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Too many not too few Sir: I have to disagree with your article ‘The people problem’ (3 February). There is a ‘people problem’ in the world but it is – globally – not too few, but too many people. In my own lifetime the world’s population has approximately tripled. This rate of increase is manifestly
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Rough drafts Ian Lavender, who died aged 77, was best-known for playing Private Pike, an out-of-place young man in a group of elderly Home Guardsmen in the BBC sitcom Dad’s Army. Yet in reality Pike was much closer in age to the majority of those who served in the Home Guard. A sample analysed for
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The unclued lights are the given names of pop stars. The pairs are 7D/20, 12/11, 25/24, 26/1D and 33/8. First prize Karen Bloom, Allington, Maidstone, Kent Runners-up Bernard Golding, Earsdon, Whitley Bay; D.P. Shenkin, London WC1
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Home The King announced that he had cancer, which was discovered during his treatment for non-malignant prostate trouble. He would continue with state duties, including weekly audiences for the Prime Minister, while receiving out-patient treatment. Public engagements, of which he performed 425 last year, would be kept by the Queen and the Prince of Wales.
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The natural reaction to this week’s news that King Charles III is suffering from cancer has been one of concern and compassion. As the Prime Minister said, consolation can be drawn from the fact that the illness has been caught early and that Charles is continuing with his duties – albeit stepping aside from public-facing
Plus: GOP fails to impeach Mayorkas
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Distillation of a play by Brian Friel, first performed at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, on 30 June 1993 Silence. Sound – waves tumbling over each other, seagull, singing, laughing, as three couples run onto the beach. They are celebrating the birthday of Terry. Angela and Berna are sisters. Angela and George are having a secret
Plus: Is Ronna McDaniel being run out?
Plus: Soros staffers unionize — and immediately get laid off
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Scot free Sir: In last week’s piece on the SNP, Fraser Nelson was critical of the Covid scenario in which ‘civil servants were enlisted in the SNP secret state’ (‘The Covid clan’, 27 January). Fraser makes comparisons with Whitehall but fails to ask the obvious question: is the Scottish model preferable, where the civil service
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On their uppers The former science minister George Freeman claimed that he resigned from the government last year because he couldn’t afford his mortgage repayments – which had risen from £800 to £2,000 a month – on his ministerial salary of £118,000. – There is a precedent for a minister complaining publicly about his own poverty.
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The twelve unclued lights form three quartets, each of which comprises two words that follow and two which precede one of the three words of the puzzle’s title: HAPPY [TRIGGER, WALKING, MEDIUM and ENDING]; EVER [HARDLY, CANTIL (thus reading ‘cantilever’), SINCE and GREEN]; and AFTER [SHAVE and TASTE, LOOK and TAKE]. First prize Nicholas Grogan,
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In ten years’ time, there’s a good chance that the main concern in the western world will be the threat of population collapse. Fertility rates are falling everywhere and no government has found a way of reversing the trend. Plenty have tried. South Korea has so far spent $200 billion on tax breaks and lowering
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Home Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton, the Foreign Secretary, set off on his fourth visit to the Middle East after saying: ‘We – with allies – will look at the issue of recognising a Palestinian state, including at the United Nations.’ The Democratic Unionist party agreed to return to the power-sharing government in Northern Ireland,
Plus: GOP advances Mayorkas impeachment
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The chief leaf man rises early. A breeze in the banyan tree. The water laps. Skink lizard on the prowl. Perfection. Blue. Perfection. No leaves on the water. Miles Davis –his ghost – becoming the banyan tree. Chief leaf man sees a leaf in the corner of the pool and shouts in Vietnamese. Leaf man
Plus: Ilhan Omar’s Somali speech & Biden hits the campaign trail
Plus: Pro-Palestine White House staff protest ‘morale-boosting’ party
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Benefits of abstinence Sir: In last week’s Spectator, I turned to the cover piece ‘Dry Britain’ first because I stopped drinking alcohol last January. However, contrary to the demographic expectations of your article, I am a not-young 58-year-old. My abstinence is not based on a moral position, nor fear of an appearance on TikTok, but
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Madame president If Donald Trump stumbles before election day, could Nikki Haley end up becoming the first female US president? Hillary Clinton failed as the first female presidential candidate in 2016, but she wasn’t the first to stand on a presidential ticket: that honour belongs to the now-forgotten Geraldine A. Ferraro, who was picked by