A virtually unknown account of how the decision to announce the Armistice at 11am came to be made was published by Alistair Lexden in the main letter to The Daily Telegraph printed on 2 November.
For the best part of two years, public services in Northern Ireland have been under the control of civil servants. No elected politicians have been available to direct their work since the collapse of the Northern Ireland Executive in January 2017.
In his Times column on October 24, Matthew Parris praised Disraeli’s repertoire of insults under the headline: “Our verbally abusive MPs have nothing on Disraeli”.
At the start of his career as a journalist in the mid-1980s, Andrew Gimson regretted the absence of a book that enabled the reader to gain a clear impression quickly of all Britain’s prime ministers. He has now written such a book. Alistair Lexden’s review of it follows.
On 18 October, the Lords held an important debate on the state of music education in schools. Speaker after speaker expressed grave concern about the decline of the teaching and performance of music in our state schools. In most independent schools music continues to flourish.
A year has now passed since the Wiltshire police brought to an end their much-criticised investigation of child sex abuse allegations against Sir Edward Heath, known as Operation Conifer. Seven unsubstantiated allegations were left unresolved.
Despite having a wealthy father, William Gladstone was never a rich man. The Hawarden estate in Flintshire, which came into his family through his wife, was unprofitable for years.
