The Spectator

Thursday

The Spectator

Egypt shows us that elections aren’t enough

Democracy and holding elections are not the same thing. There could be no better demonstration of this than the experience of Egypt. Protesters who two years ago gathered in Cairo to force a dictator out of office, and to win the right to replace him with an elected governmentS, are back — this time to demand the resignation of the president whom they elected. The likely result is, by popular demand, a return to what preceded the Arab spring of 2011: a military dictatorship, for a period at least. From a western perspective this is inexplicable: why would people want to risk their lives to overthrow a military-backed president, only to come back two years later to reverse what they seemed to have achieved?

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Barometer | 4 July 2013

A place of greater safety CIA whistleblower Edward Snowden has claimed asylum in 21 countries. How do whistleblowers fare in some of them? China: 5 journalists killed since 1992.

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Letters: Sir Peter Lampl replies to Charles Moore, and the memories of a wasteful GP

Medical waste Sir: Susan Hill’s article (‘Patient, heal thyself’, 29 June) dealt only with the unnecessary visits to GPs for minor ailments. In Wales we have an extra incentive to waste GPs’ time — all prescriptions are free. There are many people who are prepared to make a GP appointment just to get routine medicines for free, and GPs are powerless to resist. Tim Johnson Aberystwyth, Ceredigion   Sir: Susan Hill’s article revived pleasant memories of my stint as a locum general practitioner in the early 1970s in Goring-by-Sea. As the registered patient number of the solo practice was the maximum allowable by the NHS at the time, I was puzzled to find that my workload ranged from half to one hour daily.

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Portrait of the week | 4 July 2013

Home Business confidence in Britain was at its highest level since 2007, according to a survey by the British Chambers of Commerce, which said it expected gross domestic product to have grown by 0.6 per cent in the second quarter of the year.Ofgem, the energy regulator, warned that spare electricity capacity could fall to 2 per cent by 2015, increasing the risk of blackouts. The regulator urged companies to deal with theft of electricity, a third of it said to power cannabis farms. Butterflies and bees were found to have suffered badly from the cold May. Channel 4 is to broadcast the dawn call to prayer each day during Ramadan.

Wednesday

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How the Spectator blew the whistle on the International Health Service

At Prime Minister's Questions today, backbencher Philip Lee ambushed David Cameron on the subject of health tourism. He asked: 'As a doctor who once had to listen incredulously to a patient explain, via a translator, that she only discovered she was nine months’ pregnant on arrival at terminal 3 at Heathrow, I was pleased to hear the statement from the Secretary of State for Health today on health tourism. Does the Prime Minister agree that although the savings are modest, the principle matters? The health service should be national, not international.' The Prime Minister replied: 'My hon. Friend makes a very important point. This is a national health service, not an international health service. British families pay about £5,000 a year in taxes for our NHS.

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Dear Mary on mobile phone etiquette, playing bridge, and the weather

The Spectator's Mary Killen — otherwise known as 'Dear Mary' — was on Radio 4's Today programme this morning discussing whether or not it was right for a Sainsbury's checkout assistant to refuse to serve a customer who was on her mobile phone. Here's the clip from this morning's programme, and below we've put together some of our favourite Dear Mary dilemmas of the last six months. listen to ‘Dear Mary on mobile phone etiquette’ on Audioboo Q. I was sitting in a South West train the other day. A woman across the aisle was making nonstop calls into her mobile phone, speaking very loudly in what sounded to me like Cantonese. I found it excruciating. I could not think, I could not read, I could not do anything.

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A complete and utter fraud

In a perfect world, Kevin Rudd would not be campaigning for election but visiting an analyst. Therapy is the treatment of our age for those the ancient Greeks saw as tragic heroes, personalities at once sparkling and deeply dysfunctional. But an election campaign it is, with the Australian people as the judge and jury, and it is important to keep in mind a key issue at stake: just who is Kevin Rudd? Much has been made of the shambolic nature of Mr Rudd’s first term as prime minister. But it remains unclear why the 55-year-old former diplomat is such a dysfunctional figure. Most people don’t expect political leaders to have well-adjusted personalities.

Thursday