The Spectator

Letters | 11 February 2016

What’s best for Europe? Sir: It seems that the British negotiations in Europe have produced little, and even at this late stage they would surely be more effective if the tone were based more on what is best for Europe as a whole (‘Fighting over the crumbs’, 6 February). If we leave, we will desert

Barometer | 11 February 2016

Matters of life and death Lord Lucan is now officially presumed dead. How do you have someone declared dead? In England and Wales, under the Presumption of Death Act 2013… — Anyone can apply to have anyone else declared dead, but if the applicant is not a spouse, civil partner, parent, child or sibling of

Portrait of the week | 11 February 2016

Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said that if Britain left the European Union, France could stop allowing British officials to make immigration checks on the French side of the border, and, his spokesman predicted: ‘You have potentially thousands of asylum seekers camped out in northern France who could be here almost overnight.’ Mr Cameron

Flying doctors

A few months ago, paramedics were on the brink of industrial action. They had legitimate grievances. Ambulance services were being run down, their staffing levels were dangerously thin — and the mismanagement (much of it exposed by Mary Wakefield in The Spectator) was horrendous. But in the end they stepped back from the brink —

The Spectator Podcast: Turkey can’t cope. Can we?

[audioplayer src=”http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/thenextrefugeecrisis/media.mp3″ title=”Listen to this week’s edition of the The View From 22″] Listen [/audioplayer] In this week’s issue, Laura Pitel discusses whether the next refugee crisis emerging in Turkey could dwarf the first which has gripped Europe. Turkey has taken in two and a half million refugees – nearly three times as many as

France in ruins

From ‘Marching through France’, The Spectator, 12 February 1916: Finally we came to the trenches themselves, and all around was desolation and ruin. There are few more mournful spectacles than a town or village lately reduced to ruins. To what purpose were all these homes sacrificed? Why are all these good people scattered and beggared

Cameron’s “deal” has backfired – badly. So what will he do now?

[audioplayer src=”http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/fightingovercrumbs-euroscepticsandtheeudeal/media.mp3″ title=”James Forsyth and Vote Leave’s Stephen Parkinson discuss Euroscepticsm”] It should, by now, be clear to David Cameron that he is in some degree of trouble with his referendum. The latest YouGov poll shows the ‘out’ side with a four-point lead: those who were waiting for his renegotiation to yield results have been