The Spectator

Thursday

The Spectator

Barometer | 22 February 2018

From our UK edition

The great indoors How to get the Winter Olympics experience without leaving England: — The Snow Centre, Hemel Hempstead: ‘London’s closest indoor real snow slope.’ A 160-metre slope with alpine restaurant. — SnowDome, Tamworth: ‘The original and ultimate snow, ice and leisure experience.’ Includes Santa’s Winter Wonderland. — Chill Factore, Stretford: A 180-metre slope with button lift and seasonal moguls. Parents go free in Mini Moose Land. Crowded house The government is considering early release for prisoners to cut overcrowding. How many people do we incarcerate compared with other countries? — The UK’s imprisonment rate is 143 per 100,000, putting us 109th out of 222 nations.

The Spectator

to 2344: I’m away

From our UK edition

The unclued lights can be preceded by or followed by the unclued word DOCTOR, which explains why I (Doc) am away in the title of the puzzle.   First prize Pam Dunn, Sevenoaks, Kent Runners-up Tim Hanks, Douglas, Isle of Man; R.C.

Wednesday

The Spectator

The European Research Group’s Brexit letter, in full

From our UK edition

Dear Prime Minister, We are writing to thank you for your reassuring comments about Britain's approach to the upcoming trade negotiations with the EU27, and to underline our support for both your Brexit leadership, and for the vision of your speech at Lancaster House a year ago. We share your view that free trade lowers prices, creates jobs and economic growth, and that leaving the European Union will create opportunities for freer trade with many more countries around the world. We also agree with you that we can only grasp those opportunities if we can negotiate trade deals with as many other countries as possible, which we will be legally barred from doing if we remain inside the EU Customs Union and Single Market.

Tuesday

The Spectator

Direct Debit guarantee

From our UK edition

This Guarantee is offered by all banks and building societies that accept instructions to pay Direct Debits. If there are any changes to the amount, date or frequency of your Direct Debit The Spectator (1828) Ltd will notify you 10 working days in advance of your account being debited or as otherwise agreed.

Monday

The Spectator

Is a tax on property the solution to Britain’s housing problems?

From our UK edition

This letter was first printed in this week's issue of The Spectator. Sir: Matthew Parris is correct (10 February). There is no shortage of housing stock, and no feasible programme of housebuilding will fix the housing market. The generations endowed with housing wealth through tax and lending policies continued by all parties since 1959 have no incentive to use it productively; the next generation competes for a disproportionately small portion of the stock. But there is a solution to be explored. Someone who invests in improving the productivity of their labour will pay tax (including employee and employer NI) at a marginal rate of around 40 to 60 per cent, while someone who invests in under-occupied property pays no tax on the gain in value.

Saturday

The Spectator

Why we shouldn’t try the jihadi ‘Beatles’ in Britain

From our UK edition

The success of the military campaign against Isis in Syria and Iraq has left behind a diplomatic and legal problem: what to do with the British citizens who travelled to join and fight with Isis, but who have survived hostilities. The problem has been brought to a head by the capture, by a group of Syrian Kurds, of El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey — two Londoners who were members of ‘the Beatles’, a group which tortured and beheaded at least 27 hostages. There is little use in looking to the government for consistent guidance as to what should happen to the two men, who have been stripped of their British citizenship.

Thursday

The Spectator

Letters | 15 February 2018

From our UK edition

Suffragette setbacks Sir: Jane Ridley (‘Women on the warpath’, Books, 10 February) claims that Millicent Fawcett and her suffragists had ‘got nowhere’ by the time the militant suffragettes came on the scene in 1903. In fact Fawcett’s law-abiding movement, with a membership of some 50,000 (far more than the quarrelling Pankhursts ever managed), had won round the majority of MPs by 1897. Between that date and final victory 20 years later, there were always more MPs in favour of women’s suffrage than against it, though the gap shrank during the years of the suffragette campaign. Its violence has to be high on the list of factors that delayed victory.

The Spectator

Barometer | 15 February 2018

From our UK edition

Museums of curiosity The former culture secretary Ed Vaizey suggested that there are quite enough museums in Britain, and that they should attempt to display their treasures in more visited places like shopping centres. Some suggestions for an educational day out. — British Lawnmower Museum, Southport. — British in India Museum, Nelson, Lancashire. (Received 109 visitors in 2016, according to VisitEngland.) — Dog Collar Museum, Leeds Castle, Kent. — Derwent Pencil Museum, Cumbria. — Teapot Island, Yalding, Kent. ‘The largest teapot exhibition in England with more than 8,200 teapots to be seen.

The Spectator

Justice for jihadis

From our UK edition

The success of the military campaign against Isis in Syria and Iraq has left behind a diplomatic and legal problem: what to do with the British citizens who travelled to join and fight with Isis, but who have survived hostilities. The problem has been brought to a head by the capture, by a group of Syrian Kurds, of El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey — two Londoners who were members of ‘the Beatles’, a group which tortured and beheaded at least 27 hostages. There is little use in looking to the government for consistent guidance as to what should happen to the two men, who have been stripped of their British citizenship.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 15 February 2018

From our UK edition

Home The Charity Commission said it would hold a statutory inquiry into a scandal in which Oxfam staff paid for prostitutes in Haiti in 2011. Penny Lawrence resigned as deputy chief executive of the charity, saying that allegations had been raised about Roland van Hauwermeiren, Oxfam’s country director in Chad, before he moved to Haiti. He resigned in 2011, when Oxfam referred to unspecified ‘serious misconduct’. Penny Mordaunt, the International Development Secretary, said that no organisation could be a government partner if it did not ‘have the moral leadership to do the right thing’. Last year, Oxfam received £32 million from the government.

