The Spectator

Thursday

The Spectator

Letters: Nurses reply to Mary Dejevsky, and Iggy Pop’s sherry habit

Nursing standards Sir: I share Mary Dejevsky’s concern regarding the impact of tired, overworked nurses on the quality of patient care (‘Short shrift for long shifts’, 6 October). However, it is unwarranted to blame nurses for detrimental work cultures when the contributing factors are complex. Nurses generally do not have a choice about the length of shifts they work. Shift lengths must be determined by patient needs and safety, and 12-hour shifts can be an essential part of their job, but hours of unpaid overtime where they cannot deliver care effectively and safely leave nurses burnt out and demoralised.

The Spectator

George Osborne is blowing bubbles

In opposition, George Osborne said that you cannot borrow your way out of a debt crisis. In government, he has proved it. Since entering No. 11 Downing Street, his strategy has been to talk sternly about austerity while borrowing more than anyone else in Europe. With every budget he has presented, the deadline for balancing the books has slipped further forward — now it’s 2020. Britain’s AAA credit rating has gone, we’re paying billions more in debt interest payments as a result. The Chancellor has brilliantly spun all this as the problems of austerity rather than his own profligacy, but for three years he has had no good news to report. Until now. The British economy seems to be springing back to life in a way no one predicted.

The Spectator

The week: Royal Mail shares; American shutdown; Afghan cricket

Home An issue of shares in Royal Mail was oversubscribed, pushing valuation well above initial forecasts of £3.3 billion. The IMF forecast British growth for 2013 to be 1.4 per cent; its estimate in July had been 0.9 per cent. The Commons Treasury select committee warned the Chancellor of the Exchequer that the government ‘Help to Buy’ scheme was likely to ‘raise house prices rather than stimulate new supply’. Peter Higgs, from Britain, and François Englert from Belgium, shared the Nobel prize for physics, for their work on the Higgs boson. Publicising GCHQ information ‘hands the advantage to the terrorists.

The Spectator

Barometer: How many ghost towns are there in Britain?

Lost property The second-to-last surviving resident of St Kilda — a small archipelago 40 miles off the Outer Hebrides which was abandoned in 1930 — has died. There are more than 4,000 abandoned settlements in Britain: Althorp Medieval village on the Althorp estate, Northamptonshire, removed by the Catesby family in the early 16th century to make way for sheep pasture Imber Isolated village on Wiltshire downs which was evacuated and added to the adjoining military range in 1943 to train US troops.

Wednesday

The Spectator

Nick Clegg says we’re losing the war on drugs. But is there even a war?

This country is losing the war on drugs, according to Nick Clegg. The Deputy Prime Minister told the BBC's Free Speech programme that he was frustrated that his Coalition partners were not prepared to be more imaginative on the issue, given clamour from other quarters for a new direction: 'I don't think we're winning the drugs war; I think we keep banging our head against the wall and in fact I find it very frustrating that my Conservative coalition partners are not prepared to look more openly, imaginatively. You've got very senior police officers now coming out saying that the war on drugs is failing, that we should treat drug addiction as much as a health issue as a criminal justice one.' But that assumes that there is war on drugs that is being fought at all.

Tuesday

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh: This is why our abortion laws are a joke

There’s been much chatter today about Keir Starmer’s declaration that it was right not to prosecute doctors who authorised abortions that were requested because of the gender of the foetus. You won’t read a better piece on the subject than the article by our new regular blogger Melanie McDonagh. She describes the full implications of Mr Starmer’s thinking: ‘As Mr Starmer made clear it’s possible for doctors to authorise an abortion without actually ever having seen the woman concerned. On this basis, pretty well any abortion is justified, on the basis that any pregnancy, carried to term, would be worse for the mental or physical health of the mother than not carrying on with it. Which may of course be true.

Monday

The Spectator

Reshuffle: the full list of jobs | 7 October 2013

In Rob Wilson - PPS to George Osborne Gavin Williamson - PPS to the Prime Minister Judith Jolly - whip in the House of Lords (LD) Anna Soubry - Parliamentary Under Secretary at Ministry of Defence (Con) Tina Stowell- Parliamentary Under Secretary at DCLG (Con) Kris Hopkins -  Parliamentary Under Secretary at DCLG (Con) Wayne David - PPS to Miliband (Lab) Amber Rudd - assistant whip (Con) Claire Perry - assistant whip (Con) Gavin Barwell - assistant whip (Con) John Penrose - assistant whip (Con) Karen Bradley - government whip (Con) Douglas Alexander - chair of General Election strategy, as well as shadow foreign secretary (Lab) Emma Reynolds - shadow minister for Housing, attending shadow cabinet (Lab) Gloria de Piero -.

The Spectator

As it happened: Government and shadow cabinet reshuffle

The Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats undertook reshuffles today. As it happened, here is how Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth, Isabel Hardman and Sebastian Payne reported the day's events. You can see a list of who's in and out here. 1839:  So in the end three reshuffles that could have toiled on all week are pretty much wrapped up by the end of play. Here are our top lines from tonight's Evening Blend: All three parties reshuffled their frontbench ranks, with a cull of the Blairites in Labour and jobs for rising stars and allies of George Osborne for the Tories. …while Nick Clegg showed his brutal side by sacking popular Home Office minister Jeremy Browne with a terse letter. The new appointments include a beefed-up whips' office.

Thursday