Home Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, said that Britain needed to build new gas-fired power stations to ensure energy security. GDP grew by 0.2 per cent in January. The number of people of working age classed as economically inactive rose to 9.25 million, compared with 8.55 million in February 2020, according to the Office for National
Ethical issues such as abortion and euthanasia are rightly considered matters of personal conscience for MPs at Westminster, so Keir Starmer’s promise of a vote on assisted dying does not automatically mean that Britain will follow Belgium, the Netherlands and Canada in legalising euthanasia, no matter how large a majority Labour might win. When the
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As an object lesson in how to feed conspiracy theorists while trying to see them off, the Princess of Wales’s Mothers’ Day photograph of herself and her three children could hardly be bettered. For weeks since the sudden announcement that she was to undergo abdominal surgery in January, the internet has been buzzing with speculation
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What’s the point? Sir: Your editorial (‘Net loss’, 2 March) sets out how the decarbonisation industry is a net drain on the British economy. While you mention that the UK has already decarbonised faster than any other European country, the fact that the UK produces less than 1 per cent of global carbon emissions to
Polls apart When was the last time an upstart party not represented by George Galloway won a UK by-election? – In November 2014 Ukip won by-elections in both Clacton and Rochester and Strood. In each case the winner was the sitting MP: Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless, who had defected from the Conservatives. – A
Leonardo da Vinci (29/28) painted ‘Vitruvian Man’ (3A), ‘The Last Supper’ (1D), ‘Salvator Mundi’ (13D) and his masterpiece ‘Mona Lisa’(38/37). First prize Chris Edwards, Pudsey, Leeds Runners-up Hugh Green, Petersfield, Hampshire; Trish Baldwin, Chorley, Lancashire
Home In the Budget, Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, spoke of ‘long-term growth’. He cut National Insurance by 2p in the pound, saving the average worker £450 a year but pensioners nothing. A new ‘British Isa’ would allow an extra £5,000 a year tax-free investment. Tax arrangements for non-doms would be changed. The
Last November Jeremy Hunt announced what he proclaimed was ‘the biggest tax cut on work since the 1980s’. He cut employee National Insurance from 12 per cent to 10 per cent, yet to his great disappointment, the polls didn’t budge. This week he decided to double down, lowering NI again, to 8 per cent. ‘The
Attempts by the Emirati government to buy The Spectator and the Telegraph through RedBird IMI, one of its state investment vehicles, pose a conundrum. There is no existing law against such a deal because until this point safeguards have not been needed. No autocracy has ever before attempted to buy a leading national newspaper in
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Work to do Sir: I agree with Kate Andrews’s diagnosis: the nation’s mental health is appalling and a major barrier to our economic prosperity (‘Sick list’, 24 February). I agree with her criticism of the treatment offered by the health service: we are failing to restore people to working health. Antidepressants are handed out like
The unclued lights each contain a DOUBLE letter in the middle. First prize Sue Dyson, Poynton, Stockport, Cheshire Runners-up Geoff Hollas, London W12; Gill Wayne, London SW9
Populist roots Where did the term ‘populist’ come from? The original Populist party grew out of the Farmers’ Alliance, a movement set up to fight corporate interests in the US in the 1880s. It then joined with other minor parties to fight the 1892 presidential election under the Populist banner. Its candidate James B. Weaver
Britain’s ‘net-zero economy’ is booming, creating more better-paid jobs than any other sector, but it is all being put at risk by the government’s reversal on policies on electric vehicles and heat pumps. That, at any rate, is what the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) wants us
Home Lee Anderson, a former Conservative party deputy chairman, had the whip withdrawn after responding to an article by Suella Braverman that said: ‘The Islamists, the extremists and the anti-Semites are in charge now.’ He said: ‘I don’t actually believe that the Islamists have got control of our country, but what I do believe is