Out now: the August edition of The Spectator World
From our US edition
Featuring Andrew Cockburn, Daniel McCarthy, Mary Eberstadt, Peter Wood, Sohrab Ahmari and more
The Spectator
Monday
Thursday
Letters: The clock is ticking in Afghanistan
Out of Afghanistan Sir: Boyd Tonkin’s review of Anna Aslanyan’s Dancing on Ropes highlights the post-war abandonment of local Afghan and Iraqi interpreters by the US and UK (Books, 17 July). The UK’s response, up until last summer, deserved every bit of Tonkin’s strictures but the past year has seen a ‘strategic shift’. Ben Wallace
Portrait of the week: Covid in cabinet, pingdemic pandemonium and Ben & Jerry’s boycott
Home On the eve of the day that most coronavirus restrictions were to be lifted, the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer had to react to having been in close contact with Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, who, despite being doubly vaccinated, had contracted Covid. At first Boris Johnson said that under a pilot
What’s changed since the last Tokyo Olympics?
Waiting Games What did Japan, and the world, look like the last time Tokyo held the Olympics in 1964? — As this year, Tokyo had to wait to hold the Games. It was awarded the 1940 Olympics, but the offer was withdrawn after the Japanese invasion of China (before the 1940 Games were abandoned altogether).
Boris is in danger of becoming the Prime Minister he once warned against
Back when Boris Johnson was on a mission to stop identity cards being used in Britain, he made a very persuasive argument: if parliament allows such expensive technology to come into existence, then the government will cook up excuses to use it. They will start to ‘scarify the population’ by saying there is a threat
Thursday
Letters: How to save Cambridge’s reputation
Save the parish Sir: The Revd Marcus Walker eloquently describes the crisis that has taken hold in the Church of England (‘Breaking faith’, 10 July). He correctly states that the church belongs to the people of England and not to the archbishops, bishops or clergy. As he wrote, the costs of parish clergy are not
Portrait of the week: Mixed messages on masks, protests in Cuba and good news for pandas
Home England expects everyone to wear masks in crowded places, Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, said in a televised address, even though the law requiring it was to be dropped on 19 July. He said: ‘We’re removing the government instruction to work from home where you can but we don’t expect that the whole country
2512: Impertinence - solution
CHERRY, NETTLE, SMOKE, PLUM-PUDDING, BEES, EGG, SUNBEAM and WIND are the perimetric answers to riddles posed by NUTKIN in The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin by Beatrix Potter. Nutkin’s brother is called TWINKLEBERRY (19/11) and Nutkin is a SCIURUS VULGARIS (33/35A) (red squirrel). Shaded squares give the letters of POTTER. First prize Mark Griffiths, Winsford, Cheshire
Yes, they're deplorable – but those football tweets don't prove Britain is racist
There are two certainties whenever England’s football team plays; one that is long-established and the other a recent phenomenon. Players who never miss a penalty during training sessions will end up fluffing their attempts under the pressure of a shoot-out. And the post-match discussion of football will quickly move on to the issue of racism.
How much does a holiday in space cost you?
Space cadets Richard Branson joined a test flight on his Virgin Galactic craft to the edge of space, to promote the tourist space trips he has been promising for over a decade. How much does it cost to be a space tourist (assuming any succeed in taking passengers)? £180,000: Price for a Virgin Galactic trip
Thursday
Letters: Let the housing market collapse
Treading the boards Sir: As a teacher, I was sorry Lloyd Evans did not include school productions in his excellent assessment of the cultural devastation inflicted by Covid-19 (‘Staged’, 3 July). While cancellation of West End shows is a tragedy, far more damage will be done to the thousands of children whose one chance to
Portrait of the week: Masks to be dropped, John Lewis builds houses and Russia lays claim to champagne
Home Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, said that if a review of coronavirus restrictions on 12 July allowed, then on 19 July he expected an end in England to compulsory masks (except in hospitals), working from home, the ban on ordering drinks at the bar, on nightclubs and on singing in church. ‘If we don’t
Boris Johnson must hold his nerve over lifting restrictions
A charge repeatedly made against Boris Johnson over the past 16 months is that he has ‘ignored scientific advice’. But unless he has been in the habit of drumming his fingers on the table and looking out of the window while Professor Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance have made their presentations, it is a
Who was the first to wear a face mask?
Mask crusader Who first wore a medical face mask? — The beaked outfits worn by plague doctors aside, the first doctor to wear a mask was the French abdominal surgeon Paul Berger in 1897. His mask, made from six layers of gauze, was inspired by the work of German microbiologist Carl Flugge, who had revealed
2511: Changing places - solution
The unclued lights form pairs of anagrams, one word in each pair being a place-name: 1A/6A, 1D/21, 6D/13, 11/38, 19/30 and 22/26A. First prize David Danskin, Yaldley Hastings, Northants Runners-up Kenneth Robb, Bo’ness, West Lothian; Dennis Cotterell, Carlisle
Thursday
It’s time to repair the damage done to the Covid generation’s education
Aswitch of personnel at the Department of Health this week has brought a welcome change in the government’s tone. No longer, it seems, are ministers looking for reasons to delay the final stage of lifting lockdown restrictions. After 16 months of curtailments on liberty, 19 July is inked in as the day when society and
How many people are self-isolating when they’re told to?
Isolated cases Large numbers of people are still being ordered to self-isolate in spite of having been vaccinated — 137,560 people were identified as close contacts of positive Covid cases through the Test and Trace system between 10 and 16 June. How well have they been adhering to the rules? — 79% say they have
Portrait of the week: Hancock out, Javid in and MoD papers found at a bus stop
Home A lively game of hunt the issue followed the resignation of Matt Hancock as Secretary of State for Health after the Sun published a photograph of him kissing an aide, Gina Coladangelo, in May, in contravention of the law at the time on meeting indoors. The Prime Minister had tried to declare the matter
Letters: We can’t build our way out of the housing crisis
Excess demand Sir: Liam Halligan (‘The house mafia’, 26 June) treats us to an exposé of the shoddy products of the mass housebuilders. In the course of his article, however, he accepts as given that the solution to the housing crisis is to build more houses. The problem, however, is not one of deficient supply;
2513: Golden anniversary
1A, on 23 17, 41 1D 8 in this 31 was 21D. This anniversary announcement consists of eleven words and includes an apostrophe. Each group of coloured squares reveals a name of one of the team, past or present. One blue square does double duty as it overlaps a green square too. Doc compiled the