Books and Arts – 13 December 2017
From our UK edition
The Spectator
Wednesday
to 2337: millefeuille
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Links with NAPOLEON were his battles WAGRAM (10) MARENGO (14) JENA (36); card games BACCARAT (1A) PATIENCE (26) BRAG (30A); and gold coins DUCAT (16) EAGLE (22) BEZANT (30D). EBON (17) and AT PAR (35) made BONAPARTE. Millefeuille/Napoleon are cream cakes. First prize Martin Dey, Hoylandswaine, S. Yorkshire Runners-up Miriam Moran, Pangbourne, Berkshire; Gerry Fairweather,
Have you heard a convincing ghost story?
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Anthony Horowitz Novelist I have never really believed in ghosts, but I actually had a personal experience which I still find hard to explain. I was walking beside the river Kwai in Thailand with my wife. We had been told that a steam train travelled across the famous bridge once a week
Christmas quiz – The answers
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Weird world 1. Cannabis 2. Che Guevara 3. Tesco 4. Asda 5. Beauty and the Beast 6. Georgia 7. France (President François Hollande) 8. China 9. Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council 10. Kirstie Allsopp I’ll say 1. Theresa May 2. Philip May, the Prime Minister’s husband 3. Sir Michael Fallon, according to
Tuesday
Best Buys: One year fixed-rate ISAs
From our UK edition
Fixed rate ISAs are a good way of making sure you have some cash put to one side for a rainy day – but as with everything, you need to make sure you get the best possible deal. Here are the best one year fixed-rate cash ISAs on the market at the moment. Data supplied
Sunday
‘The first 100 days will be radical’ – John McDonnell on the Corbyn coup and its consequences
From our UK edition
John McDonnell looks exhausted, slumped in his parliamentary office chair. Nobody said the revolution would be easy. Do he and Jeremy Corbyn have any catchphrases, I ask, to gee themselves up when battered by the right-wing press, the pundits or the moderates in their own party? ‘This will send the Daily Mail wild, OK,’ he
Saturday
Returning jihadis must be brought to justice
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At first sight, the evidence presented in David Anderson’s report into the four terror attacks committed between March and June sounds damning. The security service, MI5, had had three of the six attackers on its radar. The Manchester bomber Salman Abedi, who murdered 22 people, had come to the attention of MI5 in 2014. As
Thursday
Letters | 7 December 2017
From our UK edition
The Carlile report Sir: The Bishop of Bath and Wells tells us (Letters, 2 December) that nobody is holding up publication of the Carlile report into the Church of England’s hole-in-corner kangaroo condemnation of the late George Bell. Is it then just accidental that the church is still making excuses for not publishing it, and
Bring jihadis to justice
From our UK edition
At first sight, the evidence presented in David Anderson’s report into the four terror attacks committed between March and June sounds damning. The security service, MI5, had had three of the six attackers on its radar. The Manchester bomber Salman Abedi, who murdered 22 people, had come to the attention of MI5 in 2014. As
Portrait of the week | 7 December 2017
From our UK edition
Home Theresa May, the Prime Minister, was thrown into a political crisis, along with the negotiations for Brexit, during a protracted lunch in Brussels with Jean- Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commission. At first, smiles and Mr Juncker’s special cheerful tie had suggested that Britain had paid enough and said enough to be
Barometer | 7 December 2017
From our UK edition
Border skirmishes What did the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic used to look like? — In 1923 a Common Travel Area between the UK and what was then the Irish Free State established free movement. Passport checks began in the second world war and ended in 1952, though some customs checks continued. The
Books & Arts – 7 December 2017
From our UK edition
to 2336: IRRELEVANT
From our UK edition
The action that results in 6, 10, 29D and 30 is HAIR-RAISING (7, defined by 5). RAISING A HARE (39) results in 13. First prize Norma Jacobs, Linton, Wetherby, W. Yorks Runners-up Mrs E. Knights, Wisbech, Cambs; Trevor Evans, Drulingen, France
We need to bridge Britain’s productivity gap
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The UK has a big productivity problem. Our slowdown since the financial crisis has been more severe than in other developed nations. We rank third-last among the G7 — ahead of only Canada and Japan — and we’re falling further behind our competitors: France, Germany and the USA. This matters, because increased productivity is the
Wednesday
Could investing in website names make you an internet millionaire?
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With the savings of the nation languishing around 1%, it’s no surprise that UK consumers are turning to increasingly creative ways to make their money work that little bit harder. Even with the arrival of a plethora of savings-focused banks such as RCI Bank, the savings horizon remains bleak for those yearning for the good
Ignore the motorheads telling us that we all need new cars
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The motorheads are at it again. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), the UK auto manufacturers lobby group, lobbed another rusty torque wrench at the government this morning, announcing that UK new car registrations are down 11.2 per cent year-on-year. The decline is led by a collapse of nearly a third in sales
Tuesday
Best Buys: Buy-to-let 5 year fixed rate mortgages
From our UK edition
Buy-to-let property is still a popular investment choice for those who can afford it. Here are the best 5-year fixed rate mortgages on the market at the moment. Data supplied by moneyfacts.co.uk
Friday
The one issue economists and politicians agree on: Britain’s productivity problem
From our UK edition
‘Productivity’ is one of those ‘economicky words’ (as Philip Hammond described them in the budget last week) that economists and politicians get excited about but leaves many people cold. Yet since last week’s downgraded forecasts from the Office of Budget Responsibility, it is a word we keep hearing in the news. And rightly so. As
Thursday
Letters | 30 November 2017
From our UK edition
Proven lawyers Sir: Andrew Watts says that for ‘lawyers in politics, the elimination of risk becomes the highest aim of government. It is not, and should not be’ (Legal challenge, 25 November). Well, up to a point. The last two British prime ministers who were lawyers were Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair, both barristers. Mrs
Barometer | 30 November 2017
From our UK edition
Pit stopped After complaints from the Durham Miners’ Association, a rugby club at Durham University cancelled a pub crawl in which members were to dress as coal miners or ministers from Mrs Thatcher’s government. — Attitudes towards the 1984-85 miners’ strike were not always so censorious. In 2001, the conceptual artist Jeremy Deller staged a