The Spectator

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The Spectator

Are we in for 40 days of rain?

Rain or shine Has a wet St Swithin’s Day (15 July) ever been followed by 40 wet days or a dry one by 40 dry days? – Since 1861, according to the Met Office there is not a single instance of the legend being literally true in England. However, the late meteorologist Philip Eden did record

The Spectator

Peter Hitchens: I invented the ‘left-wing face’

Sitting ducks Sir: James Heale is right to highlight the important question about Rishi Sunak’s replacement (‘Who will lead the Tories?, 13 July). A weak leader will be a sitting duck for Nigel Farage to target, resulting in a worsening split on the right and an open goal for Labour to exploit at the next

The Spectator

2600: Walsall winters - solution

Emily Brontë’s poem ‘Remembrance’ includes: ‘Cold in the earth – and fifteen wild Decembers, From those brown hills, have melted into spring.’ Brownhills is a town in the borough of Walsall, hence the title. First prize Anne Greenwood and Martin Plews, Horsham, W. Sussex Runners-up Ian Laming, Chippenham; Neville Twickel, Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire

The Spectator

How would we handle an avian flu pandemic?

Concerns have been raised in recent months after an outbreak of avian flu caused by the virus H5N1 was detected in cattle in the US. To date, 139 affected herds have been identified, and four dairy workers have contracted the virus. The UK Health Security Agency, which previously believed there to be minimal risk of

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The Spectator

Letters: what Biden and Ronaldo have in common

True conservatism Sir: Douglas Murray claims that the Conservative party ‘will need to have some people who are actually right-wing’ (‘The Tories only have themselves to blame’, 6 July). Why? Its name isn’t ‘the right-wing party’. It has no foundational obligation to be right-wing for the sake of it. Rather its mission is to be

The Spectator

2659: Splitting the atom - solution

Each of the six unclued pairs comprises words differing by a single change of ‘a-to-m’. First prize Patrick Holland, Shrewsbury Runners-up R.J. Green, Llangynidr, Crickhowell; Janet Hill, Eastbourne, E. Sussex

The Spectator

Why don’t international laws apply to Russia?

The Kremlin has denied it targeted the Kyiv children’s hospital that was struck by a missile on Monday. It was aiming at legitimate military and civil infrastructure targets, it says, but the missile was intercepted by Ukraine’s Nasams defence system and the debris fell on the children’s ward. This is an easily debunked lie. The

Wednesday

Robert Hamberger

Café Roma

How many years since we ate here – nine, ten? We called it the smoky café before the ban, took the kids upstairs for pasta each time they stayed with us. Now they wake inside their lives, miles away, and we (who feared this place had shut) share pizza on our return: olives dotted over

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The Spectator

Letters: why I’m voting Reform

Back to 1976? Sir: Your leading article perfectly reflects the public’s attitude to the manifestos of the major parties (‘Challenging democracy’, 29 June). No one has a plan that can remotely be seen as likely to work. Each party promises goodies they have no idea how to pay for; the only question is who will