The Spectator

Monday

The Spectator

Economic Innovator of the Year Awards 2024 – the judges

From our UK edition

Guest judges Adrian de Ferranti Adrian de Ferranti is an engineer, venture capital investor, financier and farmer who has worked in Silicon Valley as well as in the UK. He was chairman of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, 2007-10. Caroline Theobald CBE Caroline Theobald CBE is the founder of Bridge Club Ltd which has been making connections that matter since the dot-com boom. She is also a founder of Teesside’s Power of Women campaign and past chair of Newcastle Business School at Northumbria University. Clive Bawden Clive Bawden is an accountant with wide industrial experience who was COO of Warwick Music, an early winner of an Economic Innovator award. He has been a trustee/director of several major cultural and sports bodies.

Friday

The Spectator

GOP blasts Kamala for ’too little, too late’ border visit

Kamala Harris is aiming to project strength on border security, but her critics aren’t buying it.For the first time in over three years, Harris is visiting the border, following an onslaught of ads from former president Donald Trump’s campaign that have savaged her record as America’s border czar. Her trip also comes after a bombshell report from Texas congressman Tony Gonzales about how tens of thousands of illegal immigrants with murder and sexual assault convictions are freely roaming America.

Thursday

The Spectator

2670: V – solution

From our UK edition

The unclued lights (paired at 1D/17) can all be preceded by FIVE and are verifiable in Brewer. First prize Julian Connors, Ashford, Kent Runners-up David Threasher, London W5; Susan Bell, Reeth, N.

The Spectator

Letters: The case for assisted dying

From our UK edition

Craic down Sir: If Ireland had been investing in infrastructure as Ross Clark writes (‘Bog down’, 21 September), Dublin would have a metro, Galway a ring road, and primary school parents wouldn’t be forced to pay for basic necessities. And when the only local hotel cancels wedding and birthday parties because government has block-booked it for migrants and refugees, no wonder people beyond the Dublin bubble are mutinous. Rural areas often lack broadband or even piped water (just ask Melissa Kite) and where the blue pipe does reach, ‘boil water’ orders are common. Corporation tax is 27 per cent of government revenue (per head of population, more than four times that in France or Germany) and 90 per cent of it is paid by foreign multinationals.

The Spectator

Where did ‘heckler’ come from?

From our UK edition

What the heckler No party conference would be complete without a heckler or two, but where did the term come from? A heckle was originally a tool for combing flax or hemp, and a heckler someone who worked with such a device. The term was first applied to politics in the 1820s when the notoriously militant hecklers of Dundee would disrupt political meetings. Their efforts did not, however, ultimately save their jobs when the process of heckling was mechanised. Home truths How many people work from home (WFH)? – Last year, 16% of the workforce reported WFH exclusively, while 28% said they were on hybrid working. – In spite of WFH’s association with Gen Z,  16- to 24-year-olds were least likely to be working from home.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Starmer’s sausages slip-up, Israel’s strikes on Lebanon and Amazon staff summoned back to office

From our UK edition

Home Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, in his speech to the Labour party conference in Liverpool, said that ‘if we take tough long-term decisions now’ Britain would much more quickly reach the ‘light at the end of this tunnel’. He was cheered when he promised to return the railways to public ownership and restore workplace rights to unions and workers. But he insisted that ‘if we want cheaper electricity, we need new pylons over ground otherwise the burden on taxpayers is too much’. He recovered from a fluff when, talking of Gaza, he called ‘for the return of the sausages – the hostages’. Sir Keir hoped to counteract recent difficulties.

The Spectator

Are the Tories in any state to choose a leader?

From our UK edition

Are the Conservatives in a fit state to choose a new leader? The party that gathers in Birmingham next week needs to face a difficult fact: no matter how bad things are, they may become a lot worse. The party has lost, but not learned. They preach liberty while preparing to vote for a smoking ban. They are wedded to a net-zero agenda that forces up the cost of living. The difficulty is that all four candidates for the leadership are deeply compromised by the biggest mistakes of the past few years. On the issue of lockdown – perhaps the most damaging policy ever inflicted on this country by its government – none of them can say they did what they could to mitigate its damage. They ducked for cover instead. The Red Wall is there for the taking.

The Spectator

Why the Tories lost – by the Tory leadership candidates

From our UK edition

As the four candidates prepare to make their pitch at the Conservative party conference in Birmingham, we quizzed them about their ideas and ambitions. Why did the Tories lose the general election? JAMES CLEVERLY: We lost the ear of the British public. They stopped listening to us. We over-promised and under--delivered on a load of issues so our election promises were met with real cynicism. People had literally closed their ears – and minds – to our arguments. Even if we had had the best policy platform in the world, people weren’t willing to give us the time of day. If we make fewer promises but make sure that we deliver on all of those promises, we will regain trust. But that means being disciplined.

Wednesday

The Spectator

GOP demands investigation into Zelensky visit

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky just stopped by an ammunition factory in Scranton, Pennsylvania — which CNN points out is President Joe Biden’s hometown.Now, a group of House Republicans is demanding answers about what taxpayer dollars and US resources were used in what they allege was essentially a campaign event for Democrats.The Hill reports that this past Sunday, Zelensky “was flown to Pennsylvania in an Air Force C-17 plane.” He was also protected by the US Secret Service.

Monday

The Spectator

Kamala punts on amnesty for ‘DREAMers’

Another day, another potential Kamala Harris flip-flop. The vice president is now quiet on whether she still supports providing a pathway to citizenship for 2 million “DREAMers” —  illegal immigrant children who were given temporary relief from deportation through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.In 2019, when running for the Democratic nomination for president, Harris supported four executive actions to grant amnesty to 2 million DACA recipients.Axios reports:  Harris proposed putting DREAMers on a path to a green card by, among other things, granting work authorizations, using certain parole powers and waiving rules barring people from returning to the US if they leave to apply for a green card in a US consulate abroad.

