The Spectator

Thursday

The Spectator

How does your cannabis grow?

From our UK edition

Pot plants A 65-year-old Devon woman rang a BBC gardening show to enquire about a mystery plant only to be told it was a cannabis plant. Some other places cannabis plants have been found: — In 2012/13 British Transport Police found 500 plants growing across the rail network, including one at Hounslow station. — Under lights in the boiler room of a Streatham primary school, which was alerted by an electricity company concerned at excessive power consumption. — Outside the Tower of London, apparently planted by pro-drugs activists. Police decided that the campaigners had committed no crime because they had only scattered seeds, not cultivated the plants. — At Kew Gardens, which has an exhibition this autumn featuring illegal plants.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Cameron visits UN HQ, Scotland checks its bruises, and a Swede sells his submarine

From our UK edition

Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, visited New York for talks at the United Nations; he said Britain supported the American air strikes on the Islamic State. ‘These people want to kill us,’ Mr Cameron said on NBC news. Mr Cameron met President Hassan Rouhani of Iran in New York, the first such meeting since the Iranian revolution in 1979. Mr Cameron was caught by cameras in New York saying to Michael Bloomberg, its former mayor, that when he rang the Queen with the Scottish referendum result, ‘She purred down the line.’ Alex Salmond resigned as First Minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National Party, with effect from November. This followed the referendum for Scottish residences, which rejected independence by 2,001,926 votes (55.

The Spectator

The good fight

From our UK edition

It is a mark of the uncertainty of our policy in the Middle East that just over a year ago Parliament was recalled to debate whether to launch military strikes in aid of rebels in Syria. This year, it has been recalled to discuss whether the RAF should join the strikes against the rebels in Syria — or, at least, the section of them that now call themselves ‘the Islamic State’. It is a sobering thought that, had last year’s vote succeeded, Damascus might have joined Raqqa, Mosul and Tikrit among the cities now being run by this pitiless band of barbarians. Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary, tells James Forsyth on page 29 that Parliament should have the ‘courage’ to support military action.

The Spectator

The Spectator at war: Feet first

From our UK edition

From The Spectator, 26 September 1914: There is nothing that a soldier needs more than good footwear; he can fight if need be on an empty stomach, but he cannot march on bare feet. Still, the means of supplying his needs are circumscribed. A commanding officer can make arrangements for accepting cartloads of goods at a depot; but a general in the field has to think of his transport with his supply, and though he might be grateful for the stock of a dozen drapers' shops, he has to move his troops besides clothing them, and he cannot pull unlimited quantities of flannel across a continent.

The Spectator

Podcast: Cameron the radical, animal welfare and student sex

From our UK edition

How will Cameron be remembered in years to come? As a steady-as-she-goes pragmatist or a radical reformer? In actual fact, he’s both. No modern Tory leader has been so good at looking calm under fire, yet there is a more radical Cameron. The insouciance is partly an act. In this week’s podcast, Freddy Gray, Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth examine these two sides of Cameron. With the party conference looming, and the election just eight months away, Cameron needs to make the case for Tory radicalism. The Manchester dogs’ home fire has revealed our strange attitude to animal suffering. There is a glaring double standard in our adoration for our pets and our tolerance for intensive farming.

Wednesday

The Spectator

The Spectator at war: A treat from a German private

From our UK edition

From The Spectator, 26 September 1914: Excellent use is made of captured documents, and we are treated to excerpts from a letter by a German private which deals with the fighting capacity of the British soldier:— "With the English troops we have great difficulties. They have a queer way of causing losses to the enemy. They make good trenches, in which they wait patiently. They carefully measure the ranges for their rifle fire, and they then open a truly hellish fire on the unsuspecting cavalry. This was the reason that we had such heavy losses. . . . According to our officers, the English striking forces are exhausted. The English people never really wanted war.

Tuesday

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The Spectator at war: Aerial warfare

From our UK edition

From The Spectator, 26 September 1914: The early afternoon papers of Friday publish a Reuter telegram to the effect that a Zeppelin flew over Ostend at eleven o'clock on Thursday evening, dropped three bombs, and flew away again. The damage was one office wrecked and one dog killed. If that is the bag of one Zeppelin in Ostend, what, after all, would be the bag of one hundred Zeppelins in London?

Monday

The Spectator

The Spectator at war: A costly experiment

From our UK edition

From The Spectator, 26 September 1914: On Thursday the Press Bureau issued a very striking descriptive account of the situation at the front, written by "an eyewitness present with General Headquarters." It supplements the spirited narrative issued in the earlier part of the week, and shows that under pressure the War Office has discovered a very efficient military journalist among its combatant officers. "Todgers's can do it when it likes." It states that we are face to face with siege warfare, and that the Germans are in effect employing material which they had collected for the siege of Paris. The official war correspondent summarizes operations from September 18th to 20th by borrowing from the statement of a neighbouring French commander to his corps.

Sunday

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The Spectator at war: Letters from the front

From our UK edition

From The Spectator, 19 September 1914: WE have no war correspondents present with the forces, to our great loss; and we are now in the quaintly topsy-turvy position of reading accounts of battles and of fighting in the letters sent home by individual officers and men—letters which might just as well have been written by the trained correspondents who have been forbidden to take the field.

Saturday

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The Spectator at war: Servants of the nation

From our UK edition

From The Spectator, 19 September 1914: Friday's Times contains a letter from Lord Cromer on "Germany and Ourselves" which will give a double pleasure to thousands of readers. Its wise and vigorous terms are most useful and most timely in themselves, and they show how completely he is now restored to health :— "Let me add my firm conviction that the fear, which seems to prevail in some quarters, that, as a result of the war, the external and internal policy of this country may be guided by what is termed the military party,' is a pure delusion, and merely affords additional proof that as in the early days of the French Revolution, politicians of a certain type allow themselves to become the prey of words and formulas.

Friday

The Spectator

Podcast special: Alex Salmond’s resignation

From our UK edition

Was Alex Salmond's resignation a surprise? And what should the SNP do now that it has lost the referendum that it fought for over so many years? In a View from 22 Spectator podcast special, James Forsyth and Hamish Macdonell analyse the First Minister's decision, and who might replace him.

The Spectator

David Cameron’s statement to the nation on devolution

From our UK edition

Here's the full text of the Prime Minister's speech this morning in reaction to the 'No' vote in the Scottish independence referendum.  listen to ‘David Cameron's statement on devolution’ on Audioboo The people of Scotland have spoken. It is a clear result. They have kept our country of four nations together. Like millions of other people, I am delighted. As I said during the campaign, it would have broken my heart to see our United Kingdom come to an end. And I know that sentiment was shared by people, not just across our country, but also around the world….because of what we’ve achieved together in the past and what we can do together in the future. So now it is time for our United Kingdom to come together, and to move forward.

The Spectator

The aftermath of Scotland’s ‘no’ vote

From our UK edition

We're drawing this live blog to a close, but we'll keep you updated on the day's events in fresh posts on Coffee House. 09:52 The Union is saved – but at what cost? James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson ask what's coming next in a new Spectator special.   09:49 Paddy Ashdown, the former Lib Dem leader, has come out against a rushed devolution settlement for England: PM's speech was good. But rushing England into the Scottish timetable makes no sense. We need a more deliberative approach, to get it right — Paddy Ashdown (@paddyashdown) September 19, 2014 09.30 Here's James Forsyth on Ed Miliband's speech in reaction to the referendum: Ed Miliband has just spoken to a Labour rally in Glasgow.

Thursday