The Spectator

If Alex Salmond is cutting bureaucracy, why does he have so many quangos?

Plus: What readers really think of <em>Of Mice and Men</em>, and Britain’s last third-party election win

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Alexander Larman

What happened to the Rishi Sunak I knew at school?

Sources: Opinium/Observer; YouGov/Channel 5; YouGov; Ipsos/Mori

Mouse trap

Michael Gove wants to drop American classics such as To Kill a Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men from the English syllabus and replace them with works by British authors. A spokesman said Mr Gove ‘really dislikes’ Of Mice and Men. Where do these books feature in polls of readers’ top 100 books?

To Kill a Mockingbird
BBC listeners’ poll (2003) 6th
Goodreads.com 7th
Modernlibrary.com 5th
Thegreatestbooks.org 39th
Of Mice and Men
BBC listeners’ poll (2003) 52nd
Goodreads.com 39th
Modernlibrary.com —
Thegreatestbooks.org —

Election returns

The last time a party other than Labour or the Conservatives failed to win the popular vote in a national election was in the 1906 general election. How did the country vote then?

Liberal 2,565,644
Conservative 2,278,076
Labour 254,202
Irish Parliamentary 33,231
Independent Conservative 26,183
Independent Labour 18,886
Social Democratic Federation 18,446
Scottish Workers Party 14,877
Free Trader 8,974

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