Safety first
This week brings to a close an absurdly overblown cause célèbre. The Court of Appeal ruled that David Miranda’s detention…
Barometer
Roll out the barrel The price of crude oil dropped below $30 a barrel. Why do we measure it in…
Bad driving
From ‘The Conscription of Wealth’, The Spectator, 22 January 1916: At recent race meetings streams of motor-cars have proceeded from…
Portrait of the week
Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said that Muslim women must learn English, and that those who had entered on…
Pickets of privilege
Treatment for that once-virulent condition, the British disease of strikes, has largely been successful. The number of working days lost…
Portrait of the week
Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said that, on Britain’s place in the European Union, ‘what I would like to…
Compelling evidence
From ‘The Position of the Government’, The Spectator, 15 January 1916: Any man who knew the nature of Englishmen, or…
Letters
Borderline case Sir: Alex Massie (‘The painful truth for Ruth’, 9 January) correctly identifies the challenges facing the Scottish Conservatives.…
Christmas crossword solution
The grid quotation was from the JOURNEY OF THE MAGI (T S ELIOT). Initial letters of superfluous words spelled out…
Christmas crossword: The winners
The first prize of £100, three prizes of £25 and six further prizes of the Chambers Dictionary of Great Quotations (2015)…
