Portrait of the week: May’s Brexit Plan B, IRA bombs and no one goes to Davos
Home Theresa May, the Prime Minister, having survived a parliamentary vote of no confidence, came to the Commons with an…
Letters: my autism is a challenge, not an affliction
Autistic freedom Sir: Jonathan Mitchell, an autistic writer, argues that autism is an affliction and that a cure should be…
to 2389: All change
The paired unclued lights are anagrams of one another, most being symmetrically arranged; 2/21, 5/23, 12/41, 15/25, 19D/20. First prize Alan Peevers,…
Brexiteers’ faith in parliament is now being put to the test
An unexpected outcome of the tortuous process of Brexit negotiations has been the enhancement of Britain’s reputation as a parliamentary…
Portrait of the week: May’s historic loss, Brexit chaos and the US shutdown
Home Brexit threw politics into unpredictable chaos. The government was defeated by an unparalleled majority of 230 — 432 to…
Where does the expression ‘deep state’ come from?
Turkey and the deep state Boris Johnson said that if Brexit was blocked, the public would blame it on the…
Political discourse in the UK is broken – here’s how we fix it
For several weeks now, a group of anti-Brexit protesters have found a way of regularly appearing on television news. They…
Portrait of the week: a government defeat, the harassment of Anna Soubry and Trump’s wall crisis
Home The government drifted towards a vote by the Commons, which it had cancelled in December, on its withdrawal agreement…
Letters: Europe is changing – so do we really need to leave?
The changing EU Sir: If, as Frederik Erixon writes, ‘there is a strange pre-revolutionary atmosphere in Brussels’ and ‘power will be…
to 2388: Sea rocket
The quotation was ‘IN MY BEGINNING IS MY END’ (12/15) from East Coker (an anagram of the title), second poem…
A dozen migrants in Kent is not a crisis. But government panic could turn it into one
It has been a messy start to the new year for Sajid Javid. For months now, migrants using small boats…
Portrait of the week: A migrant ‘crisis’, Gatwick drone awards and Donald Trump to withdraw troops from Syria
Home The number of would-be migrants known to have reached England in small boats from France in the last two…
A model president
From The Spectator, 4 January 1919: President Wilson arrived in London on Thursday week, and was greeted with full expression…
How Spanish was the Spanish flu?
Paths of infection 2019 marks the 100th anniversary of the height of the Spanish flu pandemic which is believed to…
Letters: Is this a solution to the post-Brexit world?
Lords reform Sir: How astonishing that the historian Robert Tombs (‘Beyond Brexit’, 15 December) should think that the Lords might…
2387: On the Spot
The HISPANIOLA was the ship that brought the other unclued answers to TREASURE ISLAND in the novel by R L…
Britain is on the cusp of a great political and economic renewal. Will the Tories blow it?
Last Christmas, The Spectator set up an appeal — not for money to be given to charity, but for our…
Portrait of the year: from the collapse of Carillion to the sacking of John Kelly
January Four young men were stabbed to death in London as the New Year began. The Crown Prosecution Service was…
The many political crises that have interrupted Christmas
Crisis at Christmas MPs were warned that they might have to give up part of their holidays to deal with…
From the archive: the Spectator’s original verdicts on literary classics
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, reviewed 18 December 1847 An attempt to give novelty and interest to fiction, by resorting…
Letters: perhaps Brussels sprouts are ripe for a name change?
Life in the borderlands Sir: The Irish border question has grabbed political headlines this year, but spare a thought for…
![‘A Portrait Group’ by James Cowie [National Galleries of Scotland/Bridgeman Images]](https://www.spectator.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/NGS_69343.jpg?w=410&h=275&crop=1)
Pick a painting
Alexander McCall Smith There is a painting in the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art that I find…
to 2386: Outside what we know
ROUND THE HORNE (32/40/37) starred 6/37, 6/23, 1A, 14 and 8/13. The title suggested their other comedy show, Beyond Our Ken.…
Answers to Spot the Shakespearean Character quiz
1. Oberon (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) 2. Hamlet (Hamlet) 3. Cordelia (King Lear) 4. Dogberry (Much Ado About Nothing) 5.…
Christmas quiz – the answers
You don’t say 1. President Donald Trump, in a tweet 2. Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, in…
