Home In the Budget, Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, spoke of ‘long-term growth’. He cut National Insurance by 2p in the pound, saving the average worker £450 a year but pensioners nothing. A new ‘British Isa’ would allow an extra £5,000 a year tax-free investment. Tax arrangements for non-doms would be changed. The
Last November Jeremy Hunt announced what he proclaimed was ‘the biggest tax cut on work since the 1980s’. He cut employee National Insurance from 12 per cent to 10 per cent, yet to his great disappointment, the polls didn’t budge. This week he decided to double down, lowering NI again, to 8 per cent. ‘The
Attempts by the Emirati government to buy The Spectator and the Telegraph through RedBird IMI, one of its state investment vehicles, pose a conundrum. There is no existing law against such a deal because until this point safeguards have not been needed. No autocracy has ever before attempted to buy a leading national newspaper in
Work to do Sir: I agree with Kate Andrews’s diagnosis: the nation’s mental health is appalling and a major barrier to our economic prosperity (‘Sick list’, 24 February). I agree with her criticism of the treatment offered by the health service: we are failing to restore people to working health. Antidepressants are handed out like
The unclued lights each contain a DOUBLE letter in the middle. First prize Sue Dyson, Poynton, Stockport, Cheshire Runners-up Geoff Hollas, London W12; Gill Wayne, London SW9
Populist roots Where did the term ‘populist’ come from? The original Populist party grew out of the Farmers’ Alliance, a movement set up to fight corporate interests in the US in the 1880s. It then joined with other minor parties to fight the 1892 presidential election under the Populist banner. Its candidate James B. Weaver
Britain’s ‘net-zero economy’ is booming, creating more better-paid jobs than any other sector, but it is all being put at risk by the government’s reversal on policies on electric vehicles and heat pumps. That, at any rate, is what the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) wants us
Home Lee Anderson, a former Conservative party deputy chairman, had the whip withdrawn after responding to an article by Suella Braverman that said: ‘The Islamists, the extremists and the anti-Semites are in charge now.’ He said: ‘I don’t actually believe that the Islamists have got control of our country, but what I do believe is
Navy to the fore Sir: In Eliot Wilson’s stimulating article highlighting the lack of capability within our armed forces (‘Losing battle’, 17 February), he comments on the reduced size of the army and the fact that it would be pressed to contribute a brigade to any conflict in the near future. This reminded me of
Baby voters The Lib Dem Polly Mackenzie proposed giving people the right to vote from birth, with a proxy vote going to the under-tens. Does any country allow children to vote? – No country has a voting age lower than 16, although Iran allowed 15-year-olds to vote until 2007. Those countries that do allow 16-
Prospero said ‘I’ll drown my book’ (The Tempest 5.1.56), illustrated by three volumes at the bottom of lake. First prize Eleanor Morrall, Coseley, West Midlands Runners-up Peter Marginson, Wilmslow, Cheshire; Roger Sherman, Richmond, Surrey
Home Labour called for an ‘immediate humanitarian ceasefire’ in Gaza for the first time since the attack by Hamas in October. Earlier, at a Scottish Labour conference in Glasgow, Sir Keir Starmer said that a ‘ceasefire that lasts’ must ‘happen now’. The Prince of Wales called for an end to the fighting and the release
Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour party is a government-in-waiting desperately searching for ideas. It says much about the leader of the opposition that arguably the biggest proposal he’s put forward comes not from him but from his chief of staff, Sue Gray. She, it seems, is enthused about the idea of citizens’ assemblies, and wants more
for Anna Punch has made up with Judy and put his big stick away. He’s happy to cuddle the baby. He’s a new man as from today. A husband on best behaviour. A loving father restored. But preferring him as raver the audience feels cheated and bored. Bring back the Judge and the gallows the
The many not the few Sir: Your leading article (‘The people problem’, 3 February) fails to get to the heart of this issue. Yes, more needs to be done to reform welfare to encourage people back to work. But nowhere do you mention the need for employers to be more open-minded in their recruitment. There
Gerontocracies How many countries are led by an octogenarian? – Out of 187 states assessed in March last year, 10 had heads of government aged over 80. The oldest – who is still in power, is the president of Cameroon, Paul Biya, who celebrated his 91st birthday this week. – The median age of a
The key word is Berliner: 37D/26D said ‘9D Berliner’; 13A, 3D, and 20D are newspaper formats; 26A, 40A and 28D are doughnuts. First prize Sam Snell, London SE10 Runners-up Mike Morrison, London N20; Guy Taylor, London EC1
The polls suggest that Labour is in line for a general election victory later this year which could match or even exceed Tony Blair’s landslide of 1997. Yet the party exudes none of the confidence and maintains none of the self-discipline which it did 27 years ago. On the contrary, were the Conservatives not in
Home Labour withdrew support from Azhar Ali, its candidate in the Rochdale by-election to be held on 29 February, after a recording was published of him claiming Israel had ‘allowed’ the deadly attack by Hamas gunmen on 7 October, which had given them ‘the green light to do whatever they bloody want’. He was suspended from
To the surprise of some, the Prime Minister used his conference speech in Manchester last year to announce a New Zealand-style lifelong ban on the sale of tobacco products to anyone born after a cut-off date of 31 December 2008. The ban, which has since been announced in the King’s Speech as the Tobacco and