Friday

The Spectator

Kamala vows to shoot intruders in Oprah town hall

To hear the New York Times tell it, you’d think Vice President Kamala Harris had finally started answering questions about the Biden administration’s accomplishments and her own policy positions. The Times claims Kamala “hit core campaign themes,” “spoke off the cuff” and “confronted a range of pressing issues” in a two-hour sit-down interview with Oprah Winfrey.But did she really?When asked about how she would secure the southern border — one of voters’ top concerns — Kamala said:So it’s a wonderful and important question. I, you know, my background was as a prosecutor, and I was also the elected attorney general for two terms of the border state. So this is not a theoretical issue for me. This is something I’ve actually worked on.

Thursday

The Spectator

Letters: The mass appeal of cathedrals

From our UK edition

Mass appeal Sir: The upcoming ‘rave’ at Peterborough Cathedral follows the trajectory of using this sacred space as a mere entertainment venue (‘Raving mad’, 14 September). Previous secular attempts to commercialise include ‘experiences’ of the moon, dinosaurs, the deep sea and light shows. I assume the rave organisers did not witness the cathedral in June when a Saturday evening vigil mass was celebrated by the Catholic Bishop of East Anglia for local Catholics. When used for its original and sacred purpose, Peterborough Cathedral was filled with Catholics participating in the divine liturgy. Many were standing for want of seats, like some of our churches on Sundays.

The Spectator

How much do we spend on workwear?

From our UK edition

The first nimby Who coined the term ‘nimby’?  — The expression, from ‘Not In My Backyard’, entered the political sphere in Britain in 1989 when it was used by the then environment secretary Nicholas Ridley to describe people who were in favour of house-building in general, just not near where they lived. He was later ridiculed when it emerged that he had objected to a development next door to his own Gloucestershire home.  — But the term originated around a decade earlier in the United States, when it was applied to people who were opposed to the dumping of nuclear waste near their homes.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Keir Starmer’s free clothes, Huw Edwards sentenced and Tupperware faces bankruptcy

From our UK edition

Home Sir Keir Starmer met Giorgia Meloni, the Prime Minister of Italy, in Rome and said that sending funds to Tunisia and Libya ‘appears to have had quite a profound effect’ in cutting the number of migrants arriving in Italy. In the seven days to 16 September, 1,158 migrants arrived in England in small boats; eight drowned off France. Sir Keir made a late declaration of gifts from Lord Alli, a Labour donor, including clothes for Lady Starmer. David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, defended the practice, saying that prime ministers ‘do rely on donations, political donations, so they can look their best’. Sir Keir’s hair was observed to be greyer than before.

The Spectator

Labour vs labour: how can the government claim to be promoting growth?

From our UK edition

Growth, growth, growth: that was what Keir Starmer told us would be his government’s priority in his first press conference as Prime Minister. Nearly three months on, as the Labour party heads into its first conference in power for 15 years, it is becoming ever harder to reconcile Starmer’s promise with the policies that his government seems determined to deliver. With junior doctors voting to accept a 22 per cent pay rise, yet another group of public sector workers has been lavished with financial reward without any obligation to accept or implement more productive working practices. The NHS is in the midst of a pay bonanza at a time when productivity in the health service has been declining. Since the pandemic, ever more employees are delivering significantly fewer treatments.

Wednesday

The Spectator

How Kamala responded to the Trump attempted assassination

Two months after former president Donald Trump went into the lion’s den to be interviewed at the National Association of Black Journalists, Vice President Kamala Harris made her own appearance at an NABJ event. With her sit-down coming just days after a second attempted assassination against Trump, Harris was asked if she has full confidence in the US Secret Service to protect her.She responded by flipping the question to accuse Trump, the victim of the attempted assassination, of fomenting hate and violence toward other groups of people and thus making them unsafe.“You can go back to Ohio,” Harris said. “Not everybody has Secret Service. And there are far too many people in this country who are not feeling safe.”“Yes, I feel safe.

Monday

The Spectator

Trump survives second assassination attempt

Former president Donald Trump survived a second assassination attempt on Sunday, this one at his golf course in Palm Beach, Florida. Trump reportedly decided yesterday morning to play a round of golf at the Trump International Golf Club and, as the president arriving on the fifth hole, Secret Service officers noticed a gun muzzle sticking out through a chain-link fence between 300 and 500 yards away. Secret Service exchanged fire with the suspect, who fled in a black Nissan and was later captured and charged. He left behind a scoped AK-47 and a GoPro camera.

Friday

The Spectator

Congress split on spending bill

The other debate As much of the media is consumed with reactions to the presidential debate — who won? what does the polling say now? will there be a second debate? a third? what does Taylor Swift’s post-debate endorsement of Kamala Harris mean? — there is another debate that’s embroiling the House as a partial government shutdown breathes down its neck.The long and the short of it is this: the federal government’s new budget year begins on October 1, and to avoid a partial government shutdown (“non-essential” workers would be put on leave), Congress must figure out a way to continue funding operations before then.

Thursday

The Spectator

Letters from Spectator readers, October 2024

The Californication of the Democratic Party At the risk of taking a Marxian perspective, California has become exactly what could have been predicted in 1993, with the loss of its manufacturing base to the 1990s defense cuts and much of its agricultural base to environmental regulation and foreign competition under the WTO. The state’s economy is now based on some of the most unequal industries on the planet: software, entertainment and hospitality. Plus, in the case of entertainment, an industry that has always tolerated and quietly celebrated what may politely be called decadence, or less politely, degeneracy. Just look at who has all the discretionary money and how they got it, and almost everything else follows. — M.

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