The Spectator

Thursday

The Spectator

Letters | 8 November 2012

From our UK edition

Votes of no confidence Sir: Charles Moore (The Spectator’s Notes, 27 October) rightly drew attention to the importance of the Police and Crime Commissioner elections and the arrogance of Lord Blair in suggesting they should be boycotted. However, he did not comment upon the fact that none of the literature admits which voting system is being used. After some research I find that it is in fact the Supplementary Vote system. This is a shortened version of the Alternative Vote (AV) system recently rejected by the electorate by referendum. Jan Pointer (Mrs) Hutton, Essex Sir: Matthew Parris (3 November) suggests that people of his age are not necessarily more switched on to the issues facing voters than are teenagers.

The Spectator

Portrait of the Week – 8 November 2012

From our UK edition

Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, flew to the Gulf to sell Typhoon jets to Dubai and Saudi Arabia. On the border of Jordan with Syria he said he shared a ‘goal of a Syria without Assad’. Mr Cameron appointed Mrs Justice Macur to examine the treatment of allegations of sexual abuse at children’s homes in North Wales in the 1970s and 1980s. Someone abused at that period accused a former Conservative politician. Theresa May, the Home Secretary, announced a new police inquiry into the abuse. A text message from Rebekah Brooks to Mr Cameron was published by the Mail on Sunday: ‘Brilliant speech. I cried twice. Will love “working together”.

The Spectator

A hollow victory

From our UK edition

Barack Obama this week pulled off a remarkable victory. The American economy is recovering at a pace most voters regard as unacceptable, and just over half believe that the country is on the wrong track. The President campaigned with an approval rating below 50 per cent and unemployment above 8 per cent. Historically, these factors have combined to ensure defeat for any sitting president. But as Obama reminds us now and again, he is in the business of changing history. He has again demonstrated that he can inspire people — even the British — in a way that other world leaders can only dream of. His extraordinary personal appeal has trumped the paucity of his achievements.

Wednesday

The Spectator

Shelf Life: Iain (M) Banks

From our UK edition

Scottish novelist Iain (M) Banks is this week's Shelf Life provocateur. He tells us how he likes to test his potential lovers and what extreme punishments he exacts on books he doesn't like. 1) What are you reading at the moment? The Hell of it All by Charlie Brooker and Anatomy of the Orchestra by Norman del Mar are by the bedside, but the book I've just started is The Believing Brain by Michael Shermer (at only a year old, this is ferociously up-to-date by my standards). 2) As a child, what did you read under the covers? The Beano 3) Has a book ever made you cry, and if so which one? A few have. Most recently, I got a bit misty-eyed at the end of And The Land Lay Still by James Robertson.

Thursday

The Spectator

Letters | 1 November 2012

From our UK edition

Objections to gay marriage Sir: Hugo Rifkind (27 October) thinks that religious objections to gay marriage can be ignored because Christians have no right to impose their beliefs on others. He sees nothing illiberal, though, in a small number of progressives seeking to force their new definition of marriage on the rest of us. Our government is threatening to misappropriate a word which owes its value to centuries of mainly Christian tradition in this country. Those many of us who stand in that tradition, both in and out of the Church, protest that the government has no right to do so. James McEvoy Chertsey, Surrey Sir: On gay marriage Hugo Rifkind (27 October) overlooks the Dot Wordsworth argument.