Full speed ahead Sir: William Astor (‘Signal failure’, 14 January) writes that High Speed 2 is supported only by ‘northern Labour MPs who relish the thought of the beauty of the Chilterns being destroyed’. He seems to have missed the MPs from across the House of Commons who joined forces this week to welcome the
Condemned A Norfolk woman was given the honour of pressing a button to demolish a tower at the Campbells soup factory where her father was scalded to death in 1995. Here are some other buildings demolished to expunge bad memories: — 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester, former home of Fred and Rose West — 5 College
Home Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, commenting on the public sector wage freeze, said: ‘I can’t promise to reverse that now.’ Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, said it was ‘absolutely right’ to place employment before pay rises. But Len McCluskey of the Unite union called it a ‘Blairite coup’ and Mark Serwotka of the Public
It is often claimed that the Lords, unencumbered by the rivalries and ambitions of the Commons, have a greater affinity with ordinary people than MPs. Certainly, this is the spin which opponents of the Welfare Reform Bill would like to put on its rocky passage through the upper house, where the government narrowly avoided a
Here are some posts made on Spectator.co.uk during the past week: Fraser Nelson says that David Cameron understands capitalism, and argues that inflation at 4.2 per cent is nothing to cheer. James Forsyth reports on Boris’s appearance before the 1922 Select Committee, and reveals Michael Gove’s yacht proposal in full. Peter Hoskin highlights the new
…here are some posts made on Spectator.co.uk over the weekend: James Forsyth reports on Ed Miliband’s defiant performance on the Marr show, and reports on Simon Hughes’ comments about the benefits cap. Jonathan Jones reckons that Ed Balls’ attempt at credibility fell short, and sees Miliband trump Miliband in the polls. Martin Bright says that
Pick your battle Sir: In your leading article ‘Save the Union’ (7 January), you allude to Alex Salmond’s plan to hold a referendum on Scottish independence shortly after the 700th anniversary of the battle on Bannockburn. I suggest a referendum on the 500th anniversary of the battle of Flodden Field (September 2013) when we English
