Imagine, if you will, a scenario in which a member of the British House of Lords or perhaps even a…

Of all the weasel words used by politicians to conceal what they are really up to, ‘reform’ must be the…

It’s all our fault, apparently

The right must commit to slashing government - and mean it

...have been greatly exaggerated

The myth of an Australian industrial revival

Authenticity beats ideology in Australian politics

The West must wake up, and fast

Rebel with a vile cause

How Starmer sank the Special Relationship

But only Australians can liberate Australia

Having Donald Trump as President probably resembles being a heroin addict: you undergo regular episodes of sweating terror and mortal…

When Zia Yusuf first walked into the headquarters of Reform UK, he gestured at the empty room and asked: ‘Where’s…

The seemingly endless debate about the hollowness of our armed forces has concentrated on size, technical capability and sustainability –…

An interesting new perspective on London is doing the rounds. Our capital city is being advertised as a paradise. London,…

Is it worth going to university? Since 1999, when Tony Blair declared higher education the answer to all society’s problems,…

It’s nearly two months since Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing a total oil blockade on Cuba, and life…

‘The road was frozen… Komako hitched up the skirt of her kimono and tucked it into her obi [broad sash].…

The Oscars mark the end of the awards season, with their annual rituals of self-applause to which actors are so…

Donald Trump may be the volatile leader of an unstable coalition. America’s numerous interventions in the Middle East may have…

Home Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, spoke to President Donald Trump of America about the importance of reopening the…

‘Deranged conspiracy’. That’s the Sussexes’ verdict of Betrayal, my second blast at Harry and Meghan, after the serialisation was in…

Churchill insurance There was outrage that Winston Churchill is to be dumped from the £5 note in favour of wildlife.…

State of the nations Sir: My spirits were raised by your stirring defence of the forthcoming royal visit to America…

Live long enough and all your cherished memories of childhood will end up besmirched somehow. For many of us Boomers…

This Middle East conflict ought to be much easier than the oil embargo which followed the Yom Kippur war of…

Labour MPs who want Wes Streeting to be their leader have, apparently, one great fear. If their man triggers a…

On the way back home down Mile End Road, I stopped for a cup of tea in a nice-looking café.…

Some years ago I was approached by someone from a platform called ‘Cameo’. Not all Spectator readers will have heard…

Since this calamitous Iran war began, there’s been endless talk in Britain about our ‘special relationship’ (often capitalised) with the…

There’s very little to celebrate in Downing Street these days but it must have been vodka shots all round in…

The British Empire’s abiding bequest has not been infrastructure and administrative systems but a memory of repression that continues to pass down through generations, says Simukai Chiguda

A beloved native city is in a state of flux, slipping from normal into nightmare as freedom vanishes, time collapses and people throw themselves from rooftops

As well as being flexible and open-minded, reasonable people are concerned about what’s of true value – whereas the rational may simply be interested in their own tangible gains

The Mongol massacres of 1238 were followed by reigns of terror, plague, fire, revolution and purges – as well as constant hostility to Kyiv

Borrowing from Arthuriana, Norse sagas, fairy tales and legends, Mitchison’s novel modulates midway between magic and realism

Poetry came so easily to Auden that at times he had consciously to ‘keep the diction and rhythm within a hairsbreadth of prose without becoming it’

Until the archive is made available, the diaries will have to do. But some superb dramas from the past century are sadly missed

Well, the Oscars have come and gone and we tend only to remember the anomalies. Julie Andrews winning the Oscar…

Neil LaBute is one of America’s most provocative and interesting playwrights. His best-known work, The Shape of Things, was made…

The Other Bennet Sister is to Pride and Prejudice what Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is to Hamlet.…

Is Sir Andras Schiff becoming the Ken Dodd of the piano? In his later years, you’ll recall, the Yorick of…

Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grazia is about an ageing Italian president who is coming to the end of his seven-year term,…

The last time I saw CMAT – Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson – was in the middle of a grey afternoon at…

‘Ballet is woman,’ Balanchine once gnomically pronounced. A remark not to be taken too literally, but essentially true. Like every…

Ramses and the Pharaohs’ Gold is, let’s not shy away from it, a profit-seeking exhibition mounted by an entertainment business.…

Once upon a time in communist Hungary – 1975, in fact – four students at the Liszt Academy decided to…

As any arborist with a swimming pool will tell you, money really does grow on trees. And if I had…

When I discover a new word I am delighted. ‘Autochthonous’ is one I have seen occasionally, but which I have…

Comp. 3441 invited you to use the opening of Philip Larkin’s poem ‘Trees’ as a starting point for your own.…

Flipping heck! Thank goodness the Cheltenham Festival only happens once a year. There’s only so much chaos and controversy my…

The private hospital room in Chelsea was so relaxing I would have stayed for a week if it was affordable.…

Dante’s Beach, Ravenna I was parked up in the Land Rover Defender on the narrow road that runs alongside the…

Mezzogiorno is a very serious, golden Italian restaurant inside the Corinthia London Hotel on Northumberland Avenue. Restaurants are increasingly gold…

There’s an inherent pleasure in having something by heart. Poetry at school. Lines in plays. Song lyrics. The things that…

Q. I have a meeting scheduled with a possible business associate who asked me to buy a certain book on…

It certainly never happened to me when I was a lad – even after a particularly insightful essay on the…

I’ve always had a soft spot for Louis Theroux. I wouldn’t call him a friend, exactly, but I’ve known him…