2626: In a twinkling – solution
The unclued lights are some of the brightest Northern Hemisphere stars. First prize Peter Taylor-Mansfield, Worcester Runners-up Jo Anson, Birmingham; Caroline Arms, Ithaca, NY, USA
The Spectator
Wednesday
Portrait of the week: Boris resigns, Trump is arrested and Ukraine’s counter-offensive begins
Home Boris Johnson (having had sight of the report by the Commons Privileges Committee on his conduct concerning Covid regulations) called it a ‘kangaroo court’ and left parliament immediately; to be disqualified as an MP he was appointed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer as Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds of Stoke, Desborough
Letters: Rod is wrong about J.K. Rowling
The sound of silence Sir: Charles Moore is right to draw attention to the deafening silence in the press about the present state of South Africa (Notes, 10 June). Not only has the country descended into frightening levels of violence, but the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2021 placed it last of all countries
How many members of the House of Lords are there?
No platformed What effect have strikes had on rail travel? – In the first quarter of this year, some 389m journeys were made on the rail network, up on 2022 but only 88% of the number of journeys made in the same period in 2019, before the pandemic – Ticket revenue was £2.2bn, 70% of
Wednesday
Don’t stifle AI
In his meeting with Joe Biden this week, Rishi Sunak proposed a research centre and regulatory body for artificial intelligence in Britain. This raises a dilemma for governments worldwide: how can humans reap the benefits of AI without creating an uncontrollable, possibly existential threat? The technological leaps in recent months have captured the public imagination,
Portrait of the week: Prince Harry heads to court, Waitrose says sorry and Rishi goes to Washington
Home The government was acquiring two barges to house 1,000 migrants in addition to one at Portland for 500. Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, said that small-boat crossings of the Channel were down 20 per cent, and ‘our plan is starting to work’. A group of asylum-seekers, transferred to a Comfort Inn in Pimlico and
2605: Way to go! – solution
The unclued lights can all be followed by STREET. First prize Ken Rae, Nordstrand, Wadbister, Shetland Runners-up Colin Boyce, Heathfield, East Sussex; Margaret Lusk, Fulwood, Lancs
Who sat on the first TV sofa?
Sofa so good Phillip Schofield has said that his career on the TV sofa is over. Who first sat on one? – BBC Breakfast, first broadcast on 17 January 1983, famously featured a red leather sofa which presenter Frank Bough told his audience was the ideal way to present a news programme. But the history
Letters: we don’t need a Covid inquiry
Toothless inquiries Sir: You rightly say that inquiries in Britain have become a form of cover-up (‘The politics of panic’, June 3). This is clear as we contemplate the delay in reporting on the Grenfell Tower fire of 2017, the £200 million spent on the Bloody Sunday report published 38 years after the event, the seven-year
Wednesday
Portrait of the week: Rishi Sunak defends Kathleen Stock, food prices rise and AI extinction warning
Home Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, supported a visit to the Oxford Union by Professor Kathleen Stock, who believes that there are such things as women: ‘University should be an environment where debate is supported, not stifled,’ he said. He said in a separate announcement that he would ban companies from giving out free samples of
Covid and the politics of panic
It is 15 months since Sweden’s Coronavirus Commission presented its final report. The 770-page document analysed how the country handled the pandemic and came up with numerous suggestions for how things might have been done better. The initial response, it concluded, was too slow, but the report vindicated the decision to make social distancing measures
2604: Snap – solution
The unclued lights are card games, as is the puzzle’s title, SNAP. The pair is 15A/29. First prize Mark Rowntree, Greenwich, London SE10 Runners-up Frances Whitehead, Harrogate, N. Yorks; Alan Pink, Crowhurst, E. Sussex
Who was the original Terf?
Terf wars Who was the original Terf (trans-exclusionary radical feminist)? – The practice of some women’s groups in excluding trans women began almost with the advent of trans women themselves. In 1978, the Lesbian Organisation of Toronto refused membership to a trans woman who identified as a lesbian – saying it would only accept ‘womyn
Letters: Jeremy Clarke was an example to us all
Goodbye, Jeremy Each week I opened The Spectator at Low Life in part to read that brilliant column and, more recently, to see how Jeremy Clarke was coping with his deteriorating health. Always hoping the column would be there; that he had, despite excruciating pain, penned us another. Like very many of his regular admiring
Wednesday
Portrait of the week: Rioting in Cardiff, rising migration and falling inflation
Home A crash in which a 15- and a 16-year-old boy riding on an electric bike were killed led to rioting, the burning of cars and attacks on police in the Ely estate in Cardiff; social media had said the deaths followed a police chase, which the police denied. But video evidence seemed to show
2603 – solution
2603 has the prime factors 19 x 137 which further decompose into (102 – 92) x (42 + 112). Therefore the rubric states: ‘puzzle NUMBER is BRACKET TEN SQUARED MINUS NINE SQUARED BRACKET TIMES BRACKET FOUR SQUARED PLUS ELEVEN SQUARED BRACKET’. First prize John Bennett, Havant, HantsRunners-up Julie Sanders, Bishops Waltham, Southampton; Richard Andrews, Ashford, Middlesex
How Rishi Sunak should react to the Ely riot
‘There’s a lot of societal issues in Ely,’ said an anonymous caller to BBC Radio Wales the morning after the recent riots in that Cardiff suburb. ‘Motorbikes going up and down constantly. Open drug-dealing going on in broad daylight, that the police are aware of, and nothing gets done about it. Children in Ely –
Do speeding fines work?
Fine lines Would Suella Braverman be more likely to stick to the speed limit had she chosen to go on a speed awareness course instead of being fined? A government-commissioned study in 2018 looked at the reoffending rate among 1.4 million drivers who had accepted the offer of a speed awareness course and compared it
Jeremy Clarke remembered: by Boris Johnson, Sophie Winkleman, Eric Idle and more
Boris Johnson When Jeffrey Bernard died in 1997, it seemed possible that we would never again have a regular Low Life columnist in The Spectator – or no one half as good. We needed someone who could match Taki for appalling frankness, for saying the unsayable; but not about the denizens of Gstaad or New
Letters: Britain’s net-zero ambition problem
Zero ambition Sir: How extraordinary that Ross Clark (‘Carbon fixation’, 20 May) can look at the cut-throat competition to capture the economic gains of the future and conclude that Britain’s problem is an excess of ambition. The USA stands alone as the only G7 nation not to have a net-zero target in law, but is