Elon Musk: Ukraine hero or villain?
From our US edition
Plus: Are you ready for President Kamala?
The Spectator
Friday
Wednesday
Biden struggles with Covid optics
From our US edition
Plus: Trump to debate… Meghan Markle?!
Will the collapse of councils be the next great scandal?
Last month India managed to land a spacecraft on the moon for a third of the price of refurbishing Hammersmith Bridge. This startling fact captures both New Delhi’s efficiency and the staggering incompetence of our local councils. It took two years and £9 million (in real terms) to build the bridge. It is set to
Portrait of the week: A concrete crisis, Labour reshuffle and Gabon coup
Home More than 100 schools were told to close buildings before the new term because they contained the wrong kind of concrete. The Health and Safety Executive said that reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) ‘is liable to collapse with little or no notice’. In total, 156 schools are affected, of which 104 require urgent attention
How many Britons smoke?
Puffed up Just 12.9% of Britons smoke cigarettes, figures out this week showed – the lowest on record. How does the UK compare? – The highest smoking rate is in Nauru (48.5%), the lowest is in Ghana (3.5%). – 24.5% of people in France are daily smokers compared with 11.5% in the US. – In
Letters: Stop talking, Rishi – and take action
Sick note Sir: Kate Andrews illuminates how, for us British, the successful diagnosis of a major medical condition is frequently a matter of chance and, even then, usually occurs later than it should (‘Why are the British so anti-doctor?’, 2 September). The near asymptomatic nature of many serious conditions combined with the cultural pressures of
2618: Chain gang - solution
Adjacent pairs in the ordered chain of unclued entries [38] CHAIR, [14] MAN, [25] POWER, [15] STATION, [10] MASTER, [40] KEY, [8] RING, [29] FINGER, [36] POST, [44] CARD and [17] BOARD form single words in their own right. First prize Andy Wallace, Ash Green, Coventry Runners-up Jonathan Jones, Oxford; Elizabeth Duff, London NW5
Thursday
Full text: Ben Wallace's resignation letter
Ben Wallace has resigned as defence secretary. Here is the full text of his letter to the Prime Minister: Dear Prime Minister, Last month marked my fourth year as Secretary of State for Defence. It also marks the ninth year as a Minister. I have had the privilege of serving you and your predecessors in
The Oxbridge Files: which schools get the most pupils in?
Oxford and Cambridge have released figures showing how many offers they gave to pupils from schools in the 2022 Ucas application cycle. We have combined the figures in this table. It shows how well state grammars and sixth-form colleges compete with independent schools. Over the years, both universities have increased the proportion of acceptances from
School portraits: snapshots of four notable schools
Hurstpierpoint College, West Sussex Hurstpierpoint College – or ‘Hurst’ – aims to provide an ‘excellent all-round education’ that enables every child to ‘achieve their own personal bests’. The school is located in the West Sussex countryside, is co-educational and for pupils aged four to 18 years. Its 140-acre campus is impressive and, having abandoned full
Wednesday
Would Richard Wagner have approved of the Wagner Group?
Wagnerian exile Would Richard Wagner have approved of the Wagner Group? While he is believed to have harboured anti-Semitic views and his music later became an inspiration for Adolf Hitler, the young Wagner was a left-wing activist. In 1849, in spite of serving with the Saxon court in Dresden, he joined an uprising against Prussian
British conservatism is lurching from one crisis to another
No. 10 quickly asserted that the meltdown at National Air Traffic Services was a technical issue rather than a cyber attack. This was presumably meant to be reassuring. It is anything but. It speaks, once more, of a Britain with creaking infrastructure, where national paralysis has become a regular occurrence. The highest tax revenues in
Tea Party at the End of Empire
We smashed china cups, saucers, sugar bowls, plates, teapots on slabs of paved-over lawn – ripped apart bodies of teabags, scattered their unholy remains amongst the splintered finery – out of plastic kettles, we sloshed hot water, drenched the mess in pretend, ritual sterilisation – and then we boogied, in the latest footwear, on our
Portrait of the week: Dorries finally quits, Braverman cracks down on crime and Prigozhin is confirmed dead
Home Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, told police that they must investigate every theft and follow all reasonable leads to catch criminals; the Police Federation of England and Wales said forces were already ‘stretched beyond human limits’. Home Office figures showed that only 3.9 per cent of residential burglaries resulted in someone being charged, and
2617: Enzed scorers
The twelve unclued lights are names of COMPOSERS whose names begin with or end N to Z. (Martinu ends in U and Quantz covers the Q and Z.) First prize John Nutkins, Brentford Runners-up Diana King, Leeds; Leigh Hughes, Bootle, Merseyside
Letters: The Lucy Letby killings shouldn’t mean we lose trust in all NHS managers
Murder mystery Sir: I once made a diagnosis of a very rare condition too late to cure the patient. She was nevertheless grateful and thanked me, though my conceit evaporated when she asked: ‘What took you so long?’ I suspect the managers at the Countess of Chester Hospital must feel as I did (‘Hospital pass’,
Wednesday
Portrait of the week: Scottish drug deaths, more strikes and the Lucy Letby verdict
Home The number of drug deaths in Scotland fell to 1,051 in 2022, the lowest since 2017, but still the worst record per head in Europe. Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, who in March had pledged ‘to stop the boats once and for all’, said that ‘there is not one simple solution and it can’t
Ulez expansion has gone ahead in defiance of evidence
London’s Ulez scheme has been expanded. A new network of cameras filming the traffic movements of millions of Londoners is now switched on. Old cars and vans, often used by sole traders, will be charged £12.50 a day if they pull out of their driveways. Keir Starmer had asked the London Mayor Sadiq Khan to
2616: Atomic scorers - solution
The thirteen unclued lights are the name of COMPOSERS whose initial letters are A to M. First prize Stephen Rice, London SW1 Runners-up C.R. Haigh, Hassocks, West Sussex; Lynne Gilchrist, Willoughby, NSW, Australia
Are whole life orders becoming more common?
Bank on it Does the August bank holiday actually celebrate anything? – When bank holidays were first established in 1871, the August bank holiday fell at the beginning of the month, allegedly because it was an important week for cricket in Yorkshire, the home county of MP Sir John Lubbock, who introduced the parliamentary act
