The Spectator

Thursday

The Spectator

Which were the closest US elections?

From our UK edition

Back to the White House If Donald Trump wins on 6 November, he will be the first US President to serve two separated terms since Grover Cleveland, who was president between 1885-89 and 1893-97. Cleveland actually won a higher share of the popular vote in the 1888 election, but lost to Benjamin Harrison in the electoral college after an election fought on the issue of trade tariffs. Cleveland’s wife Frances was confident she would return to the White House, reputedly telling her staff to keep things in good order for when they return four years to the day. So it proved – Cleveland won the 1892 election easily.

The Spectator

2674: New crop – solution

From our UK edition

7D sung by 40A suggested other unclued lights, all anagrams of fruits: 12A mango; 17A apple; 18A apricot; 24A damson; 9D tangerine. MELON, an anagram of LEMON, was to be highlighted.

The Spectator

Is Wes Streeting the Hamlet of the health service?

From our UK edition

Is Wes Streeting the Hamlet of the Health Service? Is this undoubtedly talented and thoughtful young Labour prince fatally irresolute when it comes to doing what he knows must be done? Few politicians have articulated so clearly the need for reform of our healthcare system. Streeting’s insistence that the NHS should be a service not a shrine angered all the right people, which is to say the BMA. It marked a welcome departure from the treacly displays of affection which have hitherto characterised ‘debate’ about the health service. More recently, the Health Secretary has frankly admitted that the NHS is letting patients down and acknowledged its manifold inefficiencies. The need for change has been recognised. The case for reform is urgent.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Budget leaks, prisoners released and Israel kills Hamas leader

From our UK edition

Home Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was expected to freeze tax thresholds in the Budget on 30 October, to swell government income as more working people were brought into higher tax bands. Before Labour formed a government, she had said that the Conservatives, by freezing tax thresholds, were ‘picking the pockets of working people’. Weeks of speculation on the Budget were encouraged by leaks and by constant questioning of ministers about how Labour would keep to its manifesto undertaking not to raise taxes on ‘working people’ by increasing income tax, national insurance or VAT. The International Monetary Fund raised its growth forecast for the United Kingdom to 1.1 per cent this year, compared with the 0.7 per cent it forecast three months ago.

Wednesday

The Spectator

Kamala ambushes potential spoiler candidate

Vice President Kamala Harris is spending millions on new ads against Green Party candidate Jill Stein in swing state Wisconsin, warning potential supporters that a vote for Stein is a vote for Trump. The advertisement also attempts to smear Stein by asserting that she has links to KKK leader David Duke and Russian president Vladimir Putin. “You can tell a lot about a person by the company they keep,” a voiceover says. “Stein isn’t sorry about swinging the 2016 election to Trump.” The ad was paid for by the Democratic National Committee but approved by the Harris campaign.Why would Harris be using air-time to attack Stein just two weeks out from the election? There are a couple of theories.

Julian Stannard

The Chew Chew Foot Massage Parlour

From our UK edition

Hong Kong A fan on the ceiling.  The parlour full of drapes and towels.  A pianist plays behind the curtain. They call him Liverpool.  The cat mooches. The woman puts her hands together in salutation.   A man on the chair, legs stretched out. The woman kneads his feet. The boss takes the money.  Sometimes yawning,  sometimes burping, sometimes farting. Her chakras perfectly aligned.  The man on the chair floats above Tung Street. His feet are factories of pleasure.

The Spectator

Letters: Why does the Navy have more admirals than ships?

From our UK edition

Pointless laws Sir: The leading article ‘Wrong problem, wrong law’ (19 October) makes cogent points about the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill, in particular pointing out that it would probably not have made any difference had it been in force at the time of the Manchester Arena bombing, and that if passed it will impose disproportionate and often unmanageable burdens on venues such as churches and village halls. There is, in truth, a wider point here: most legislation is either counterproductive, useless or both. All legislation has five aspects: (1) A real purpose. This may be to achieve the ostensible purpose of the legislation, but is often really to make it look as if the government is ‘doing something’. (2) An ostensible purpose.

Monday

The Spectator

House report blasts Secret Service failures

A bipartisan House task force released an initial report detailing the calamitous security failures preceding the first failed assassination attempt against former president Donald Trump earlier this year. The failures are “stunning,” one of the staffers involved with its drafting told The Spectator. “Put simply, the evidence obtained by the Task Force to date shows the tragic and shocking events of July 13 were preventable and should not have happened,” the report says.Those who worked on the report noted to The Spectator that the failures that allowed a would-be presidential assassin to nearly kill Trump on live television and fatally shoot Corey Comperatore predated the Butler rally by days.

The Spectator

AI, gene therapy and challenges of the NHS – Britain’s health Innovators of the Year

From our UK edition

The Spectator Economic Innovator of the Year Awards, in partnership with Rathbones, celebrate the passion and creativity of British entrepreneurs. From hundreds of entries we have narrowed down to some 50 finalists across the United Kingdom. In this episode, the judges introduce those cutting edge healthcare companies who are amongst the finalists and compare and contrast what they do with the latest biotech, AI, and how well they fare when trying to introduce innovation into the NHS.

