The Spectator
Thursday
Newsbills
Letters | 4 February 2016
Leave those kids alone Sir: Melanie Phillips was right to raise serious concerns about the emerging practice of challenging children to define their gender identity (‘In defence of gender’, 30 January). She quoted justice minister Caroline Dinenage as saying that the government was ‘very much on a journey’ on this issue. The government should therefore
Barometer | 4 February 2016
Ballots drawn Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders tossed a coin to decide which of them was the winner in some precincts of Iowa. What would we do if we had a tied election? — The closest British election in modern times was the council election in Bury, Greater Manchester, in 2011. With Labour needing one
Portrait of the week | 4 February 2016
Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, made a speech in Wiltshire about a letter from Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, on Britain’s demands for renegotiating terms of its membership of the European Union. Mr Cameron said: ‘What we’ve got is basically something I asked for.’ In the House of Commons, Jeremy Corbyn,
Cameron’s “deal” has backfired – badly. So what will he do now?
Throughout his negotiations with the European Union, David Cameron was fatally undermined by his own lack of resolve. He was never going to recommend an ‘out’ vote in his referendum, as the other leaders knew. He promised a referendum three years ago, not from any great sense of conviction, but as a ploy to stop
The Spectator Podcast: Eurosceptic chaos, Trump’s campaign and the inaugural What’s That Thing? Award
[audioplayer src=”http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/fightingovercrumbs-euroscepticsandtheeudeal/media.mp3″ title=”Fighting over crumbs: Eurosceptics and the EU deal” fullwidth=”yes”] Listen [/audioplayer]In this week’s issue, political editor James Forsyth asks whether David Cameron has somehow managed to dish the Eurosceptics for good. In the wake of the publication of the draft EU deal this week, James suggests the current climate ought to have whipped
What to do with Syria?
From ‘The future of Syria’, The Spectator, 5 February 1916: We say with all the emphasis at our command, and without the slightest fear of contradiction, official or otherwise, not only that we do not want Syria for ourselves, but that nothing would induce us to take it. Englishmen of all parties; or political schools of
Tuesday
David Cameron’s draft EU Deal: full text
The following document has been released by the European Commission: The Heads of State or Government of the 28 EU Member States meeting within the European Council, whose Governments are signatories of the Treaties on which the EU is founded, DESIRING to settle, in conformity with the Treaties, certain issues raised by the United Kingdom in its letter of
Thursday
School 8
‘He’s nine, but teacher says he has a radicalised age of 13!’
Wireless
Wireless birds
Pub 6
‘Winning the National Lottery wouldn’t change me — I don’t check my tickets.’
Runners
‘Are you taking performance-reducing drugs?’
Betting 2
‘The bloody women tennis players are demanding equal bribes to the men.’
Airfix
Relate 7
‘He’s lost all interest in sticks.’
Alice 7
Alice in Cineworld
Mausoleum
‘My ancestors — the box set!’
Letters | 28 January 2016
Levelling the cricket pitch Sir: As a cricket addict and believer in state education, it pains me to agree with Michael Henderson’s assertion that the future of England’s Test side rests in the hands of private schools (‘Elite sport’, 23 January). The high-performing, 1,700-strong school where I am the head teacher has a grass area for
Barometer | 28 January 2016
So near and yet so far Henry Worsley died in a Chilean hospital of peritonitis after being airlifted from Antartica, 30 miles short of what would have been the first solo unaided crossing of the continent. How does this compare with Britain’s other heroic failures? — Scott and his two surviving companions died 11 miles short