How do you make a cricket ball swing?
Not cricket The Australian cricket captain Steve Smith was banned for a match and fined his match fee after a…
to 2349: Novel
The novel was HOWARDS END by E.M. Forster. Round the perimeter run the characters LEONARD BAST, PERCY CAHILL, MARGARET SCHLEGEL…
Britain has lost control of the Brexit talks
If Brexit was going to be as easy as some of its advocates had believed, we would not have had…
British fishermen sold down the river in Brexit transition deal
Home Britain and the European Union agreed on a transitional period after Brexit on 29 March 2019 until the end…
Jeremy Corbyn’s hat and the art of photo manipulation
Spin doctors The BBC has denied it photoshopped a Newsnight backdrop to make Jeremy Corbyn’s hat look more Russian. The…
to 2348: It’s a trap
‘Now is the woodcock near the gin’, said by Fabian in Twelfth Night, suggests the position of BECASSE in relation…
A dangerous silence over Telford
Whenever a Hollywood actress complains about some lecherous man, there’s blanket coverage. Even our MPs feel the need to tut.…
Portrait of the week: Sergei Skripal, Dame Louise Casey, Philip Hammond’s spring statement
Home Theresa May, the Prime Minister, told the Commons that the chemical that put in hospital Sergei Skripal, a Russian…
Sorry Rod Liddle, we may not want more immigrants but we still need them
Growing our own Sir: Rod Liddle is clearly right that ‘the people of Europe do not want any more immigration…
to 2347: Capital letters
The unclued lights are LETTERS in alphabetical order which, when rearranged, give the names of eight CAPITAL cities. First prize Lucy…
Vladimir Putin is innocent until proven guilty in the Russian spy case
The apparent chemical attack on a former Russian double-agent and his daughter in an English cathedral city could be straight…
Portrait of the week: was the poisoning of a Russian spy a hit?
Home Sergei Skripal, aged 66, and his daughter Yulia were found in a state of collapse on a bench outside…
to 2346: the name of the game
The unclued entries are all names for pontoon; extra words in 27, 31, 33, 34 and 36 needed the letters…
Back off, Barnier – you don’t need to invent obstacles to Brexit
There’s an unwritten law governing Boris Johnson in Westminster: every-thing he says or does is a gaffe, or can be…
Crisis looms over the Brexit negotiations
Home Crisis loomed over Brexit negotiations as Theresa May, the Prime Minister, travelled to the north-east to explain ‘this Government’s…
Triumph of the spirit
From ‘A moral test’, 2 March 1918: The nation, in spite of all the silly talk about our war aims…
The ageing rock stars who go on and on
Ageing rockers The Rolling Stones announced their first live shows for five years. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards (both 74), Charlie…
to 2345: Counterclaim
The puzzle’s NUMERICAL DESIGNATION (3 41) is preceded by 7A and followed by 7D 12 33 37 to form the…
As the Tories rail against Corbyn’s past, they’re losing the fight for the future
The news that Jeremy Corbyn met a Czechoslovakian agent three times during the 1980s, when the Cold War was still…
Portrait of the week: Jeremy Corbyn attacks the press over spy claims
Home Someone called Jan Sarkocy said that, as a Czech Security Service agent in London under the name Jan Dymic,…
How to get the Winter Olympics experience at home
The great indoors How to get the Winter Olympics experience without leaving England: — The Snow Centre, Hemel Hempstead: ‘London’s…
to 2344: I’m away
The unclued lights can be preceded by or followed by the unclued word DOCTOR, which explains why I (Doc) am…
Portrait of the Week: Oxfam faces losing funding as crisis grows over abuse claims
Home The Charity Commission said it would hold a statutory inquiry into a scandal in which Oxfam staff paid for…
Trotsky’s audacity
From ‘News of the week’, 16 February 1918: Last Sunday M. Trotsky announced at Brest-Litovsk that Russia would fight no…
Are these the coldest Winter Olympics ever?
Museums of curiosity The former culture secretary Ed Vaizey suggested that there are quite enough museums in Britain, and that…
