2497: Scramble – solution
From our UK edition
Six of the unclued lights are RAF stations of WW2.
The Spectator
Thursday
Wednesday
The false narrative of BAME vs white
From our UK edition
Almost 20 years ago, Michael Howard spoke about the ‘British dream’: that immigrant families like his could come to this country and find every door open for their children. The same was true for Priti Patel’s parents, both refugees from Idi Amin’s Uganda. Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, has spoken movingly about his father, who was a refugee from the Nazis. Our islands are and have always been a beacon of light for those fleeing darkness, or simply seeking a better life for their families. Over the years, our country’s reputation has drawn millions of people who have settled here in search of the British dream. They have faced headwinds of racism and bigotry, as migrants and their families invariably do.
Thursday
Letters: Keir Starmer has failed the country
From our UK edition
The word of God Sir: Douglas Murray complains that the C of E has embraced the ‘new religion’ of anti-racism (‘The C of E’s new religion’, 20 March). But the truth, which neither he nor the church seems to have realised, is that the ‘anti-racist’ agenda is a secular attempt to plug a long-standing gap in western Christianity. The answer is to recover the full message, not to bolt on new ideologies. The earliest Christian writings insist that in the Messiah ‘there is neither Jew nor Greek’. The book of Revelation envisages Jesus’s followers as an uncountable family from every nation, tribe, people and language.
Britain must help Europe fight a third wave
From our UK edition
During the referendum campaign five years ago, the pro-Brexit side argued that by freeing ourselves from the EU’s native protectionism and over-application of the precautionary principle, Britain could revitalise its economy and democracy. The EU wanted to seize more power, they argued, by taking control of ever greater areas of public life. Remainers thought these fears were exaggerated. They saw in the Leave vote an eruption of nativism. The EU’s vaccine war, however, could not have better demonstrated the problem of Brussels overreach. While the vaccine programme rolls on in Britain, with more than half of all adults now inoculated, the EU is being drawn ever further down a blind alley of its own making.
Portrait of the week: Europe’s vaccine wars, a beached walrus and Sturgeon survives
From our UK edition
Home The nation was surprised to learn that from 29 March there would be a dearth of vaccine for a month. More than half the adult population had been vaccinated once, and more than 4 per cent twice. In one day 589,675 people received their first vaccine, including Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, and the next day 752,308 first doses were given. But five million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from India were delayed and the EU was making hostile noises about banning exports to Britain. The government considered making vaccination compulsory for people working in care homes, a quarter of whom had not been vaccinated.
2496: Depart Paddington – solution
From our UK edition
The play was The Winter’s Tale by Shakespeare. The perimetric dramatis personae are MAMILLIUS, LEONTES, FLORIZEL, DORCAS, MOPSA, HERMIONE and ANTIGONUS; NODI (23) and DIPTERA (17) are anagrams of Dion and Perdita. THE WINTERS TALE (in the third row) was to be shaded. Title: ref. ‘Exit, pursued by a bear.
Wednesday
Exclusive Ch Pichon masterclass
From our UK edition
Does the UK really have the highest Covid death rate?
From our UK edition
A long way from home A walrus turned up off the Pembrokeshire coast, thousands of miles south of its normal habitat. Some other lonely visitors: — In July 2020 an albatross, a native of the southern hemisphere, was spotted near Flamborough on the Yorkshire coast. It was one of 30 sightings over the past few decades.— In September 2018 a beluga whale, normally resident near Svalbard, Norway, was found swimming off Gravesend.— In May 2016 a 25ft bowhead whale, more usually seen off Greenland, was spotted in Mount’s Bay, Cornwall.— In August 1999 a great white shark, common to South African, Californian and Australian coasts, and rarely found north of Spanish waters, was seen off Cornwall.
Thursday
Has Neil Ferguson been proved right about Covid?
From our UK edition
Calculated risk It is a year since Neil Ferguson’s Imperial College team published the paper that inspired the government to call the first lockdown. How good were its scenarios? — It modelled four Covid-suppression measures: isolating cases for seven days, their household contacts for 14 days, social distancing to reduce household contacts by 75 per cent and the closure of schools and hospitals. It assumed these measures would be repeated for 12-18 months before a vaccine became available. — The model was run with different values for the basic reproduction number, which it estimated to lie within the range 2 to 2.6. If the government introduced none of these measures it estimated there would be between 410,000 and 550,000 deaths.
The Crown Office, The Spectator and a fight for a free press
From our UK edition
The power wielded by Nicola Sturgeon and her Scottish government means it’s hard to hold her to account for basic policy failures — of which there are many. It’s even harder to investigate accusations that her aides conspired to frame and imprison someone who had become a political problem for her. The Alex Salmond affair has shown the many ways the public prosecutors in the Crown Office, led by a member of Sturgeon’s cabinet, have sought to censor and redact his allegations. The House of Commons is immune to the threats and menaces of government lawyers. The notion of parliamentary privilege, a corner-stone of British democracy, means that anything can be said within the walls of parliament without fear of prosecution.
