The Spectator

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The Spectator

Letters | 31 October 2013

From our UK edition

Not fair on cops Sir: Nick Cohen (‘PCs gone mad’, 26 October) claims that the police are deliberately attacking the press and fundamental liberties because, in light of the overall reduction in crime, they are now underemployed and ‘many are surplus to requirements’. This is an inventive conspiracy theory by any standards, but lacking any link to plausibility. In 2006, as the head of the Anti-Terrorist Branch, I called a halt to the first phone-hacking investigation because we had other priorities such as the 7/7 and 21/7 attacks, and stopping the killing of several thousand people with liquid bombs on aircraft over the Atlantic. We really did have better things to do.

The Spectator

Which NHS staff have enjoyed the biggest salary increases? 

From our UK edition

What can they do? Saudi women took to the wheel in defiance of laws preventing them from driving. Some recent freedoms Saudi women have gained: — From this year they have been allowed to ride bicycles, although only around parks and recreation facilities and when accompanied by their official male guardian. — From this year sports have been introduced to girls’ schools for the first time. — From 2015 they will be allowed to vote (and stand as candidates) in municipal elections for the first time. — Laws requiring women to ask their male guardian for permission to marry, get a job, open a bank account or have surgery were officially abolished in 2008, although tradition still demands that they do.

The Spectator

High-speed fail

From our UK edition

A year ago the electoral strategies of the two main parties seemed set. The Conservatives would stand as the party of prudence, claiming to have saved Britain from a Greek-style meltdown through austerity measures which, though painful at the time, had eventually borne fruit in the shape of a private sector-led recovery. Labour, meanwhile, would stand as the party for public investment, promising to repair what it saw as the damage wrought by cuts. Since then, things have got better for the Tories than they could have imagined. Not only did a threatened triple-dip recession fail to materialise, but revisions to economic data concluded that Britain did not even suffer a double dip.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 31 October 2013

From our UK edition

Home A storm passed over England, with plenty of warning. The strongest gust, of 99mph, was recorded at Needles Old Battery, Isle of Wight. Of 570,000 households that lost power, 160,000 were left without it by sunset. About 200 trees fell on railway lines. A crane collapsed on to the roof of the Cabinet Office in Whitehall. A fourth big energy company, of Britain’s six, announced price rises, making the average increase 9.1 per cent. Tony Cocker, the chief executive of E.on, told the Commons energy committee that he had written to David Cameron, the Prime Minister, suggesting a full investigation of the market. A woman intent upon visiting the Alhambra found she was on an aeroplane to Grenada in the West Indies.

The Spectator

Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson had a six-year-long affair

From our UK edition

Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson had an affair that lasted at least six years, a jury heard today. A letter which revealed the affair was described as part of evidence produced by the prosecution in the trial of the two defendants. The letter had been written from Brooks to Coulson in 2004 and was found on her computer. Speaking for the prosecution, Andrew Edis said that 'what Mr Coulson knew, Mrs Brooks knew too'. The pair deny charges relating to phone hacking. The trial continues.

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