The Spectator

Chop

From our UK edition

‘Sorry, darling, but I’ve decided you’re not genetically suitable to be part of a breeding programme, so I’m going to chop you up and feed you to the lions.’

Britain needs small government, not weak government. That means strong flood defences

From our UK edition

[audioplayer src=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/spectator/TheViewFrom22_13_February_2014_v4.mp3″ title=”Christopher Booker discusses the failures behind the floods” startat=61] Listen [/audioplayer]There is nothing inevitable about the by now familiar sight of residents being towed away from flooded homes, of shops and businesses submerged, and all the misery and economic turmoil which follows. A short hop across the North Sea is a country which

Portrait of the week: as the waters continue to rise

From our UK edition

Home Floods grew worse in the West Country. The village of Moorland, Somerset, was abandoned. Then the Thames flooded, from above Oxford to Teddington. Eventually, David Cameron, the Prime Minister, declared from Downing Street: ‘Money is no object in this relief effort.’ Some 1,600 troops were deployed. By midweek 1,000 houses had been evacuated. A

Barometer: The kamikaze pilot who retired after three missions

From our UK edition

A kamikaze pilot at 80 The Japanese city of Minami-Kyushu was attacked for wanting to add the letters of 1,036 kamikaze pilots who died on suicide missions in the second world war to a UN archive. Not all kamikaze pilots died, and a few are still alive. — Shigeyoshi Hamazono, who is now in his

Boat

From our UK edition

‘It was going to be pea green but there was a sale on at Farrow & Ball.’