After Nigel Farage resigned as the leader of Ukip following his South Thanet defeat, he appointed Suzanne Evans as the party’s temporary leader. However, this appointment turned out to be fleeting, with Farage ‘unresigning’ days later. Happily, Evans got a chance to relive her glory days when she appeared on BBC’s This Week. The producers
Earlier this month Ben Harris-Quinney stepped down as the chairman of the Bow Group, following internal frictions over the Conservative think tank’s partial Ukip endorsement ahead of the election. Now Harris-Quinney, who was elected as a Tory councillor earlier this month, has been suspended from the Conservative Party. In an email circulated to staff, a Conservative spokesman reveals the suspension
Of course, as the SNP keep reminding us, this year’s general election had nothing to do with advancing the case for independence. Besides, please, you must remember there’s much more to the party than its thirst for national liberation. Any suggestion to the contrary is quite deplorable. Which is fine, I suppose, as far as these things go.
Numerous commentators have noted how the Irish marriage referendum was influenced by big business, especially Californian-based companies like Google. It’s one of the curious trends of recent years that big business, once considered the enemy of ‘the Left’, is now its greatest proponent; or at least the dominant strain of Leftism, social justice liberalism. Silicon Valley
Who will speak up for Britain’s relationship with Europe? Even those abroad have noticed that the recent talk from the government and pressure groups has all been tinged with Euroscepticism. During David Cameron’s visit to France yesterday, the French foreign minister Laurent Fabius said he was unhappy with this attitude: ‘I find this process quite dangerous … The British population
Andy Burnham’s campaign has ensured he remains the current favourite to be the next Labour leader. Part of his nascent leadership campaign is an online army of fans who are promoting his cause and attacking his opponents. Twitter and Facebook are going to be key battlegrounds for each of the contenders — offering an easy
From ‘Government by Newspaper’, The Spectator, 29 May 1915: WE went to press last week too early to comment upon the outrageous attack made by the Daily Mail upon Lord Kitchener. In condemning Lord Northcliffe for his action in this matter we find it difficult to show that restraint and moderation of language which the
There are some odd opening moves in chess, such as 1 a3 and 1 g4. The former was used by Adolf Anderssen to win a game against Paul Morphy in their 1858 match, while the latter has been developed into an entire system by the English international master Michael Basman. Perhaps the weirdest of all
Black to play. This is from Westman-Walther, Havana 1966. Black has the possibility of a discovered check against the white king. How can he make the most of this? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 2 June or via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk. The winner will be the first correct answer out of a
Why we don’t need mayors Sir: There are a number of arguments against Steve Hilton’s call for more than 10,000 mayors (‘We need 10,000 mayors’, 23 May). One is that such an idea ruptures the whole tradition of British municipal administration, under which a system of elected councils is maintained to which executive officers are
Steam privatisation Cunard celebrated its 175th birthday by sailing three liners down the Mersey. The formation of the Cunard Line was an early triumph of privatisation. — The Post Office had been operating a monthly service to New York with sailing brigs since 1756. In 1836 a parliamentary committee decided that a steamship service should
Government claims that it will ‘free’ northern cities to turn themselves into ‘powerhouses’. Since most of them are held by Labour, this is obviously nonsense. The tedious tribal backbiting and recriminations will continue as usual. There is a better way. When Alexander the Great died in Babylon in 323 bc, the Greek generals he had left in charge
Getting to Goodwood last Saturday was an achievement in itself. On the Bank Holiday weekend I calculated a cross-country route from Oxfordshire to avoid the traffic. All went well until my satnav threw a hissy fit at my variations. Its female voice, that of an eager hockey mistress contemplating a career change to dominatrix, instructed
An operation on my hand after a karate injury has had me reading more than usual. I even attempted Don DeLillo’s Underworld, but soon gave up. Truman Capote famously said that On the Road was typing, not writing, but old Jack Kerouac was Jane Austen compared with some contemporary novelists. Making it sound easy is
On 26 June there is a party at the Spectator office at 22 Old Queen Street to launch a paperback collection of Low life columns. If you would like to come, please send an account, in about 800 words, to editor@spectator.co.uk by 15 June of your worst or funniest debacle when intoxicated. If more than 12 readers send a
If you live in or around London you can play a pairs duplicate every night (or day) of the week to suit your standard. Teams is another story. Until the London Super League started about six years ago, there was no duplicate to accommodate teams who wanted to play regularly and competitively. Now we have
Andy the tech guy looked delighted when I told him I had done the stupidest thing ever. He is one of those whizz kids who hungers for interestingly impossible technological problems. The more obscure the devastation I have wrought to a gadget the better he likes it. He was very excited when I blew the
From reading the newspapers you might get the impression that honeybees were on the way to extinction. In Europe, it is said, the number of honeybee colonies has fallen in a few years by a quarter. In the United States, it has halved since the 1940s. Nobody knows exactly why. The experts blame any number
Amnesty International and others have placed a large newspaper advertisement telling Michael Gove ‘Don’t Scrap Our Human Rights’. The ad asserts that ‘A government cannot give human rights or take them away’, which, if true, makes one wonder how it can scrap them. Human rights are philosophically a confused idea; but their political power consists
Q. I felt uncomfortable during a dinner for 20 in a private house. The young man on my left had failed to turn to the woman on his left when it was time to do so and instead stared vaguely down the table with his back slightly turned to her. She looked devastated. I wonder