The Spectator

1A, 7A, 18A, 40A, 46A and 47A are all on the new Elizabeth Line, which appears in the grid when 25A, 26A and 27A are entered correctly.

Eyes on the ball Viewing figures for Match of the Day rose by 500,000 when Gary Lineker was suspended from the show for tweeting about the government’s asylum bill and his fellow pundits walked out on strike in support.  – First broadcast on the then new BBC2 on 22 August 1964, the show was initially controversial not because of the views of its presenter Kenneth Wolstenholme but because football clubs feared it would discourage fans from attending games.  – They need not have worried: the first episode, featuring highlights of Liverpool vs Arsenal, attracted just 20,000 viewers.  – Viewing figures rose sharply, however, after England won the World Cup in 1966 and the programme was moved to BBC1.

Channel anger Sir: I fear that in your leading article (‘Our duty to refugees’, 11 March) you find yourself in the same bind as the Labour party and at odds with majority opinion in the country. While people in the UK are vexed by the Channel crossers, this is only because it is the most obvious example of the failure of the political class to control immigration as a whole. The population of the UK is increasing fast: this is almost wholly as a result of immigration. Despite government propaganda about the necessity of migration to ensure an adequate supply of labour to support an ageing population, it remains very unpopular. Migrants are going to get old too: are we to expand our population endlessly?

The unclued Across lights were some of the radio communications alphabet and the unclued Down lights are part of the current Nato alphabet, all listed under ROGER (solution at 16 Across) in Brewer. ‘Uncle’ and ‘Victor’ are two further examples from the respective alphabets. First prize Revd John Thackray, Ipswich, Suffolk  Runners-up Paul Harrison, Wilpshire, Blackburn, Lancs; R.B.

Out of service  Conservative MPs criticise the proposed appointment of Sue Gray as Keir Starmer’s chief of staff. It is not unknown, however, for civil servants to switch to political careers, including two prime ministers of recent times.  – Edward Heath began his career in the Ministry of Civil Aviation, having come joint top in the civil service entrance exams in his year.  – Jim Callaghan did not intend a career as a civil servant, but on joining the Royal Navy during the second world war he was found to have tuberculosis, and for a while was seconded to work at the Admiralty in Whitehall, where his duties included writing a guide to the Japanese for the benefit of British servicemen who might come into contact with them. He later saw active service.

Friends like these... Sir: I much admire Peter Frankopan as a historian but his article ‘Is Putin winning?’ (4 March) is misleading and plain wrong. He argues that the vote at the UN on Ukraine on 23 February demonstrated that Russia’s strategy is winning new friends in Africa, Central and South America, and Asia; friends who are refusing to vote with the US and the West, and are supporting Russia. An inspection of the actual figures at the UN vote shows this claim to be foolish: 24 African states condemned Putin’s Russia. Only two, Eritrea and Mali, supported Putin. In South and Central America, 16 states condemned Putin. Only Nicaragua supported him. In Asia, 31 states condemned Russia. Only North Korea and Syria supported Putin.

The theme word was FORD (in line 4), and the sets of unclued lights were 1A, 20, 21 (makes of car), 18, 39, 43 (US presidents), and 11, 31, 33 (characters in The Merry Wives of Windsor).

Striking out An England vs Wales rugby match was nearly called off after Welsh players threatened to go on strike over the terms of their new contracts. Although rare, industrial action is certainly not unheard of in the sporting arena. – In June last year the Canadian men’s football team went on strike demanding they share at least three quarters of World Cup prize money, rather than the 40 per cent they were being offered. A friendly against Panama was called off. – In August 2020, shortly after the BLM protests sparked by the murder of George Floyd, US basketball, soccer and baseball teams went on strike in protest at the shooting of another black man by police in Wisconsin.

Beyond belief Sir: Tim Farron (‘Church and state’, 25 February) repeats many of the common errors made by those of faith. He starts by equating secularists with atheists, yet they are quite distinct. To be an atheist is simply not to believe in the existence of a God. That’s it. You can be an atheist and almost anything; communist, fascist, socialist, liberal, conservative. A secularist believes in the separation of church and state, as many people of faith do as well as atheists. This separation is enshrined in the secular US Constitution, in one of the more religious countries in the West. Secularism is actually the only possible guarantor of religious freedom, something Farron says he’s in favour of.