Solution to 2558: Blonde, 78
Unclued lights were associated with JUBILEE: years (CALENDAR, SCHOOL, FINANCIAL), clips (CROCODILE,PAPER, TIE) and London underground lines (CENTRAL, CIRCLE, NORTHERN).…
Portrait of the week
Home A rail strike on three alternate days, bringing the system to a standstill for a week, was organised by…
The only option
A little over a year ago, The Spectator printed a cover story about the risk of inflation. Britain, we argued,…
Solution to 2557: Heroes
The perimetric knights are MO FARAH, JASON KENNY, STEVE REDGRAVE and CHRIS HOY, all OLYMPIC WINNERS. Together they have amassed…
Portrait of the week
Home The British economy contracted by 0.3 per cent in April after shrinking by 0.1 per cent in March, according…
Letters
The leader we need? Sir: Matthew Parris excoriates Boris Johnson for administrative incompetence, mendacity, personal immorality and utter lack of…
The deportation debacle
The problem with the bishops in the upper chamber is not that they speak too much, but too little. The…
Portrait of the week
Home Boris Johnson won a vote of confidence in him as prime minister among Conservative MPs by 211 votes to…
Letters
Saving general practice Sir: Regarding J. Meirion Thomas’s article (‘Medical emergency’, 4 June), traditional general practice continues to thrive in…
Solution to 2556: Recent origins
The unclued entries give the origins of elements 110-118 now named Darmstadtium, Roentgenium, Copernicium, Nihonium, Flerovium, Moscovium, Livermorium, Tennessine and…
Air pirates
If you have a flight booked in the next few months, it’s time to worry. A new era of air…
What is the most significant year of the Queen’s reign?
A Jubilee poll
Queen and country
Rarely has a public figure taken a promise so seriously as the vow that Her Majesty the Queen made on…
Portrait of the week
Home The Jubilee for the Queen’s 70 years on the throne was marked by two days of public holiday, 16,000…
Solution to 2555: 6 x 2 Mixtures
The paired unclued lights (2/25, 4/16, 5/28, 10/20, 13/17 and 15D/41) are anagrams of one another. First prize Trish Baldin,…
Letters
Russian misrule Sir: Your editorial (‘Sanction Schroder’, 21 May) laments that western sanctions may be harming ordinary Russians, given that…
Johnson’s guilt
An ability to survive narrow scrapes has been one of Boris Johnson’s defining qualities. The pictures of Downing Street’s lockdown…
Solution to 2554: Going, going…
The unclued lights were all extinct species. PTERODON was an acceptable variation at 5 Across. DODO was to be deleted…
Letters
Applying myself Sir: It was interesting to read David Abulafia’s rather damning critique of the Oxbridge admissions process (‘Who’s out’,…
Portrait of the week
Home Sue Gray starched and ironed her report for publication after the Metropolitan Police wound up its own enquiries into…
Letters
Don’t ban Russia’s culture Sir: It is uncouth, illiterate and actually beneficial to Putin when theatres, opera houses and other…






