The Spectator

to 2343: Rats!

From our UK edition

The perimeter quote is by Nietzsche (taking the 1 in the top left corner as the first word). Other unclued lights were anagrams of stars: 18A Vega; 19A red giant; 20A Altair; 27A Castor, 33A nova; 26D Rigel.   First prize Angus Ross, Old Portsmouth, Hampshire Runners-up Mrs R.J.C.

The Spectator

Trotsky’s audacity

From our UK edition

From ‘News of the week’, 16 February 1918: Last Sunday M. Trotsky announced at Brest-Litovsk that Russia would fight no longer, and would demobilize her armies without signing a peace. In a wireless message issued that day he had the audacity to impute the blame for his miserable surrender to ‘the silent co-operation of the English and French “bourgeoisie”’ with the German capitalists, bankers, and landlords. That, of course, is the very reverse of the truth. The Allies would have supported any Russian Government which would fight, but the Anarchists destroyed the Army, and made an armistice without consulting us. They are now reaping the fruits of their folly.

Wednesday

The Spectator

Full text: Boris Johnson’s Brexit speech

From our UK edition

The other day a woman pitched up in my surgery in a state of indignation. The ostensible cause was broadband trouble but it was soon clear – as so often in a constituency surgery – that the real problem was something else. No one was trying to understand her feelings about Brexit. No one was trying to bring her along. She felt so downcast, she said, that she was thinking of leaving the country – to Canada. It wasn’t so much that she wanted to be in the EU; she just didn’t want to be in a Britain that was not in the EU. And I recognised that feeling of grief, and alienation, because in the last 18 months I have heard the same sentiments so often – from friends, from family, from people hailing me abusively in the street – as is their right.

Tuesday

The Spectator

Oxfam scandal: Helen Evans’ Channel 4 interview, full transcript

From our UK edition

HE: I think it was about a year into the role. We were putting in place new reporting procedures [and] training, and the allegations started to come in. And at that point we realised there' had been quite systemic under-reporting and I became concerned about whether we had resources in place to tackle the number of allegations we were getting in.  By 2013/14 it was 39, and it increased significantly after that. CN: You went off for maternity leave, and when you came back in 2014 the number of allegations concerning Oxfam staff overseas really escalated didn't they. So tell us about the sense of scale.

Monday

The Spectator

The Germans are right to be suspicious of government manipulation of money markets

From our UK edition

This piece was first published in this week's issue of The Spectator. It is easy to mock the most strident critics of capitalism, like Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn. It’s harder to ask whether they might actually have a point. Consider the past ten years of evidence. Since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, wages for ordinary workers have been on the floor — even today, the average pay packet in Britain is lower than it was before the crash. The main response to the crisis has been to print money, through quantitative easing and ultra-low rates. This artificially inflates assets. And who benefits? Those who have the most assets: in other words, the very rich.

Thursday

The Spectator

Barometer | 8 February 2018

From our UK edition

How to sell snake oil Ex-cabinet secretary Lord O’Donnell accused Brexiteers of ‘selling snake oil’. How do you sell snake oil? Some eBay listings: — Original snake oil. £11.99 for 125ml. ‘Natural hair treatment. No chemicals. Feeds the hair and protects from precipitation. Free from alcohol. Country or region of manufacture: Saudi Arabia.’ — Snake oil strengthening hair mask with mamushi snake oil. £25.22 for 500g. ‘The effective remedy of supplementary hair care. The mask is perfect for dry and damaged hair.’ Some listed ingredients: aqua, cetearyl alcohol, paraffinum liquidum, cetrimonium chloride, mamushi oil, parfum’ (no actual snake oil).

The Spectator

Letters | 8 February 2018

From our UK edition

Stop knocking May Sir: I find this knocking of Theresa May increasingly depressing (‘Theresa’s choice’, 3 February). She has a terrible job which she was dropped into when David Cameron resigned. She was a Remainer, yet she is expected to steer the UK through the Brexit process of leaving the EU with no experience, as it has never happened before. She needs all the support she can get, so please give it to her. No one wants her job right now anyway. Lindy Wiltshire Alton, Hants My NHS experience Sir: I am very glad to hear that Mr Hawkes has had better experiences in NHS hospitals than I did (Letters, 3 February). Perhaps in leafy Bucks there are private hospitals which compete with their NHS counterparts, unlike in this part of the world.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 8 February 2018

From our UK edition

Home Stagecoach and Virgin could only manage to run the East Coast rail franchise for a few more weeks, Chris Grayling, the Transport Secretary, said, because ‘Stagecoach got its numbers wrong. It overbid.’ To cut 2,000 Royal Marines and the Royal Navy’s two specialist landing ships, a plan considered by the Ministry of Defence, would be ‘militarily illiterate’, the Commons Defence Select Committee said. Northamptonshire County Council gave notice that it would undertake no new expenditure because it expected to be overspent by £21.1 million by the end of this tax year; last year it opened a £53 million headquarters. The government proposed changes in the law that prevents heterosexual couples forming civil partnerships.