The Spectator

Thursday

The Spectator

Spectator letters: Interpreting Islam, and Spectator-reading thieves

From our UK edition

Chapter and verse on Islam Sir: Irshad Manji’s generally very sensible article on ‘Reclaiming Islam’ (29 March) suggests using the Qur’an sura 3:7 as a verse to challenge Islamists who claim a fundamentalist reading. She quotes the verse as saying that ‘God and God alone knows the full truth of how the Qu’ran ought to be interpreted’. I don’t speak Arabic, but unfortunately in my English translation this isn’t quite what the verse says. What it says is ‘only God and insightful people know their true meaning’.

The Spectator

François Hollande’s France is a preview of Ed Miliband’s Britain. And it’s terrifying

From our UK edition

François Hollande and Ed Miliband could be political blood brothers. Neither has held down a job outside politics for any serious length of time. Both have been political bag carriers, graduating to apparatchiks. Both have tried to compensate for their essential blandness by adopting radical left-wing policies. Both now pose as socialists, and tout genuinely big (if dangerous) ideas about capital, labour and society. The biggest difference between them is that Hollande won an election, and has been able to put his politics into practice. So we can look to France to see the kind of future which may await Britain if, as the pollsters and bookmakers believe, Miliband is just over a year away from 10 Downing Street. It is frightening.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 3 April 2014

From our UK edition

Home George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, made ‘a commitment to fight for full employment in Britain’ and for the country ‘to have the highest employment rate of any of the world’s leading economies’. Wolfgang Schäuble, his counterpart in Germany, agreed that any EU treaty changes should ‘guarantee fairness’ to countries outside the eurozone. The government’s approach to selling off Royal Mail was ‘marked by deep caution, the price of which was borne by the taxpayer’ according to a report by the National Audit Office. The Office for National Statistics said that the next census would be conducted online. Dust from the Sahara fell on to England and Wales.

The Spectator

Full text: Tristram Hunt’s speech to the Spectator schools conference

From our UK edition

listen to ‘Tristram Hunt's speech + Q&A at Spectator's schools conference’ on Audioboo Free Schools, For-profit Schools and the Swedish Slide Thank you. It is, as ever, a great pleasure to speak from the platform of England’s oldest continuously published magazine. And especially so on education, which has always been one of its uppermost concerns. Indeed, it was from these pages in November 1711, some seven months after the first edition, that your founder, Joseph Addison, offered one of the most memorable quotes about the nature of education.

Wednesday

Monday

The Spectator

Putin vs. Obama: whose side are the American right on?

From our UK edition

Under the shadow of the Crimean situation, Harry Cole travelled to Washington DC to find out what American conservatives really make of Putin. He asked attendees of this month's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPac) who is worse — President Obama, or President Putin?

The Spectator

George Osborne’s ‘fight for full employment’ speech – full text

From our UK edition

In a speech given at Tilbury Port in Essex, Chancellor George Osborne hailed cuts to business and personal taxes this week as the ‘biggest in two decades’ – and committed to ‘fight for full employment in Britain’. Here's what he said:- Thank you for coming here to Tilbury Port, this morning. We’re all here at the start of the most important week of changes to our tax system for a generation. These are the biggest cuts to personal and business taxes for two decades, and we’re making our benefit system more affordable and fairer too. Changes which will affect the lives of millions of people. Whether you are working or looking for work; whether you’re starting your own business or hiring someone new - these changes will help.

Thursday