The Spectator

2628: Customary taxes – solution

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The unclued lights are all SCOTticisms, most listed on page 14 of the Word Lover’s Ramble at the end of Chambers 13th edition. First prize  Ann Holme, Salisbury, Wiltshire Runners-up  Sandra Speak, Dursley, Gloucestershire; Paul Beesley, Barnet, Hertfordshire

Was the pro-Palestinian march the biggest protest in recent history?

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Post-PM posts David Cameron will not be the first former prime minister to serve as foreign secretary (which remarkably is only his second ministerial post). – Sir Alec Douglas-Home served as Edward Heath’s foreign secretary between 1970 and 1974. The difference in his case is that he had renounced a peerage when he became prime

Letters: it’s not wrong to criticise the Israeli government

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The submariners’ parade Sir: My thanks to Matt Ridley for his excellent article on the Cenotaph (Symbol of peace’, 11 November). As a former Cold War submariner, while I was well aware that we paraded a week earlier than the official celebrations, I did not know the reason why. However, we did join the Armistice

Full text: the Supreme Court’s Rwanda ruling

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The Supreme Court has ruled that the government’s plan to send migrants to Rwanda is unlawful. Below is the full judgment from the court, setting out the reasons for their decision: Introduction  (1) The nature of the issue before the court

2627: Chronicled lives – solution

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The eight unclued answers are names which appear in Anthony Trollope’s Chronicles of Barsetshire. First prize Pam Bealby, Stockton-on-Tees Runners-up Bill Ellison, Caversham, Reading; Peter Moody, Fareham, Hants

Jonah’s Letter

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I’m sailing to Tarshish as usual. The air is thick, Its walls are greyish white, This desk light flickers intermittently. Let me be plain: Being good in your sort of way Does not appeal to me. Why would I go to Nineveh? The parking’s diabolical And the people there Are not my type. Some send

What is the loneliest life form?

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I want to be alone An animal described as ‘Britain’s loneliest sheep’ was ‘rescued’ from the bottom of a cliff in Easter Ross where it had been living for the past two years, presumably after clambering down the steep coastal slope and finding it impossible to climb back up.   Some other lonely life forms: –

Letters: Israel/Gaza isn’t the time for fence-sitting

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Ill-judged Sir: Professor Carl Henegan’s authoritative demolition of the Covid Inquiry (‘The Covid whitewash’, 4 November) prompts the question of why judges are normally appointed to chair public inquiries. Lady Hallett has clearly had a distinguished law career, but has no apparent expertise in government, public health, epidemiology, medicine or science. Her first move on

Books of the year II: more choices of reading in 2023

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Ruth Scurr In Ways of Life (Jonathan Cape, £30), Laura Freeman channels the spirit of the art critic and collector Jim Ede. She traces the origins of Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge – not a museum, nor art gallery, more a cabinet of curiosities – through Ede’s own life, his work for the Tate, the other