The Spectator

Monday

Friday

Wednesday

The Spectator

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

The Spectator

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

The Spectator

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

Friday

Thursday

Wednesday

Friday

Wednesday

Monday

Friday

Thursday

The Spectator

Portrait of the year: resignations, wars and kangaroo courts

January The government stopped a Gender Recognition Bill passed by the Scottish parliament becoming law. Isla Bryson, now a transgender woman, was convicted of having raped two women; the 31-year-old was sent to a women’s prison, then transferred to one for men. A Met Police officer, David Carrick, aged 48, pleaded guilty to 24 charges

The Spectator

Has there ever been a better time to be alive?

The recent United Nations climate summit in Dubai ended up becoming a carnival of gloom. Speakers competed to paint the bleakest outlook for the world. But while it’s right to focus on the challenges that lie ahead, the doomsday narrative risks obscuring all the progress we have made. ‘Records are now being broken so often

The Spectator

Letters: pantomime dames are here to stay

The leasehold scam Sir: In June 2018, Rishi Sunak told me in a Bethnal Green living room that leasehold is ‘a scam’ (‘Flat broke’, 9 December). At party conference, Sunak portrayed himself as a truth-teller who would take on the vested interests who have held back this country for so long. I am therefore baffled

The Spectator

How much do we spend at Christmas? 

Brief Labour 22 January 2024 marks the 100th anniversary of the first Labour government, something the party might want to celebrate, even see as a good omen. Except that Ramsay MacDonald’s minority administration lasted only nine months. – If Rishi Sunak wanted to be mischievous, he could choose 31 October as election day – the

The Spectator

2023 Christmas quiz – the answers

Fairly odd 1. Lilt 2. For driving at 25mph in a 20mph zone 3. India 4. President Joe Biden 5. Boris and Carrie Johnson 6. Pakistan 7. The Seychelles 8. Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi 9. Chocolate 10. The Graf Spee, scuttled in 1939 You don’t say 1. Boris Johnson 2. Donald Trump, on appearing in court