The Spectator

Letters from Spectator readers, November 2024

The rise of BlueAnon The adults on both sides have checked out completely and it shows. We are an empire on the decline and there is no denying that now. — Virgil Hilts As a basic foundation for this story you could do no worse than to recall an incident that occurred during LBJ’s campaign for senator in Texas in 1948. He proposed to accuse his opponent of “fornicating with a goat.” When an aide asked if he truly believed it, LBJ reportedly said, “Of course not. I just want to hear him deny it on the radio.” — Richard Lindo The academic legacy of Donald J. Harris It’s astonishing that Kamala will probably win with a true Marxist theoretician in the family — I guess the time is right for the US to get its very own socialist “utopia.

letters
The Spectator

This month in culture: November 2024

Here In theaters November 1 What happens when the director, writer and stars of Forrest Gump get together in 2024? A goosebump-inducing story of family, time, space, home and the enduring nature of love. The “Here” in question is taken from the graphic novel by Richard McGuire, which tells the story of a location through generations and eras, transcending time. Director Robert Zemeckis plays on the panel-frames of graphic literature by employing a fixed camera angle throughout the film. AI de-aging technology is used to depict the actors from teenagerhood through their eighties. Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Paul Bettany, Kelly Reilly and Michelle Dockery star.

Culture

Friday

The Spectator

Trump ribs Kamala for skipping Al Smith dinner

Vice President Kamala Harris was the first presidential candidate since Walter Mondale to skip the traditional Al Smith dinner, which raises money for Catholic Charities, and former president Donald Trump would not let her forget it. He called her absence “deeply disrespectful” to Catholics, earning applause from some in the audience. Trump joked, “Instead of attending tonight, she’s in Michigan receiving Communion from Gretchen Whitmer,” referring to a viral video of the Michigan governor feeding a Dorito chip to a liberal activist kneeling before her.

donald trump

Thursday

The Spectator

2673: All Saints – solution

From our UK edition

The unclued lights are surnames of the twelve celebrities who bear the forename of the four patron saints of the British Isles. ANDREW 1A, 5, 36, DAVID 17, 31, 35, GEORGE 24, 28, 34 and PATRICK 21, 37, 39.

The Spectator

The futility of Martyn’s Law

From our UK edition

There have been few acts of terrorist violence on British soil as grotesque as the Manchester Arena bombing in May 2017. An Islamist extremist, Salman Abedi, detonated a bomb at an Ariana Grande concert killing 22 and injuring 1,017. An evening of enjoyment for hundreds of young people turned into a spectacle of wanton cruelty. The law does nothing to address the real state failures that have allowed extremism to flourish One of those who died was 29-year-old Martyn Hett. His mother, Figen Murray, has campaigned ever since for legislation to better protect potential victims of terrorism. This week the Commons debated the measure she has fought for – the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill – to be known as Martyn’s Law.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Weight loss jabs and England’s German manager

From our UK edition

Home Neither Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, nor Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, ruled out a rise in employers’ contributions to national insurance in the Budget on 30 October. The annual rate of inflation fell from 2.2 to 1.7 per cent. Starmer backed an idea by Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, to give fat unemployed people injections of weight-loss drugs in a scheme involving a £280 million investment from Eli Lilly, the pharmaceutical company that makes the diabetes medication Mounjaro. At the International Investment summit, the Chancellor announced that the UK Infrastructure Bank will become the National Wealth Fund. But the government came up with only £5.8 billion of new money, despite a promise that it would be ‘capitalised with £7.3 billion’.

Wednesday

The Spectator

Kamala enters the Fox den

Vice President Kamala Harris will finally sit down with Fox News this evening after months of pundits justifiably criticizing her campaign for mostly avoiding challenging media. Chief political anchor Bret Baier will conduct the interview, which will air during his show in the 6 p.m. hour. It will be a thirty-minute live-to-tape sit-down and will run in its entirety with no edits and no commercial breaks. Based on recent appearances, this could end quite poorly for Kamala. The Democratic nominee struggled to justify the Biden-Harris immigration policy during an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes, and the network felt the need to edit out a word salad answer about her relationship with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Candy Neubert

travel agent

From our UK edition

Good morning. Perhaps before I am old, wandering on the face of the world, lost, you could suggest an open place of grass and curious trees where I walk barefoot as the day cools under a massive sky, with a herd of something I can’t quite see moving slowly over there on my right, the earth beaming up the fragrance of life and the loud ticking of benign insects. Or I may consider a warm ship’s rail at the same time of day after the glare, all the other passengers somewhere else and my lone cabin prepared behind me. Yes, I’ll go for the first option. Thank you.

The Spectator

What does Britain ‘owe’ Caribbean nations in reparations for slavery?

From our UK edition

Still afloat Transport Secretary Louise Haigh nearly lost Britain an investment in an expansion of London Gateway docks by calling P&O  a ‘rogue operator’ and imploring us all to boycott its ferries. The company, owned by DP World since 2006, was once considered by the UK government to be the most trustworthy shipping line around. As the Peninsula Steam Navigation Company, it built its reputation on a contract awarded by the Admiralty in 1837 to carry mail to Spain and Portugal. Three years later it was also awarded the contract to carry mail to Egypt, adding the name ‘Oriental’ to its name. By 1914 it was carrying mail to India.

The Spectator

Letters: the problem with emojis

From our UK edition

Industrial waste Sir: I endorse your concerns about the closure of Grangemouth and Port Talbot and the statement that ‘if high-quality jobs are to return to the North and the Midlands then re-industrialisation is presumably the answer’ (‘Time for a change’, 12 October). However, your leading article fails to observe that Ed Miliband has already committed £22 billion to the re-industrialisation of Liverpool and Teesside in the form of Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage (CCUS) projects. One might wonder where Miliband acquired the daft notion that it is a good idea to spend £22 billion on a technology that has only been proven to work in a coal-fired power station (a sort we don’t have any more).

Friday

The Spectator

Obama pitches black men on Kamala Harris

Former president Barack Obama made his pitch on Thursday to black men on why they should vote for Vice President Kamala Harris, accusing them of having hang-ups about voting for a woman. Obama stopped off at a Harris campaign office in Pittsburgh ahead of a rally in the city and said he wanted to “speak some truths” to black men as recent polls show former Donald Trump doing comparatively well with the group.