2484: Troubled – solution
The unclued lights are characters in Much Ado about Nothing. First prize Keith Norcott, Cheltenham, GlosRunners-up Mrs E. Knights, Wisbech, Cambs; P.D.H. Riddell, London SE23
The Spectator
Thursday
Thursday
The government is sending the high street to an early grave
Does it matter that Debenhams and the Arcadia group have gone under this week, taking 25,000 jobs with them and leaving large gaps in the high street? In normal times we would be minded to say no. The failure of businesses — large ones, included — is part of a healthy market economy. It is
Portrait of the week: Tiers, Scotch eggs and a devastated high street
Home The Commons voted by 291 votes to 78 for new coronavirus regulations putting 55 million people in England into the restrictive Tier 3 or the little less restrictive Tier 2, apart from the 700,000 or so folk of Cornwall, the Isle of Wight and the Scilly Isles. There were 55 Tory rebels, whom the
Letters: Labour’s left vs left struggle
Left vs left Sir: Your leading article (‘Comfort spending’, 28 November) makes the classic mistake about modern politics which prevents so many from grasping what is going on. You refer to Sir Keir Starmer as the leader of a battle against Labour’s left by its ‘centre’. Since Neil Kinnock’s pantomime battle with Militant in 1985,
What are the best pandemic board games?
Dangerous games Sage scientists advised against playing board games at Christmas. Some games to consider if you are feeling subversive:Pandemic Co-operative board game inspired by 2003 Sars outbreak in which players pool their talents to defeat a deadly disease. Was stocked by the unlikely gift shop at the US Centers for Disease Control.Corona Battle Against
2483: In my soup – solution
Unclued lights are anagrams of animals: PRAENOMINA (1A: Pomeranian), MARTIAN (18: tamarin), LARBOARD (21: Labrador), SHORE (28: horse), PROTEIN (42: pointer), MACLE (6: camel), MENTALISM (24: Simmental), LATER (25: ratel), CREMATE (31: meercat) and MAGYAR (34: margay). The title suggests the song ‘Animal Crackers in My Soup’. First prize A.R. Wightman, Harpenden, HertsRunners-up Roderick Rhodes,
Tuesday
Full list: the Tory tier rebels
This evening, the House of Commons voted to enact the new tiered system, which will come into force when the national lockdown ends this week. Boris Johnson did not emerge unscathed though, with 78 MPs voting against his proposals, including 55 MPs from his own party. Labour leader Keir Starmer instructed his MPs to abstain
Thursday
The Conservatives are losing the fiscal high ground
Every country was blindsided by the pandemic; few governments responded to it by borrowing as much as Britain. The figures that Rishi Sunak laid out in his spending review this week boggle the mind. He has been Chancellor barely ten months, yet has already borrowed more than Gordon Brown did in ten years. The upshot
Portrait of the week: Christmas is on, Trump is off and Piglet stars on a 50p piece
Home The AstraZeneca vaccine developed by the University of Oxford was found to be 70 per cent effective — 90 per cent among those given a half-sized first dose and a full-sized second dose. It does not require supercooling. The United Kingdom had ordered 100 million doses. At the beginning of the week, Sunday 22
Letters: Solidarity is the best thing for Scotland
SNP sophistry Sir: Andrew Wilson (‘Scot free’, 21 November) poses the question: ‘What if the case for independence was a highly sophisticated position?’ If only. For the SNP position is one of sophistry rather than sophistication. Wilson states that Scottish voters want Scotland to return to Europe. He also states that an independent Scotland would
Which countries are most sceptical about vaccines?
Gloss over Should we be worried that the head of research into respiratory drugs at AstraZeneca is called Dr Pangalos, given that his near namesake, Dr Pangloss, is a byword for foolish optimism? Dr Pangloss was tutor to Candide in Voltaire’s satire on Gottfried Leibniz’s work on theodicy: the attempt to reconcile why a benevolent
2482: Perm all five – solution
The unclued lights each contain all five vowels once only, but in different orders. First prize Dr Stephen Clarkson, Hadleigh, Suffolk Runners-up Roslyn Shapland, Ilkeston, Derbyshire; P. and D. Keating, Beeford, Yorkshire
Thursday
Portrait of the week: Cummings goes, Corbyn returns and pigeon sells for £1.4m
Home Dominic Cummings, the chief adviser to the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, left Downing Street after a week in which the public learnt that Lee Cain was the director of communications at No. 10, and that he had resigned after his appointment as chief of staff was withdrawn. The imbroglio directed focus on the performance
What does it mean to be ‘fit as a butcher’s dog’?
Boris and the butcher’s dog Who first coined the phrase ‘as fit as a butcher’s dog’? It has been traced to Lancashire. It is not the only quality attached to butcher’s dogs, however — such animals were perhaps widely observed as a result of customers having to entertain themselves somehow while the butcher prepared their
Letters: The limitations of a Covid vaccine
Still distant Sir: In James Forsyth’s analysis (‘Boris’s booster shot’, 14 November) he infers that a vaccine, if provided to the majority of the UK population, would deliver herd immunity from Covid-19, noting that ‘it seems increasingly probable that by the second half of next year, we will be emerging from this Covid nightmare’. I
Denial is not a strategy, Prime Minister
The psychodrama in No. 10 is badly timed. The government has used emergency powers to ban meetings, church services and even family visits. A million jobs have gone since the first lockdown, with at least a million more to follow when the furlough money runs out. Children’s education was so badly set back by school
2481: Octet solution
The octet associated with CHERRY STONES (19) is: tinker (1A), tailor (40), soldier (20), sailor (15), rich man (6A), poor man (23), beggar man (1D), thief (32). First prize Anthony Briggs, Brinkworth, WiltsRunners-up Donald Bain, Edinburgh; G.R. Greig, Victoria BC, Canada
Thursday
Portrait of the week: Vaccine hopes up, Zoom shares down and Biden calls Boris
Home Pfizer and BioNTech announced a vaccine against Covid-19 of 90 per cent efficacy from two injections three weeks apart. It was not known if it prevented transmission of the virus. The vaccine has to be stored at an ultra-low temperature of minus 80˚C. In July, the British government had bought 40 million doses, enough
Open and shut case: how did lockdown affect shops?
Shot in the arm Global stock markets reached a new high after pharmaceutical firm Pfizer announced a vaccine it is developing has been found to be 90 per cent effective. What have been the best- and worst-performing FTSE 100 shares over the past 12 months? BEST Scot. Mortgage Investment Trust | +109% Ocado | +94%
Letters: Why lockdown II was necessary
Cancelled procedures Sir: Your leader (‘A lockdown too far’, 7 November) suggests that the Prime Minister should have shown ‘leadership’ and ignored Sage’s call for a second national lockdown. Sam Carlisle (‘No respite’, 7 November) illustrates why this would have been a mistake. Sam reminds us that ‘half of community paediatricians were deployed to acute