to 2394: Opening time
‘Never eat an oyster unless there’s an R in the month’ (Brewer). Eight unclued lights (in appropriate order) start with abbreviations…
Female unemployment has just hit an all-time low. So yes, Britain is working
At any other time, news that Honda intends to close its Swindon plant in two years’ time with the loss…
Portrait of the week: Resignations galore, Honda’s announcement and Islamic State’s brides
Home Seven MPs resigned from the Labour party and sat in the Commons (next to the DUP) as the Independent…
Letters: the history of centrist parties does not bode well for the ‘breakaway seven’
The breakaway seven Sir: ‘In both parties there are fools at one end and crackpots at the other, but the…
to 2393: Monster Mash-up
HORROR FILM (1D) ACTOR (15) BORIS (10) KARLOFF (26), né PRATT (21A) died on 2 February 1969. Most famous for…
The EU and UK are one sentence away from a Brexit deal. Why the games?
Even the most fervent Brexiteer would have to admit to being impressed at the cohesion and chutzpah of the European…
Portrait of the week: More Brexit talks, more French protests and less horse racing
Home Theresa May, the Prime Minister, returned from a trip to Brussels and Dublin and hurried to the Commons to…
![[GETTY IMAGES]](https://www.spectator.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/GettyImages_902938812A.jpg?w=410&h=275&crop=1)
Brexiteers have ‘a special place in hell’ – but who else has a spot there?
Places in Hell President Donald Tusk said there must be a ‘special place in Hell reserved for those who promoted…
to 2392: Beknighted
The unclued lights (10/1D, 11, 23/38, 29D/28 and 39) received knighthoods or a DBE in the recent New Year’s Honours List.…
Why David Harding’s £100 million Cambridge donation might save capitalism
The British are said to be among the most generous people on earth. When it comes to ordinary people scraping…
Portrait of the week: Theresa May goes to Brussels and Donald Trump to hold North Korea summit
Home Theresa May, the Prime Minister, went off to Brussels again to talk about ‘alternative arrangements’, for which parliament had…
Letters: Why the hatred towards independent schools?
Fawning over China Sir: In reading your recent leading article on Huawei (‘Red-handed’, 2 February), I feel I should point out…
2391: Stout and bubbly
The LITTLE GENTLEMAN IN BLACK VELVET (4/8/16D) was a Jacobite toast to the MOLE (34) who made the molehill on…
After Huawei, can we trust Chinese tech?
The world is a better place for China’s emergence from behind the bamboo curtain where it hid for half a…
Portrait of the Week: Brexit rumbles on, a panda escapes and Denmark builds a fence
Home Theresa May, the Prime Minister, set off to seek a change to the Irish backstop of the EU withdrawal…
On political tribalism
From The Spectator, No. 152, 24 July 1711: There cannot a greater judgment befall a country than such a dreadful…
Letters: why are we paying so much attention to vegans?
Vegan excess Sir: As a lifelong vegetarian I am heartily sick of vegans and of the amount of attention that…
2390: Tea Shop
The theme word is GRASS (for which the title is a cryptic clue). 1A, 1D, 6 and 37 are informers;…
Dyson’s move shows he thinks the Brexit opportunity will be squandered
If knighthoods could be removed by vote of parliament, Sir James Dyson would be first in line. Knighted for being…
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…
