The Spectator

How many criminal convictions are overturned? 

Power play The former energy minister Chris Skidmore resigned in protest at a bill to issue more licences for oil and gas extraction in the North Sea. What are other countries doing? – US oil production hit a record 13.3m barrels a day last month, up from 10.8m five years ago. – Qatar is investing

2634: Word chain – solution

The word chain, starting (say) at 1 Down is: USEFUL, FULMAR, MARMOT, MOTHER, HERMIT, MITTEN, TENREC, RECUSE and then back to USEFUL First prize J.J. Morris, Upper Nash, Pembrokeshire Runners-up Jean Whitney, Perry Barr, Birmingham; Stuart Hall, Mickleton, Gloucestershire

The Online Safety Act is already stifling free speech

Joey Barton, the footballer turned manager, may be a controversial figure, but is it really the business of the sports minister, Stuart Andrew, to threaten to silence him on Twitter and Facebook? Andrew this week described Barton’s derisive remarks about female football commentators as ‘dangerous comments that open the floodgates for abuse’. He called upon

What was banned this week?

For the love of dog XL Bully dogs were banned in England from this week, although there is an exemption for animals which are neutered, registered, insured and kept on leads and muzzled in public. Some other things that have been banned this week: – Parking on the pavement in Edinburgh. – Importing disposable vapes

Letters: the genius of Morten Morland

Beyond good and evil Sir: In your Christmas issue, both James Macmillan (Composer’s Notebook) and Israel’s President, Isaac Herzog, in his interview with Andrew Roberts, refer to the ‘war between good and evil’, as if most of us experience life on Earth as a continuous struggle of this kind. But many issues cannot be polarised

2633: Highly critical – solution

According to the ODQ, the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II said of The Abduction from the Seraglio: ‘Too beautiful for our ears, and much too many notes, dear Mozart.’ First prize Sue Topham, Elston, Newark, Nottinghamshire Runners-up Anthony Harker, Oxford; Rosemary Paquette, Toronto, Canada