Letters: What really irritates Meghan’s critics
From our UK edition
Meghan’s adroitness Sir: Tanya Gold suggests that people criticise Meghan Markle because she is mixed race and a woman, and states it is because she has dared to attack the royal family (‘In defence of Meghan’, 13 March). I think that misses the point. For a great number of people, her narrative simply does not ring true. Over the past few decades, thousands of media articles have accused the royal household of being claustrophobic, pedantic and antiquated. But unlike the young and naive Diana, Meghan was a thirtysomething TV star with agents and PR people when she met Prince Harry. It’s hard to believe she didn’t know what she was letting herself in for.
Portrait of the week: Tributes to Sarah Everard, rows over AstraZeneca and Nokia cuts jobs
From our UK edition
Home A Metropolitan Police officer, Wayne Couzens, 48, was charged with the kidnap and murder of 33-year-old Sarah Everard, who was last seen on 3 March as she walked home from Clapham to Brixton. A mass vigil on Clapham Common was called off after the High Court declined to interfere with a police ban on the event in accord with coronavirus regulations. The Duchess of Cambridge came alone and left some daffodils at the bandstand. Women who stayed in their hundreds saw police struggle with women who refused to leave the bandstand. There were four arrests and pictures of policemen subduing one of them, Patsy Stevenson, on the floor fed a widespread anger against the police.
2495: Contrary – solution
From our UK edition
Four unclued lights are places in Britain with MARY in their name. The remaining unclued lights can be linked with MARY (see Brewer). (Peter, Paul and Mary have been the theme words of Doc’s puzzles numbered 2489, 2492 and 2495.
Thursday
The Oxbridge files: which schools get the most offers?
From our UK edition
Oxford and Cambridge have released figures showing how many offers they gave to pupils from various schools last year. We have combined the figures in this table below. It shows how well state grammars and sixth-form colleges now compete with Britain’s finest independent schools. Over the years, both universities have roughly doubled the proportion of pupils from state schools: it now stands at 60 per cent, up from 50 per cent in 2000. This is reflective of which schools get the best A-level results. Of the 100 schools below, 48 are independent, 23 are grammar, 19 are sixth-form colleges, 7 are comprehensives or academies and 3 are further education colleges.
The policing of lockdown is failing
From our UK edition
The scenes in Clapham Common have brutally exposed the problem with lockdown rules. People had gathered to mourn Sarah Everard and protest in defence of the right to walk the streets safely. The Metropolitan Police had been asked by the government to stop people going outside for anything other than a handful of allowed reasons: protest is not one of them. Given how many anti-lockdown protesters were arrested at Clapham Common earlier this year, the Met decided it could not be seen to pick and choose causes. Protesters were told it was 'unsafe' for them to be there due to Covid-19. Officers swooped. Chaos ensured. Footage from the protests showed a row of women being dragged away from the bandstand on the common, which has been filled with flowers for Ms Everard.
Letters: What happens if interest rates rise?
From our UK edition
Spinning plates Sir: Kate Andrews is right to highlight the looming risk of inflation (‘Rishi’s nightmare’, 6 March), but to say that the UK has known barely any inflation for almost a generation misses a very painful point. It may be true for consumer prices. Low interest rates and quantitative easing, along with other ill-advised stimuli, have caused huge inflation over the past two decades in the single greatest expense throughout most working people’s lives: the cost of housing.
Which TV interviews have attracted bigger audiences than Harry and Meghan’s?
From our UK edition
Good for the goose The government indicated that it will ban foie gras, out of animal welfare concerns. While it is often thought of as a French product, its origins have been traced back to Egypt in 2500 bc — thanks to a bas-relief at the Necropolis of Saqqara outside the ancient city of Memphis. The painting depicts workers holding geese around the necks and feeding them — although there is no great sign of force being used. Viewer discretion ITV reported an audience of 11 million for Harry and Meghan’s interview with Oprah Winfrey. In the US 17 million were said to have watched. What are the previously most-viewed TV interviews (combined US and UK audiences)?
Portrait of the week: Harry and Meghan’s interview, Piers Morgan’s resignation and Biden’s pets in the doghouse
From our UK edition
Home The world was agog, some in tears, some in synchronised toe-curling, as the Duchess of Sussex and her husband shared their sufferings with Oprah Winfrey. In America 17 million watched; in Britain 11 million. The Duchess spoke of Disney’s Little Mermaid; seeing it, she had exclaimed: ‘Oh my God she falls in love with the prince and because of that she loses her voice.’ She said that three days before her wedding at Windsor, she had been married ‘in our backyard’, with just three of them, including the Archbishop of Canterbury. She said she had considered suicide and that the royal family had taken her passport, keys and driving licence.
What did Spectator writers really get up to at school?
From our UK edition
Rod Liddle If you leave a Bunsen burner on for about ten minutes, then quickly put the rubber pipe over a water tap and turn it on full, you get a small explosion and a scalding stream of water to be directed at a boy called Harris. Similarly, if you attach crocodile clips to Harris’s jacket and then wire it up to a power source, it makes him jump about a lot. I loved physics lessons. Jeremy Clarke Snow in the playground. The tall caped figure of the headmaster appeared on a short outside staircase — a rare balcony appearance of a benign, reclusive demigod. One long-distance snowball among the flying hundreds, arcing higher than the rest, travelling through the air in slow time, apparently laser guided, is fixed in the memory of all who saw it.
2494: Back to front – solution
From our UK edition
Unclued lights are from the ‘Looking Glass’ poem Jabberwocky.