The Spectator

Friday

The Spectator

2019 finalists – The Midlands

From our UK edition

  School Space is an 'Airbnb for schools', with the mission of solving the education funding crisis. It works with schools to rent out their facilities in the evenings, weekends and school holidays, generating them revenue and transforming the school into a community hub.    Igloo Vision is a shared virtual reality company, taking 360° content and putting it in a shared space that whole teams can use. Its virtual spaces are perfect for events and experiences, as well as collaborative teamwork, immersive training and data visualisation.   ReBOUND is on a mission to change the way retailers process returns. It’s called reverse logistics: an integrated user platform which manages the entire return process.

The Spectator

2019 finalists – The North West and Wales

From our UK edition

  Howz is a smart home system designed to help older people stay independent for longer. Howz charts a person’s routine by machine learning and uses this to detect short-term anomalies and long-term changes, letting them and their family know via mobile and voice apps.   Sky Medical Technology is a medical devices company looking to help clinicians solve some of healthcare’s most pressing challenges. It has developed geko: a device that uses innovative platform technology to help prevent and treat a range of acute medical conditions.   tickr was born out of the urge to help solve the world’s biggest problems while helping millennial and first-time investors plan for their future.

The Spectator

2019 finalists – Scotland and Northern Ireland

From our UK edition

  Delta DNA is a data platform for video-game makers, allowing them to utilise user experience. It provides the tools needed to manage the game economy effectively, in one place, with vast industry experience embedded directly in its tech.    TVSquared gives advertisers proof of performance across linear, OTT and VOD channels. Whether campaigns are local, national or global, it provides business-ready insights for advertisers and marketers to shape their work to best effect.   WFS Technologies uses wireless automation, Internet of Things and cloud computing networks to improve subsea operations. Its technology improves management of offshore energy assets, increase production, reduce cost and reduce risk.

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2019 finalists – London and The South

From our UK edition

  AdviseInc provides data analytics and insight to healthcare markets to help NHS Trusts deliver the best value for money for patients.    Beyond Life wants to digitise and democratise the business of bereavement. By launching innovative products, such as online wills and memorials, and bringing thousands of funeral directors online, Beyond Life is facilitating a fairer last journey for families across the UK.    Boxpark creates pop-up malls with an emphasis on sustainability and making the best use of space. In Shoreditch, Wembley and Croydon it has created immersive food, drink and leisure experiences which embody the company’s ‘eat, drink and play’ philosophy.

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Full transcript: Jeremy Hunt’s Andrew Neil interview

From our UK edition

AN: Jeremy Hunt - like Theresa May you voted to Remain. Like Theresa May you’re a Tory technocrat. Like Theresa May you voted for her Brexit deal, three times. Why would the Tories want more of the same when it’s hardly been a golden age for them? JH: Because, Andrew, I am a totally different person and I have a totally different plan. And I did vote three times for Theresa May’s deal and I’ll tell you exactly why: because I wanted to leave the European Union as quickly as possible. And had we voted to do that, as indeed did Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg and many other people, we would have left the EU by now and I think we would have been in a better position as a country. AN: But a lot of Tories look at you and they say, “We tried you.

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Full transcript: Boris Johnson grilled by Andrew Neil

From our UK edition

AN: Boris Johnson, we’re going to talk a lot about policy, but I first want to talk about you, because for many people – including many Tories – your character, your reputation, trust in you is as big an issue as the policies you stand for. Do you accept that that’s a problem for you? BJ: No, I don’t at all. I think what people want to see is what my plans are to come out of the EU on October 31st, to get that deal done, take us beyond Brexit and unite the country. And I’ve got a lot of things that I think will be fantastic Conservative policies.

Thursday

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Letters | 11 July 2019

From our UK edition

Crisis in Hong Kong Sir: It was inspiring to see Hong Kong protesters raising the British flag as a symbol of freedom and liberation — a vivid image of the fondness in which it is held, even more than two decades after our surrender of the territory (‘A question of liberty’, 6 July). However, raising the colonial flag in the legislative chamber was no mere nostalgia but also a challenge to our government. Are we going to stand by today and betray that trust? The British government might be wary of criticising Beijing’s overreach in Hong Kong in case China tightens the screws further against ‘foreign interference in internal affairs’. But that horse has long since bolted.

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Barometer | 11 July 2019

From our UK edition

Ode to all sorts Brexit party MPs were likened to Nazis for turning their backs on a recital of ‘Ode to Joy’, the EU’s anthem. Yet Beethoven’s melody itself has one association which liberal-minded folk might find unsavoury — between 1965 and 1979 it served as the national anthem of Ian Smith’s Rhodesia, using the words: ‘Rise, oh voices of Rhodesia,/ God may we Thy bounty share./ Give us strength to face all danger,/ And where challenge is, to dare.’ It was during this period, in 1972, that the Council of Europe adopted the tune as its own anthem. It then became the European Community’s anthem in 1985. Police numbers Boris Johnson promised to spend £1 billion on an extra 20,000 police officers.

