2666: All Secure – solution
Unclued lights are knots. First prize David Sparks, Basingstoke, Hampshire Runners-up Lynn Foreman, Sholing, Southampton ; Dennis Cotterell, Carlisle
The Spectator
Thursday
Portrait of the week: Sir Keir’s tax warning, Russian air attacks and another prisons crisis
Home Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, speaking in the garden of 10 Downing Street, warned that the Budget in October is ‘going to be painful’, and that ‘things will get worse before they get better’. ‘I didn’t want to means-test the winter fuel payment, but it was a choice we had to make,’ he
How hot is too hot to work?
Gold standard The Paralympics were instigated in 1948 and first held alongside the Olympics in Rome in 1960. But disabled athletes were competing in the Olympics long before that – notably George Eyser, a German who settled in St Louis, USA. That he had lost a leg after being run over by a train and
Thursday
Letters: we have let down white, working-class boys
The lost boys Sir: The only statement in your powerful leading article (‘Boy trouble’, 17 August) which can be challenged is that ‘the plight of poor white boys is a new burning injustice’. It is certainly not ‘new’. Even 40 years ago when the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) produced policies designed to counter inequality
Which European countries are most affected by forest fires?
Grand tours When was there last a genuine British royal tour of Colombia? While the late Queen never visited the country, the then Prince Charles and Duchess of Cornwall spent several days there in October and November 2014. They visited the Peace and Reconciliation Centre in Bogota, and Charles attended a conference on the ‘Health
2665: Killer instinct – solution
As suggested by 23A’s quotation revealed at 34D/28A/19A, the perimeter contains six different sharks. First prize Janet Burke, Peterborough, Cambs Runners-up Roy Robinson, Sheffield; Neil Brenchley, Hogbens Hill, Selling, Kent
Labour’s union problem
Less than two months in, one aspect of Keir Starmer’s government is becoming clear. This administration is closer to the trade unions than any we have had in the past 45 years. It is not just that the government has ceded readily to wage demands from teachers (a 5.5 per cent rise this year), junior
Portrait of the week: prisoners are freed, Ted Baker closes and train drivers announce strikes
Home Emergency measures, known as Operation Early Dawn, were brought in to ease prison overcrowding. Defendants would be summoned to a magistrates’ court only when a space in prison was ready for them, the government said, and would be kept in police holding cells or released on bail while they awaited trial. The measures at
Thursday
Letters: Britain doesn’t have a ‘two-tier’ policing problem
Less is more Sir: While I wholeheartedly agree with Toby Young’s observation that ‘more censorship would make things worse, not better’ (No sacred cows, 10 August), I’m confused by his remedy – ‘more and better speech’. First, how does one decide what better even means, without it becoming a form of censorship? Second, and perhaps
How do Britons get their news?
SS-GB The car company Jaguar said it won’t make any new cars for a year as it re-invents itself as an electric-only car company. For a long time the automatic choice of stockbrokers in the ‘gin and Jag belt’, the company had beginnings that were less luxurious. It was founded in 1922 as the Swallow
2664: First name terms – solution
The unclued lights can be sorted into four trios of forenames in a reducing anagram chain: MONICA, NAOMI, MONA (4,31): DECLAN, LANCE, NEAL (12,24,36): SINEAD, DIANE, ENID (33,15,34) and ALISON, SONIA, SIAN (42,13). First prize E.C. Jones, Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire Runners-up Charles Barr, Norwich; Mike Brand, Edinburgh
Portrait of the week: riot justice, Olympic success and Ukraine’s Russian advance
Home Riots subsided after 7 August, a night when many were expected but only empty streets or demonstrations against riots eventuated. By 12 August there had been 975 arrests and 546 charges in 36 of the 43 police force areas in England and Wales. Rioters could be released from jail after serving 40 per cent
What today’s A-level results reveal about boys
In her first speech as Chancellor, Rachel Reeves made much of being the first woman to hold that position. ‘To every young woman and girl,’ she said, ‘let today show that there should be no ceilings on your ambitions.’ Britain has already had three female prime ministers, two female foreign secretaries and six female home
Wednesday
Ghost train
For G.D.M. To walk around Dreamland and not take the rides: not much of a plan but the man’s face changed all that, took me back to a candy floss summer when I learnt to spin sugar from a boy who looked the same as this guy who stood by the sign ready to start
Thursday
Who is your favourite character in children’s literature?
Rod Liddle Rabbits, always rabbits. I remember at age 13 forcing my poor parents to trudge despondently across hilly downland on the borders between Berkshire and Hampshire, with me jubilantly pointing out stuff like: ‘Look, it’s the combe where Bigwig met the fox!’ and ‘I think this could be the Efrafa warren!’ For a while,
The inherent unfairness of the Olympics
The Olympics can hardly fail to be the greatest show on Earth. For the last two weeks, the world has been transfixed by sports which attract little interest at any other time. From beach volleyball to BMX bike racing to obscure forms of wrestling – all, briefly, seem to be vitally important, such is the
Portrait of the week: riots and Russia’s prisoner swap
Home A week of riots, with violence against the police, threats to Muslims, burning of vehicles and looting (Greggs, Shoezone, Sainsbury’s Local) broke out in Liverpool, Sunderland, London, Hartlepool, Manchester, Hull, Aldershot, Stoke-on-Trent, Bristol, Bolton, Tamworth, Portsmouth, Weymouth, Leeds, Rotherham, Middlesbrough, Nottingham, Blackpool, Plymouth and Belfast. The Northern Ireland Assembly was recalled. Rioters attacked hotels
2663: CTRL+SHIFT+S – solution
The five unclued pairs were of the form ‘[as] X as Y’, 8/2 SAFE/HOUSES, 22/14 KEEN/MUSTARD, 35/20 BROAD/LONG, 41/33 NEAR/DAMMIT and 26/23 HARD/NAILS. First prize Sharon Harris, Hadlow, Tonbridge, Kent Runners-up Paul Davies, Reading, Berkshire; Amanda Gay, London NW11
How long have we spent failing to upgrade the A303 past Stonehenge?
Deal or no deal Have public sector workers had a worse deal in recent years than private sector ones? – Between 2007 and last year mean public sector pay declined by 0.9% in real terms, while mean private sector pay rose by 4%. However, for most of that time public sector workers were ahead of
Wednesday
well met last night
Two tables pushed together, the beer coming in timely and convivial rounds. A song, a chorus joined and hilarious failures at games we played. And then you plucked from the air an offence in a foreign theatre of war and I caught in your group-beguiling tone, the note of the Commissar prepared to burn a