Letters
Don’t ban Russia’s culture Sir: It is uncouth, illiterate and actually beneficial to Putin when theatres, opera houses and other…
Portrait of the week
Home The annual rate of inflation, impelled by energy costs, rose to 9 per cent, its highest since 1982. Unemployment…
Barometer
Wagtime Footballers’ wives Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney are locked in a libel trial dubbed ‘Wagatha Christie’. The term WAGs,…
Solution to 2553: Island alien
The unclued lights when arranged as 12, 11, 43, 5, 24, 1D, 1A form Chambers’definition of MULLET at 30D. First…
Sanction Schröder
From the start of the war in Ukraine, the democratic world has shown striking unity in the economic boycott of…
Letters
Disarming by default Sir: Underpinning Rod Liddle’s amusing article on use of nuclear weapons last week is the reassurance provided…
Solution to 2552: 😀
The emoticon which formed the title of the puzzle suggested George Smiley, Le Carré’s nemesis of MI6 moles, ordered as…
Non, merci
The Ukraine crisis has transformed international affairs, forcing countries the world over to rethink their alliances and interests. New patterns…
Portrait of the week
Home The Prince of Wales delivered the Queen’s Speech at the State Opening of Parliament sitting on a throne next…
Barometer
Biergate Sir Keir Starmer was facing the scandal of ‘beergate’. Biergate is a lane in the Lincolnshire village of Grainthorpe.…
Read: Vladimir Putin’s victory day speech in full
The following is The Spectator’s translation of Putin’s speech for victory day 2022. Most respected citizens of Russia, dear veterans,…
It’s the cost of living, stupid
As Boris Johnson faced the possibility of a no-confidence motion earlier this year, a large number of Tory MPs decided…
Barometer
The right to buy The Prime Minister floated the idea of granting housing association tenants a blanket right to buy.…
Letters
Wrong is right Sir: Having spent most of my working life in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), I never pass up an…
Portrait of the week
Home Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, announced £300 million more in military aid for Ukraine. Speaking by video to the…
Solution to 2551: Madness
The four-letter word was BAND. Unclued lights suggest bandicoot (7A),bandh (11), banda (41), bandana (1D), bandoneon (3), bandook (7D), bandar…
Brexit’s first success
The purpose of Brexit was to strengthen Britain’s ties with both the world beyond Europe and with Europe itself, but…
Barometer
Stone me Boris Johnson threatened to unleash the ‘terrors of the Earth’ on an unidentified Tory MP who claimed that…
Letters
In check Sir: Jade McGlynn (‘Conflict of opinion’, 23 April) has a point that there are many reasons for popular…
Portrait of the week
Home Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, said Britain assessed that 15,000 Russians had been killed in the war against Ukraine…
Solution to 2549: Obscurity
PALE FIRE is a novel by Vladimir NABOKOV (18). Synonyms of words in the novel’s title are 7, 15A, and…
Letters
Soft ground Sir: We have heard much over the years from the overseas aid lobby about the value of soft…
Portrait of the week
Home Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, told the House of Commons that it did not occur to him that the…
The long haul
The first few weeks of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine went so badly that it was tempting to see the withdrawal…
Barometer
Park the issue Gladstone Park in Brent may be renamed as a result of the former PM’s connections with slavery.…
