Solution to 2520: 5 4 3 2 1
The unclued lights are the names of the six principal presenters of COUNTDOWN (hence 5 4 3 2 1 as…
Barometer
Floating vote Voters in St Petersburg were presented with three candidates all calling themselves Boris Vishnevsky, with two believed to…
Portrait of the week
Home Britain brought its last troops home from Afghanistan, having flown out more than 15,000 people since 14 August; but…
Letters
A glimmer of hope Sir: After the debacle of the West’s shambolic withdrawal from Afghanistan, it was comforting to read…
Doctor who?
Nye Bevan famously said that he was only able to persuade family doctors to support the creation of the NHS…
Barometer
Escape velocity The evacuation of Afghanistan was likened to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. What were the…
Portrait of the week
Home At the virtual G7 emergency summit that he was chairing, Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, urged President Joe Biden…
Letters
The blame game Sir: Like many who served in Afghanistan, I have watched with growing dismay the recent events unfolding…
The protest test
The concept of normality has been so disrupted over the past 18 months that the Extinction Rebellion protests — usually…
Barometer
Birth of the Paralympics While Athens can claim to be the home city of the Olympic Games, the Paralympics can…
Solution to 2518: Make a run for it?
As suggested by 11A, other unclued lights were all anagrams of ducks: 12A drake; 16A teal; 28A redhead; 31A smew; …
Letters
Zero balance Sir: James Kirkup (‘In defence of net zero’, 14 August) highlights the falling cost of solar and wind…
Recovery position
At the start of this year, Britain looked as if it would be the first major country to vaccinate its…
Solution to 2517: Final line-up
The unclued lights are the eleven England footballers who LINED UP at the kick-off of the Euro FINAL on 11…
Portrait of the Week
Home Parliament was recalled after the rapid fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban. Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, returned from…
Barometer
Student takeover Where did the Taliban come from? — The word ‘Taliban’ means simply ‘students’ in Pashtun. They were originally…
Barometer
Woolly thinking There were protests in Whitehall to save Geronimo, an alpaca due to be put down after testing positive…
Letters
Wage concern Sir: Martin Vander Weyer’s call for higher wages to end the shortage of British HGV drivers (‘Your country…
Portrait of the Week
Home With less frightening domestic data on the coronavirus pandemic to ponder, subjects such as the rivalry between Boris Johnson,…
Solution to 2516: Such childish vocabulary
The unclued lights are the nouns from the opening sentence of The Tailor of Gloucester by Beatrix Potter. TAFFETA was…
Office politics
After seizing so much power during the pandemic, Boris Johnson’s government is having trouble working out where its remit now…
Portrait of the week
Home After the number of people ‘pinged’ (alerted by an NHS Covid-19 app) neared 700,000, the app was adjusted so…
Barometer
Happy valet Police Scotland dropped what they said was a randomly generated codeword — ‘Bunter’ — for the security operation…
Solution to 2515: Paragon
The name was Margaret, whose various versions are suggested by THE SPECTATOR (1: Mag), BARN OWL (10/36: Madge), LEAD HAMMER…
The mild West
An athlete seeking sanctuary in a foreign embassy after a state–sponsored attempt to spirit her home from the Olympics; a…
