Portrait of the week
Home Theresa May, the Prime Minister, told MPs before the summer recess: ‘No backbiting, no carping. The choice is me…
Hope in Mosul
For the title of world’s most benighted city, Mosul takes some beating. Liberated from Saddam Hussein by US forces in…
to 2315: Trunk call
4, 40, 43, 1, 3, 16 and 17 were all examples of PORTMANTEAU words, into which are packed the sense…
Portrait of the week
Home In her first big speech since the general election, Theresa May, the Prime Minister, said: ‘I say to the…
Letters
Technical education Sir: I am grateful to Robert Tombs for highlighting the baleful use of ‘declinism’ as part of the…
Russia’s revolutionary soul
From ‘The Russian awakening’, 6 July 1917: M. Kerensky, the Russian Minister of War, has kept his word. He promised…
The beginning is nigh
Just a few weeks ago, the Conservatives triumphed in the local government elections and Theresa May was hailed as an…
to 2314: 4÷4=8
One of the unclued 4-letter lights is placed in the very middle of another to form each of the four…
Portrait of the week
Home Philip Hammond, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, urged colleagues to make the case for ‘sound money’; he said, ‘We…
Letters
The wrong choice Sir: Sebastian Vella’s new-found interest in politics is to be commended, but he has made the wrong…
to 2313: Goldfish
Extra letters in clues gave SAM GOLDWYN, to whom are attributed I’LL GIVE YOU (5) A DEFINITE (8) MAYBE (1A),…
Stronger together
There is unlikely to be much of a legacy from Theresa May’s premiership, which could yet be truncated a short…
Letters
The Tory quagmire Sir: While the media has been preoccupied in divining what went wrong with the Conservatives’ appalling election…
Portrait of the week
Home In preparation for the vote on the Queen’s Speech, the Government, after weeks of negotiations, bought the support of…
Opening gambit
The unexpected outcome of the general election has led some to hope that a weakened government will be forced to…
to 2312: Bandleader
The thematic BEATLES ALBUM (38 32) is SERGEANT PEPPER (1A 6A). 1A defines 17, and can be divided into words…
Portrait of the week
Home The burnt-out skeleton of Grenfell Tower, the 24-storey block of 127 flats at Latimer Road, west London, became a…
Letters
May’s convictions Sir: Nick Timothy seeks sympathy by revealing that his ‘loved ones’ are upset by the personal attacks to…
The thin blue line
The lessons to be learned from the Conservatives’ poor showing in the election could fill more pages than the national…
Portrait of the week
Home Theresa May, the Prime Minister, spent the week confronting the consequences of the general election that she had called…
Letters
Divining Rod Sir: Please congratulate Rod Liddle on being the only commentator who accurately forecast the uncertain general election result…
