Olympics
Why the armed forces make young people proud
The popularity of the armed forces as an icon of British pride among young people shows the value of seeing members of the military out and about in our regular… Continue reading
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GDP is up 1% – give or take 0.7%
So it’s official: the UK economy grew by 1 per cent in the third quarter of 2012, according to the ONS’s preliminary estimate. That’s significantly better than the consensus forecasts.… Continue reading
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The Olympic effect on jobs
It seems today’s good jobs figures — employment at a record high and the unemployment rate back below 8 per cent — are at least partly thanks to the Olympic Games.… Continue reading
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Olympic tourism update
Ah – so those miserable traders who everyone told to shut up were dead right, back in August. Britain received its smallest number of foreign tourists for almost a decade… Continue reading
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William Shakespeare and the pursuit of human happiness
‘Under the greenwood tree’ from As You Like It AMIENS: Under the greenwood tree Who loves to lies with me, And turn his merry note Uno the sweet bird’s throat, Come… Continue reading
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Team GB meets Team GQ
In what Bono described to me as ‘the best of the smaller ones’, the stars of Team GB stole the show at last night’s GQ Men of the Year awards.… Continue reading
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The Olympic effect won’t be so golden for politicians
The Olympics and Paralympics have been a superb spectacle this summer, but will they help the economy? No one in the Treasury thinks so – if anything, they fear the… Continue reading
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Why did Pete Townshend play the finale to the Olympics?
I returned from holiday to discover that the silly season has turned into something much more serious. The daily list of horrors from Syria, the Eurozone crisis and the terrifying… Continue reading
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Why would Conservatives want to pass the ‘Danny Boyle’ test?
So the Conservative party’s immigration minister, Damian Green MP, has introduced the idea of the ‘Danny Boyle test.’ In today’s Telegraph he argues that the Conservative party must resist ‘nostalgists promoting… Continue reading
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You can’t judge a school by its sports fields
There’s a glass case in the hall of Number 10 at the moment which contains a large sports bag with two shiny Olympic medals poking out. This wasn’t left behind… Continue reading
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The View from 22 – international justice, school sports and unfair GCSE results
Is there a downside to our glowing era of ‘international justice’? In this week’s cover feature, Douglas Murray writes that our carefully designed system can trap criminals, giving them no… Continue reading
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The world belongs to small businesses. Why are we stifling them?
From the moment the Queen uttered the words, ‘Good evening, Mr. Bond,’ Britain was caught in a two-week Olympic bubble of sporting and national pride. I’m sorry to kill the… Continue reading
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Barry Davies’ 19th Olympics
In every aspect, the concerns about following Beijing have been swept aside, and the legacy of London 2012 is already some paces down the track. The politicians who played their… Continue reading
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Labour plays a sensible game on school sport
It would be wrong to say that David Cameron has had a bad Olympics. After all, the Games went extremely well, both in terms of logistics and Britain’s wonderful medal… Continue reading
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The economy needs more than the Olympics to perk it up
We won’t know the economic impact of the Olympics until the GDP figures for the third quarter of this year are released, but today both Boris Johnson and Downing Street… Continue reading
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The Olympic show is over
I have hugely enjoyed the French verdict on London 2012: the whole thing was botched and all our athletes cheated. They really are the most ghastly people. The only positive… Continue reading
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An Olympic triumph
What a superb closing Olympic ceremony. Normally, government chokes the life out of any arts project it takes on and I’d expected the Olympic Stadium ceremonies to be the Millennium… Continue reading
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The hunger Games
One million children at risk of starvation in Niger; global food inflation last year of approximately 6 per cent; political instability linked to food price rises; drought in the US… Continue reading
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Sinophobia, the last acceptable racism
The Chinese have excelled at London 2012, much to the annoyance of their Western rivals. In this week’s issue of the Spectator, Ross Clark argues that the claims against swimmer… Continue reading
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Chariots of fire
When the contestants were lining up for last night’s sensational 5,000 metre race, both of the American contestants waited until the cameras were on them, then crossed themselves and held… Continue reading
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