The warm-up
If Iran steps in, the worst is still to come
Bloc buster
David Frost on Brexit, Barnier and the backstop
Road trip notebook
Before pandemic I thought I might drive across America, or even France. Now — what about Kent, the garden of…
Refuseniks
‘Vaccine refusenik’ is the latest catchphrase used to disparage anyone unwilling — for whatever reason — to roll up their…
Dark matter
Being a Goth has its bright sides
Real life
More threatening letters from the NHS demanding I let them jab me up with two Covid vaccinations. Or as the…
Comedy gold
The economics of internet irony
Fur and feeling
Almost no ancients cared whether animals felt pain or not. The classical Stoic belief that man’s reasoning capacity elevated him…
Will the 21 June easing go ahead?
The roadmap out of lockdown is the signature document of Boris Johnson’s new team in No. 10. It’s intended to…
Bridge
We all know the importance of making a viable plan before we play. If a contract is poor and seems…
Diary
‘We humour them when they suggest absurd reforms, we placate them with small material comforts, but we heave sighs of…
High life
New York Already on your idiot box via Netflix is a mini-series about a man who also used one name,…
The Spectator’s Notes
We are being urged — and, in some cases, paid — by the government to plant more trees. Actually, this…
Low life
On the Saturday morning of the Ascension Day bank holiday, I swung down the stairs and ladder to the little…
It’s time to face the truth about masks
However surreal and dystopian the pandemic landscape seemed at first, no enduring vista feels ‘surreal’ and ‘dystopian’ indefinitely. Citizenries uniformly…
Reading between the lines
Scarcely a day passes without a major British institution announcing it is ‘decolonising’ itself. Most recently it was the turn…
Clinging to optimism as revival collides with fear
The happiest thing that happens in May is the coming into leaf of my long beech hedge. The shift from…
A novel approach
The last Saturday of lockdown — inshallah — and we were discussing literature. Specifically, when does a detective story become…
Variants and variables
The scare over the Indian variant of coronavirus this week is a taste of what to expect over the next…
Dear Mary
Q. We have been invited to a virtual wedding. Is it correct form to send a present?— P.F., Barrow Street,…
Portrait of the week
Home The government made noises about having to delay the lifting of coronavirus restrictions on 21 June in some parts…
Level
‘I must level with you, level with the British public, many more families are going to lose loved ones.’ That…
Kamala in charge
Who is the head of state? As president, Joe Biden has the sole and unlimited authority to determine US foreign…
How private should Prince Harry’s life be?
‘Never complain, never explain,’ the Cockburns say. Our family friend Prince Harry has a different motto: carry on moaning and show me the…
Does the border feel under control to you?
President Biden told NBC at the end of last month that the border crisis is ‘way down now; we’ve now…
