Moaning minnie MPs Sir: I was recently quoted in the Sun newspaper in a story about how MPs were reacting to the Brexit drama in the House of Commons. I said: ‘It feels like the Commons is having a collective breakdown — a cross between Lord of the Flies and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s
Home Although the latest date for Brexit had been postponed by the European Council until Halloween, 31 October, the government had to confront the prospect of holding elections to the European parliament on 23 May if parliament would not agree to Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement before then. Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith said that
‘Great edifices, like great mountains, are the work of centuries,’ wrote Victor Hugo in Notre-Dame de Paris. ‘The man, the artist, the individual, is effaced in these great masses, which lack the name of their author. Human intelligence is there summed up and totalised.’ The foundation stone of the cathedral of Our Lady of Paris
The unclued lights are ACCENTS or DIACRITICAL SIGNS and any appearing on letters in the grid had to be ignored. First prize Professor Colin Ratledge, E. Yorkshire Runners-up V.A. Plomer, Swindon; B. Taylor, Bolton
From ‘Israel’s Candidature’, The Spectator, 22 April 1949: Israel’s application for UN membership received a chillier reception than had been expected. There was a widespread feeling more needs to be known about Israel’s intentions on certain points before the final seal is given to her international position. Does she propose to do anything about the
Flextensions Some organisations which may have benefited from Donald Tusk’s offer of a ‘flextension’ to Article 50: — Adidas, which has marketed a ‘Porsche Design Sport Flextension Easy Trainer’. — DB Flextension, a South Africa company which makes commercial signage systems. — Flextension, a Dutch charity which supports the development of wheelchairs and other equipment
All Cameron’s fault Sir: In this time of febrile political speculation, there can have been few more arresting subject headings on your Letters page than ‘Not Cameron’s fault’ (6 April). Your correspondent Mike Jeffes added to the sense of unreality by writing that ‘Cameron did nothing wrong’. You need to be neither a Remainer nor
Home Theresa May, the Prime Minister, wrote to Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, asking for an extension until 30 June of the period under Article 50 for which the United Kingdom should remain in the European Union. She hoped for parliament to agree to an ‘acceptance of the withdrawal agreement without reopening
The European Union’s official goal — an ever-closer union of people — remains its single most attractive feature. Our continent is marked by its diversity: nowhere can you find a greater range of languages, histories and cultures. Closer co-operation is within everyone’s interests, and the EU has done much to facilitating this. Its mistake was
The preamble suggests that unclued entries are partial anagrams of UNCLUED. The ‘repeated cryptic clue (= anagram of CLUE)’ ‘fixes not only’ LUCE ‘but also’ the central 2×2 block as [CE/LU] and ‘as a result’ LUNE. First prize Sue Topham, Elston, Newark Runners-up Ben Stephenson, London SW12; Phillip Wickens, Faygate, West Sussex
One of the many tragedies of Theresa May’s premiership is that, having come up with a coherent policy on how to enact Brexit, she spent her prime ministerial career failing to follow it. The words she used in her speech at Lancaster House in 2017 seemed clear enough: ‘No deal is better than a bad
German customs The original customs union, or Zollverein, was established by Prussia along with 17 other states which make up modern Germany in 1834. Prior to that, traders crossing what is now Germany, were obliged to make multiple declarations and pay taxes as they moved across state borders. — It had taken 15 years to
About the Bible Sir: I was confirmed by Richard Holloway as a schoolboy at Fettes College, and then taught by John Barton while an Anglican ordinand at Oxford University. So I was intrigued to read Holloway’s review of Barton’s latest book, A History of the Bible (30 March), and disturbed by their conclusions. Indeed, both
One of the many tragedies of Theresa May’s premiership is that, having come up with a coherent policy on how to enact Brexit, she spent her prime ministerial career failing to follow it. The words she used in her speech at Lancaster House in 2017 seemed clear enough: ‘No deal is better than a bad
Home Brexit exerted ever stranger effects on politics. After an eight-hour cabinet meeting, Theresa May, the Prime Minister, said she would ‘sit down’ with Jeremy Corbyn ‘to try to agree a plan’, though it ‘would have to agree the current withdrawal agreement’. The United Kingdom had been required to present a plan to a European
The unclued lights form the folk rhyme ‘Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, rich man, poor man, beggar-man, thief’. A.A. Milne (MILNE had to be highlighted) used this as the basis for Cherry-Stones, (9d) though the beggar-man became a ploughboy. Milne’s next five jobs are also mentioned in various clues. First prize Lydia Miller, Vale, Guernsey Runners-up
From ‘The disconsideration of the House of Commons’, 5 April 1919: The House of Commons is legally supreme in the land; it has eaten up and destroyed all competitors and become the sole depository of political power under the Constitution; and yet, instead of earning the respect which one might imagine would belong to such