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It’s been almost a full decade since Britain voted to leave the European Union. Inside Labour, whatever words are muttered about accepting the referendum’s result, the consensus remains that Brexit was a mistake. Ministers compete to see who can flirt most openly with re-entry, despite their party manifesto pledges not to rejoin the single market
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Black in the day A new book claims William Shakespeare’s works were really written by a black woman and were stolen by a semi-literate chancer from Stratford-upon-Avon. Other historic figures who have been claimed to be black: — Queen Charlotte, wife of George III. Was born Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz in 1744, and was thoroughly German, unless
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Class war Sir: Your leading article, ‘More in common’ (24 January), laments the ‘civil war’ between Reform and the Conservatives. But this division goes much deeper. Reform’s core support is the patriotic white working class in the so-called Red Wall seats – the people (often male) who supported Brexit and flocked to Boris Johnson in
You go here and go there, but also stand still, return to the same spots: the bench on the hill in Victoria Park, above the plane trees that veil through winter branches the city’s spill, platform seven, same-time Tuesdays, Temple Meads gloomy and Cardiff central gleeful in sun, a table in the café waits, routinely
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Home President Donald Trump of the United States made Britain and other countries dance to his tune. Sir Keir Starmer, telephoning him about Greenland, said: ‘Applying tariffs on allies for pursuing the collective security of Nato allies is wrong.’ Mr Trump had said he would impose tariffs on Britain, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands,
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In the summer of 1643, as the dispute between Charles I and parliament raged on, Sir William Waller wrote to his friend Ralph Hopton to lament with ‘what a perfect hatred’ he detested ‘this war without an enemy’. The hardening of hearts between the Conservatives and Reform UK resembles a similarly self-defeating civil war –
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Political frenemies Nigel Farage accepted Robert Jenrick into Reform UK in spite of having previously called him a ‘fraud’ (for boasting about securing hotels for migrants when in government and then campaigning against them in opposition). Some more political make-ups: — David Cameron called Nick Clegg his ‘favourite joke’ before forming a coalition with him
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To CREATE an EQUATION from the PUZZLE NUMBER, INTRODUCE an EQUALS SIGN and RAISE a SINGLE DIGIT. By following this instruction, 2733 becomes 27=33. First prize Jo Anson, Birmingham Runners-up Ian Skillen, Cambuslang, Glasgow; Hugh Schofield, Bois-le-roi, France
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How to kill reading Sir: I am appalled by the response to Andrew Watts’s concerns about the teaching of reading at his son’s school. His article reveals a system almost guaranteed to discourage reading and an alarming turning away by a school from its responsibility to parents who have entrusted it with their children (‘Schoolboy
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Watch here as The Spectator turn Blue Monday on its head and deliver an optimist’s guide to 2026. Post-holiday depression, failed new year’s resolutions and battered bank balances: January’s Blue Monday has long been branded as the most miserable day of the year. Headlines warn of ongoing war, political turmoil and economic gloom – but
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Are Jews safe in Britain? To even have to ask the question is extraordinary. But a recent survey has found that half of British Jews feel they do not have a long-term future in the UK and 61 per cent have considered leaving. Those figures are shocking, but not surprising. Since 7 October 2023, anti-Semitism
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The unclued lights comprise the seven themes (here in upper case) and six theme-words beginning with A to F. ARTISTS: Andy Warhol, Banksy, Canaletto, Dali, El Greco, Fragonard BATTLES: Anzio, Boyne, Cannae, Dunbar, El Alamein, Flodden CAPITALS: Athens, Berlin, Caracas, Doha, Edinburgh, Freetown DOGS: Airedale, Beagle, Corgi, Dachshund, Elkhound, Fido EQUINES: Arkle, Bidet, Clydesdale, Desert/Orchid,
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Home The government dropped plans to make digital ID compulsory to work in Britain. Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, called it ‘disgraceful’ that Grok, the online tool on Elon Musk’s X, could undress pictures of people. X limited the function to subscribers, but Liz Kendall, the Technology Secretary, said that the government would back
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Net freedoms The government was pressed to ban X over charges that Elon Musk’s AI app Grok is being used to ‘undress’ women and children. Kemi Badenoch said the Tories would copy Australia in banning under-16s from social media. What are the most extreme countries for regulating the internet and social media – using a
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No EU turn Sir: Before Dr Brian Mathew’s letter on ‘How to restore prosperity’ appeared (10 January), the FT printed an article making it clear that Britain’s powerful financial services industry would not be included in the government’s much-vaunted ‘reset’ with the EU. It quoted figures from the City saying that this was ‘the last
World’s stock of afternoons is running short And summer’s light is turning golden brown – It’s time to summon up our winter thoughts Since poetry will always be our sport And images, once mothered, won’t disown Our afternoons, though old, though running short, For in mind’s shadows metaphors hold court And new dreams swarm. We
It’s too late now to say you are not old, the years gang up on you, they settle down like locusts falling on a field of grain, the rustling noise you hear, that is their sound. How to be old: I’ll help you on the way. Stand straight. Be calm. Pretend you are a tree
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The house lights dim again: Willy Loman, Vanya, Lear talk to the dark before their eyes – while you glance sideways at your neighbours, who’ve brought their lovers, husbands, wives to sit beside them (or to occupy their minds). What do they want to see? The play goes on, into its last deciding act. A
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Donald Trump’s rendition of Nicolas Maduro was a brilliantly executed coup. It was also an exhibition of America’s hard power, power that has underpinned the rules-based international order that protected America’s allies for decades. Now those allies fear that the rules-based order is as much a smoking ruin as Maduro’s Caracas compound. European hysteria is,
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Home Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, said Britain was not involved ‘in any way’ in the US strikes on Venezuela. But he tweeted: ‘We regarded Maduro as an illegitimate president and we shed no tears about the end of his regime.’ Earlier that day, Dame Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, had said: ‘Nobody