Castello Banfi zoom tasting.
From our UK edition
The Spectator
Thursday
Vondeling zoom tasting
From our UK edition
Who cut more coal: Thatcher or Wilson?
From our UK edition
Woolly thinking There were protests in Whitehall to save Geronimo, an alpaca due to be put down after testing positive for tuberculosis. How many alpacas are there in Britain? — The British Alpaca Society claims to have 1,500 members who between them own 45,000 alpacas. — The society’s annual show can attract as many as
Letters: Why aren’t Italians fighting for their liberty?
From our UK edition
Wage concern Sir: Martin Vander Weyer’s call for higher wages to end the shortage of British HGV drivers (‘Your country needs you at the wheel of a lorry’, 7 August) should be extended to other hard-pressed economic areas which have lost cheap labour from the poorer EU countries. For far too long, farming, hospitality, construction,
Portrait of the week: Cameron’s cash, A-grades abound and Tower Bridge won’t budge
From our UK edition
Home With less frightening domestic data on the coronavirus pandemic to ponder, subjects such as the rivalry between Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, and Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, found time for discussion. The seven-day average of coronavirus cases detected by tests remained below 30,000. In the seven days up to the beginning
Working from home is a decision for businesses, not government
From our UK edition
After seizing so much power during the pandemic, Boris Johnson’s government is having trouble working out where its remit now ends. The division used to be fairly simple: the state provided public services but left people and companies free to organise their own affairs. Ministers now talk as if they are in charge of everything
2516: Such childish vocabulary – solution
From our UK edition
The unclued lights are the nouns from the opening sentence of The Tailor of Gloucester by Beatrix Potter. TAFFETA was extracted from (T)ISSUE, TULIP(A), (F)AILS, (F)REEST, EQUIP(E)S and NO(TA)TION. First prize Robert Stephens, Bearsted, Kent Runners-up R. Dickinson, Lewes, East Sussex; Alan Norman, Impington, Cambridge
Thursday
Which industries have the most workers still furloughed?
From our UK edition
Happy valet Police Scotland dropped what they said was a randomly generated codeword — ‘Bunter’ — for the security operation when Boris Johnson visited Scotland. While the name invited comparisons between the PM and Billy Bunter, the overweight public schoolboy in the Greyfriars stories, there is another Bunter in fiction. Mervyn Bunter was the immaculate
Letters: The problem with the ‘alpha migrants’
From our UK edition
Here illegally Sir: Unfortunately, Charlotte Eagar misses the point (‘The alpha migrants’, 31 July). The Channel migrants may be ‘bright and brave’, and may repay what they gain from the benefit system. But they are here illegally, thus riding roughshod over the immigration system and those who are still waiting to have their asylum applications
Portrait of the week: Vouchers for vaccines, cases rise in China and a Christmas baby for Boris and Carrie
From our UK edition
Home After the number of people ‘pinged’ (alerted by an NHS Covid-19 app) neared 700,000, the app was adjusted so that it hunted for contacts of a person testing positive for Covid only from the two previous days, not five. When no more than 68 per cent of 18- to 29-year-olds in England had yet
Why is the mild West afraid to promote its democratic values?
From our UK edition
An athlete seeking sanctuary in a foreign embassy after a state–sponsored attempt to spirit her home from the Olympics; a dissident found hanging from a tree in a foreign country that he’d been helping his compatriots escape to; a passenger jet diverted so one of its passengers could be arrested. The fate of critics of
2515: Paragon – solution
From our UK edition
The name was Margaret, whose various versions are suggested by THE SPECTATOR (1: Mag), BARN OWL (10/36: Madge), LEAD HAMMER (14/34: Madge), MAGPIE (19A: Madge or Maggie), CRICKET STUMP (48: Peg), HALFPENNY (2: Mag or Meg), TURTLE HARPOON (9: Peg), PIN (16: Peg) and TEASE (Mag). MARGARET (22/23) was to be shaded. Title: cf. pearl,
Thursday
Letters: In defence of organic food
From our UK edition
A note about manure Sir: I am afraid Matt Ridley shows a lack of understanding about agriculture in general and organic production in particular in his argument against organic food (‘Dishing the dirt’, 24 July). Livestock production has involved the use of animal faeces — or farmyard manure as it is called when mixed with
2514: Welcome Back – Solution
From our UK edition
Unclued lights were stories in The Return of Sherlock Holmes. (The Adventures of the: EMPTY (41) HOUSE (2), DANCING MEN (12), PRIORY (31) SCHOOL (1A), ABBEY (9) GRANGE (45), SECOND (1D) STAIN (42), and of BLACK (26) PETER (5). First prize Jonathan Dollin, Droitwich, Worcs Runners-up Ben Stephenson, London SW12; Mrs L. Miller, Vale, Guernsey
The dangers of post-Covid isolationism
From our UK edition
There is something bizarre about a sporting event designed to bring people and nations together but from which spectators have been excluded. Most foreigners are currently forbidden from setting foot inside Japan, let alone inside the Olympic stadium. In many senses, Tokyo 2020 — which like the Uefa Euros retains its original name, despite a
Is rain getting heavier?
From our UK edition
Reinventing the wheels Skateboarding made its debut at the Olympics. Who invented the skateboard? — There are many reports of homemade skateboards being created in the 1940s and 1950s by Californian surfers who wanted to continue a form of their sport out of season, but the first commercial skateboard was marketed by roller-skate company Roller
Portrait of the week: Channel crossings, chain-gangs for criminals and Tesco Bank shuts up shop
From our UK edition
Home The daily number of coronavirus cases detected by tests fell from 54,674 on 17 July to 23,511 by 27 July. About 92 per cent of adults in England and Wales had coronavirus antibodies at the beginning of July, according to an estimate by the Office for National Statistics. In the seven days up to
Monday
Out now: the August edition of The Spectator World
Featuring Andrew Cockburn, Daniel McCarthy, Mary Eberstadt, Peter Wood, Sohrab Ahmari and more
Thursday
Letters: The clock is ticking in Afghanistan
From our UK edition
Out of Afghanistan Sir: Boyd Tonkin’s review of Anna Aslanyan’s Dancing on Ropes highlights the post-war abandonment of local Afghan and Iraqi interpreters by the US and UK (Books, 17 July). The UK’s response, up until last summer, deserved every bit of Tonkin’s strictures but the past year has seen a ‘strategic shift’. Ben Wallace
Portrait of the week: Covid in cabinet, pingdemic pandemonium and Ben & Jerry’s boycott
From our UK edition
Home On the eve of the day that most coronavirus restrictions were to be lifted, the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer had to react to having been in close contact with Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, who, despite being doubly vaccinated, had contracted Covid. At first Boris Johnson said that under a pilot