Facebook 5
From our UK edition
‘I’ve been un-auld acquaintanced on Facebook.’
The Spectator
Thursday
Drink 7
From our UK edition
‘If you’re trying to give up, the secret is to make it difficult to have a drink.’
Pub 5
From our UK edition
Nice Guy
From our UK edition
‘No more Mr Nice Guy.’
Year
From our UK edition
‘I’m an Olympic year.’
Family 2
From our UK edition
‘Isn’t it nice to all sit round the television as a family?’
Snowmen 3
From our UK edition
‘It’s to compensate for his tiny carrot.’
Stupid
From our UK edition
‘You look really stupid with it on back to front.’
Protect
From our UK edition
‘We decided not to name him in order to protect his identity.’
Barometer | 31 December 2015
From our UK edition
In with the new How the new year is being celebrated around the world. From 1 January… BRITAIN: Annual Investment Allowance for businesses cut from £500,000 to £200,000. Deposit Guarantee Limit for savers — the sum which the government will refund to savers after a bank collapse — is cut from £85,000 to £75,000. Drink
Letters | 31 December 2015
From our UK edition
What Blair omitted to say Sir: Mr Blair’s latest in these pages, like his recent Foreign Affairs Committee appearance on Libya, papers over so much history that one hardly knows where to start (‘What I got right’, 12 December). His own Libyan history will do. We all know the ‘deal in the desert’, whereby Gaddafi
Soggy thinking
From our UK edition
As the chairman of the Committee on Climate Change, Lord Deben, observed this week, there is a bizarre dislocation between the government’s pronouncements on climate change and its attitude towards spending on flood defences. Only a month ago, David Cameron was at the Paris climate summit lending his weight to apocalyptic warnings of flood and
Portrait of the week | 31 December 2015
From our UK edition
Home Thousands of houses were flooded in York, Leeds, Manchester and other parts of Lancashire and Yorkshire, after weeks of repeated flooding in Cumberland and Westmorland. On the River Foss in York, a flood barrier was lifted to avoid even more houses being flooded by keeping it in position. Tim Peake, the British astronaut in
The Spectator’s Portrait of the Year
From our UK edition
January David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said that only electing the Conservatives could ‘save Britain’s economic recovery’. Labour unveiled a poster saying: ‘The Tories want to cut spending on public services back to the levels of the 1930s,’ and Ed Miliband, the party leader, said he would ‘weaponise the NHS’. Two male ‘hedge witches’ were
Next year’s war
From our UK edition
From ‘The Military Situation’, The Spectator, 1 January 1916: The opening of a new year is a time for taking stock of our situation. When we look back upon the beliefs and predictions of a year ago, we have to admit that there have been many disappointments and that unforeseen things have happened; but war would
Monday
The Prime Minister should say it more often: the people of the UK are better together
From our UK edition
Last year, the United Kingdom came within 384,000 votes of destruction. A referendum designed to crush the Scottish nationalists instead saw them win 45 per cent of the vote — and become stronger than ever. Since then, the SNP has taken almost every Scottish seat in the Commons and is preparing for another landslide in the Holyrood
Thursday
Justin Welby on imposter syndrome, American exceptionalism and what makes churches grow
From our UK edition
In the Spectator’s Christmas treble issue, Michael Gove speaks to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. Below are some outtakes from the interview. On the supposed decline of religious belief I don’t believe that that was then or is now an accurate perception. Church attendance in this country has fallen hugely both in absolute terms and
Christmas tips from Jacob Rees-Mogg, Susan Hill and Alexander McCall Smith
From our UK edition
Jacob Rees-Mogg The three highlights of my Christmas are Midnight Mass at Downside Abbey, children tearing open their presents and the Queen’s Speech. For a successful Christmas, avoid tiresome, Cromwellian stuffiness. Susan Hill A friend always has a pork pie for breakfast on Christmas Day, but I have nothing so original to offer. We do,
Wednesday
Christmas tips from Niall Ferguson and Annie Nightingale
From our UK edition
For the Spectator’s Christmas survey, we asked for some favourite seasonal rituals – and what to avoid at Christmas. Niall Ferguson Every Christmas — or, to be precise, every Hogmanay — all the members of the jazz band I played in at university gather together with their families at our place in Wales. We eat and drink gargantuan amounts
Tuesday
Christmas tips from Tim Rice and Jilly Cooper
From our UK edition
For the Spectator’s Christmas survey, we asked for some favourite seasonal rituals – and what to avoid at Christmas. Tim Rice ‘Once In Royal David’s City’ (all six verses, please) is the thing I love most. For a successful Christmas, avoid prosecco and prawns. Prosecco is not my favourite taste and prawns can play havoc with your stomach. Jilly
