Carillion crashes owing £1.5 billion: directors’ conduct is probed
Home Carillion, the construction and service-provider with 20,000 employees and many contracts for the public sector, went into liquidation with…
The mischief of Bolshevism
From ‘The Bolshevik negotiations with Germany’, 19 January 1918: We think that the fact is fairly emerging from the negotiations…
Which UK employer pays men 80 per cent less than women?
Big losers Construction company Carillion collapsed with debts of £1.5 billion. How does that compare with other UK corporate failures?Overend…
solution
A beastly business The quote is 1A/92/18D from the poem ‘A Visit from St Nicholas’. The theme was the names…
Something’s gone badly right with the world economy
It is only a few months since gloomy economic commentators were confidently predicting that the world was about to plunge…
The Cabinet reshuffle that exploded in Theresa May’s face
Home Theresa May, the Prime Minister, tried to shuffle her cabinet, but Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, refused to become…
Are things really getting better? The numbers tell us so
Many people are gloomy about 2018. But some things are improving every year… Natural disasters These killed 9,066 people in…
to 2339: Interesting
Deployment of a GRABBING CRANE (1D) is required to complete entries at 11, 13, 21 and 23. 1A, 19 and…
His critics can’t admit it, but Trump’s crazy tactics are succeeding
Among the many new political maladies of our age, one has been left largely undiagnosed. This is Trump Derangement Syndrome,…
Death in the streets as anti-government unrest sweeps Iran
Home In a message for the New Year, as though it were an immemorial custom, Theresa May, the Prime Minister,…
How did psychic predictions for 2017 play out?
Did that happen? What psychics foresaw for 2017:— ‘Crash in euro, Denmark and Italy leaving the EU; North and South…
Don’t damn the ancients for failing to give women the vote
From The Spectator, 2 January 1847: The New Year opens for England with heavy clouds in the sky, but with…
Letters: No, the Church of England is not planning an evangelical takeover
A church for all people Sir: I enjoyed reading Ysenda Maxtone Graham’s account of debates in the Church of England…
to 2338: Fone
The unclued lights are former and current F1 teams. First prize Ronald Morton, Basingstoke, HantsRunners-up Revd J. Thackray, Ipswich, Suffolk;…
A simple way for Spectator readers to make a real difference
Perhaps the most insightful piece of political analysis since the turn of the century came from the Queen in a…
A portrait of 2017: Brexit stumbled forward, Big Ben was silenced and sexual allegations swept the world
January ‘No deal for Britain is better than a bad deal for Britain,’ Theresa May, the Prime Minister, declared in…
What Christmas really costs us — and how much of it we waste
Christmas splurge How much extra do households spend at Christmas?— £500, according to the Bank of England. Over the course…
Letters: Returning jihadis, the Labour abyss and why Stokes can’t play
Returning jihadis Sir: Coping with those who pose a terrorist threat to the UK but cannot be prosecuted for a…
Sarah Vine, Prue Leith and Jilly Cooper on their most convincing ghost story
Anthony Horowitz Novelist I have never really believed in ghosts, but I actually had a personal experience which…
to 2337: millefeuille
Links with NAPOLEON were his battles WAGRAM (10) MARENGO (14) JENA (36); card games BACCARAT (1A) PATIENCE (26) BRAG (30A);…
Christmas quiz – The answers
Weird world 1. Cannabis 2. Che Guevara 3. Tesco 4. Asda 5. Beauty and the Beast 6. Georgia 7. France…
The joy of Japanese puzzles – The answers
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Returning jihadis must be brought to justice
At first sight, the evidence presented in David Anderson’s report into the four terror attacks committed between March and June…
DUP’s 11th-hour objection throws Brexit deal into chaos
Home Theresa May, the Prime Minister, was thrown into a political crisis, along with the negotiations for Brexit, during a…
Stolen spikes: the strange history of the Irish border
Border skirmishes What did the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic used to look like? — In 1923 a…
