The Spectator

Letters: The horse that brings hope for the future

Conservative approaches Sir: Matthew Parris (‘My idea of a true Conservative’, 17 June) makes a reasonable case for small c conservatism, but he’s wrong about Brexit and he’s wrong about Trussonomics being clearly unconservative.  ‘Brexit come what may’ was the natural small-c reaction to the creation and evolution of an undemocratic EU superstate which (and

Britain must not import America’s abortion culture war

British politicians tend to avoid the issue of abortion. The subject divides America bitterly, yet Britain has opted for consensus. Now and again, however, a debate about abortion flares up – as it did this week after a number of pressure groups reacted with anger to the jailing of a mother of three who induced

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

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,

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

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

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