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For the few

From our UK edition

In some alternative universe the Labour party, as under Tony Blair in the mid 1990s, is busily preparing for government, its confidence boosted by a massive lead in the polls over a shambolic Tory administration. Back in this one, however, Labour is crumbling even faster than the divided and unpopular Conservatives. Remarkably, while the Tories have seen a collapse in their share of the vote to just 22 per cent, according to one poll this week, Labour has sunk to just 20 per cent. Just how it succeeded in throwing away such a remarkable opportunity to seize power is going to trouble its remaining members for decades to come.

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Portrait of the week | 11 July 2019

From our UK edition

Home Sir Kim Darroch resigned as British ambassador to Washington after the Mail on Sunday published disobliging emails he had sent between 2017 and now, which said things like: ‘We don’t really believe this administration is going to become substantially more normal; less dysfunctional; less unpredictable; less faction-riven; less diplomatically clumsy and inept.’ In response President Donald Trump said: ‘We’re not big fans of that man.’ Next day, Trump added that he had told Theresa May, the Prime Minister, how to manage Brexit, ‘but she went her own foolish way — was unable to get it done. A disaster!’.

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An absurd craze

From our UK edition

From ‘Keeping fat’ by Geoffrey Wheatcroft, 7 October 1978: The running craze is a symptom of our deplorable age, in particular of our obsession with health, slimness, fitness and, above all, longevity. Jogging is not only undignified but absurd. It is a confession that people feel that they lead displeasingly unhealthy lives, but are not prepared to do anything preventative, rather than remedial, about it. The answer for someone who thinks that he is overweight is to eat less for a while, not to leap around at unseemly exercises. And the way to eat less is, simply, to eat less.

Thursday

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Letters | 4 July 2019

From our UK edition

Support for stop and search Sir: Mary Wakefield is rightly exasperated by fatuous comments over police use of stop and search (‘Stop posturing over stop and search’, 29 June). Perhaps this year there will be 200 murders of children by other children. Swamping areas with police is obviously a visible response to the problem, but gangs know there is a reluctance to stop and search and this is part of the reason for their arrogant attitude. Stop and search is street policing in the raw. It often leads to arrest, and it can be a messy, frustrating, confrontational business, even when done with tact and patience. As a Met PC for 31 years — Lewisham, then Islington — I went through hundreds of pockets. Nearly all the searches were resented: who wants to be frisked?

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Barometer | 4 July 2019

From our UK edition

Model hobbies Asked what he did to relax, Boris Johnson claimed that he liked to make model buses. Some others who share his hobby: — Rod Stewart is a keen railway-modeller who claims to have a set the size of a tennis court at his Beverly Hills home. — Jools Holland, Roger Daltrey and Pete Waterman are all into model railways. — Model buses are a more rarefied taste. But if he isn’t already, Boris could consider joining the Model Bus Federation, which has represented the hobby since 1968. Its national show and AGM will be held in Tewkesbury on Saturday 5 October, just after the Conservative party conference.   Who pays? Boris Johnson wants to raise the threshold for the 40 per cent rate of tax from £50,000 to £80,000. How many people pay tax?

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Portrait of the Week – 4 July 2019

From our UK edition

Home Boris Johnson, the bookies’ favourite for the leadership of the Conservative party, would, if he became prime minister, ‘show the public sector some love’ said his supporter Matt Hancock. Jeremy Hunt, his rival for the leadership, said: ‘If you’re a sheep farmer in Shropshire or a fisherman in Peterhead… I will mitigate the impact of no-deal Brexit on you.’ The 160,000 members of the Conservative party, few of them public-sector workers, and even fewer sheep farmers or fisherfolk, were sent postal ballots from 6 July to vote for the new leader.

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A question of liberty

From our UK edition

When the tanks were rolling into Tiananmen Square and the Cold War hadn’t yet formally come to an end, it seemed obvious: freedom and democracy were prerequisites for economic success. Yet over the past three decades, China has challenged that notion by creating a model previously unknown to the world: consumer capitalism combined with autocratic government. Under Xi Jinping’s rule, China’s new middle class now enjoys near-western living standards. So long, that is, as it does not question the legitimacy of its leaders. The success of the Chinese model has presented a conundrum for western governments: how to deal with a country that continues to have little regard for human rights and yet nevertheless offers lucrative opportunities for investors.

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to 2412: Transponders

From our UK edition

On 15th June 1919 John ALCOCK (34) and Arthur BROWN (37) completed the first non-stop transatlantic flight when they crash-landed near CLIFDEN, COUNTY GALWAY (46/9) in a VICKERS VIMY (23/25), having taken off from ST JOHN’S, NEWFOUNDLAND (10/13) the previous day.

Thursday

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Letters | 27 June 2019

From our UK edition

Appeasement? Sir: Your editorial (‘Plan B’, 22 June) refers to the need for Boris Johnson, as prospective PM, to have ‘warm words for our European allies — even if we end up without a deal’. The use of the word ‘allies’ troubles me. The dictionary defines the word in context: ‘Any time there’s a disagreement or conflict, it helps to have allies: if you don’t, you’re all alone.’ Being ‘alone’ is not the same as being wrong. Britain has been very much ‘alone’ in the past. And while it has sometimes been wrong, it has often been alone and right in its cause. One of the most extraordinary aspects of the whole Brexit debate has been the vituperative conduct of the EU.