The Spectator

Thursday

The Spectator

Letters: sheep pay for themselves

From our UK edition

Why Ukip aren’t extremists Sir: I don’t wish to be rude to Matthew Parris (‘Why Ukip is a party of extremists’, 1 June), but he should think carefully before labelling civilised citizens as extremists. It’s a silly word to use given what real extremists get up to these days, but the important point is that a growing majority of perfectly sane voters see current UK politics as baby steps meandering around a leftward-curving path to decline; and long for some good old-fashioned radicalism to wake everyone up.

The Spectator

Barometer | 6 June 2013

From our UK edition

Spy society High on the agenda when Barack Obama and Chinese president Xi Jinping meet in California will be US accusations that China is stealing US intellectual property. Yet the industrial revolution in the US was based on a piece of industrial espionage. — Samuel Slater, who became known as the father of the US factory system, memorised details of Richard Arkwright’s spinning engines while an apprentice at a mill in Belper, Derbyshire. — In 1789, aged 21, he emigrated to the US, disguising himself as a farm labourer to overcome suspicions that he might be planning to sell industrial secrets. — Once in the US, he recreated the spinning mill he had known back in Belper, eventually becoming the owner of 13 mills.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 6 June 2013

From our UK edition

Home Patrick Mercer MP resigned the Conservative whip after being filmed in discussion with a fake Fijian firm that paid him £4,000 to ask parliamentary questions; he was in fact being investigated by BBC’s Panorama and the Daily Telegraph. Lord Cunningham and Lord Mackenzie of Framwellgate were suspended by the Labour party after the Sunday Times filmed them discussing lobbying terms, and Lord Laird resigned the Ulster Unionist whip over the same matter. All the parliamentarians deny wrongdoing. Mike Hancock MP resigned the Liberal Democrat whip while he defends a civil case in which a woman constituent is alleging sexual assault.