among the most painful ones were that Italy is ‘almost doomed’ and parts of it are
Rochester’s special qualities, and the price of Ebola.com
From our UK edition
What’s special about Rochester What is special about Rochester and Strood? — Rochester has the second oldest cathedral and school in Britain, after Canterbury. — Medway, the unitary authority area in which the constituency is situated, has one of the highest rates of private home-ownership in Britain, with 92 per cent of homes in private
Portrait of the week | 30 October 2014
From our UK edition
Home The last British combat troops turned over Camp Bastion in Helmand to Afghan forces and withdrew from Afghanistan after 13 years and 453 deaths. Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary, spoke of ‘whole towns and communities being swamped by huge numbers of migrants’. He later withdrew the word ‘swamped’, but David Blunkett, a former Labour
How to fight Ukip
From our UK edition
In the 2005 general election this magazine supported the Conservatives, with one exception — we urged voters in Medway not to vote for a deeply unimpressive Tory candidate by the name of Mark Reckless. Our then political editor, Peter Oborne, went so far as to write a pamphlet in support of the Labour rival, Bob Marshall
Books and arts – 30 October 2014
From our UK edition
Podcast: Ruby Wax and Andy Puddicombe on mindfulness, plus Jim Murphy and Movember
From our UK edition
The chances are that by now either you or someone you know well has begun to practise ‘mindfulness’ — a form of Buddhism lite, that focuses on meditation and ‘being in the now’. In the past year or so it’s gone from being an eccentric but harmless hobby practised by contemporary hippies to a new
The Spectator at war: The Crescent and the Cross
From our UK edition
From The Spectator, 31 October 1914: THE most important event of the past week is the entrance of Turkey into the war, announced in the newspapers of Friday. For some time the Committee of Union and Progress, the gang of desperate and intriguing adventurers who control the Porte, have been doing their best by various
From the archives | 30 October 2014
From our UK edition
From ‘A Probationer’s Diary’, by a Red Cross volunteer, from The Spectator, 31 October 1914: Friday. The wounded are coming to-morrow. Twenty of them. They are to be drafts from a military hospital, and will be convalescent. Such a flutter in the dovecote, with a cleaning of sinks and of brass, and a preparation of dressings,
Wednesday
The Spectator at war: American sympathy
From our UK edition
From The Spectator, 31 October 1914: We do not ask for help of any material kind from the United States; we recognize that a strict neutrality is not only her proper course, but represents her true interests. All we desire is the sympathy of comprehension, the sympathy of a clear understanding of the principles on
Tuesday
The Spectator at war: The spirit of the sailor
From our UK edition
The most curious thing of all is that the sailor should become so much a part of his peculiar element that his detachment from the land is even more marked than the landsman’s imperfect acquaintance with the sea. The sailor comes on shore like a man penetrating doubtfully into an unknown hinterland; he has the air
