Features
The diversity trap
Britain seems to be following America down a dangerous path. There’s your politician David Lammy accusing Oxford and Cambridge of…
A reply to my critics: Don’t fight racism with racism
Dear 2016 WriteNow mentees, Thanks so much for your open letter to me. It seems only good manners for me…
The #MeToo movement could be the saviour of sex
Sexual intercourse, Philip Larkin famously wrote, began in 1963. And listening to contemporary commentators, you’d think that it came to…
What does the British government know about Trump and Russia?
Washington, DC When the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu visited London in 1978, the British government did some serious sucking up.…
The bad science of cannabis oil
Was there ever a more fatuous contribution to a political debate than Lord Hague following up the case of 12-year-old…
The joy of bird-listening
Here’s a rum thing: you can tell the quality of a piece of land with your eyes closed. Your ears…
Big cities are all alike – it’s in New Jersey’s small towns that you feel like you’re really travelling
When my American friends invited us to stay with them in New Jersey, my 13-year-old daughter was thrilled. She’d never…
Trump vs Nato: the trade war is becoming a security crisis
For Theresa May, the most worrying part of Donald Trump’s talks with Kim Jong-un came two days before the two…
I rented out my home. The tenants turned it into a brothel
I had been in Los Angeles for less than a month when I received the call from a concerned neighbour…
All hail Æthelflæd! The first Brexiteer
This week, Prince Edward was paying tribute to a much-loved Queen. Not ‘Mummy’ — but Queen Æthelflæd, Alfred the Great’s…
Marxism didn’t die. It’s alive and well and living among us
I remember the autumn day in 1990 when they came to cart away the large hammer and sickle outside my…
Becoming German has helped me understand Brexit
In the end, after all the waiting, the document didn’t look like much — a sheet of A4 paper adorned…
I rely on soup kitchens for food and friends
I was born in north London, at the Whittington Hospital in Archway, and at the age of 62, after many…
No wi-fi, no TV and no neighbours – staying with the Landmark Trust is bliss
About halfway across Lundy, if you’re trudging from the landing bay towards the north lighthouse, there’s a tiny holiday cottage…
Putin says he’s making Russia great again. In reality, it’s crumbling
This is Putin’s time. Next week, the Fifa World Cup kicks off in Moscow, and the Kremlin has spared no…
Orban and Salvini are redefining democracy in Europe
By 25 May the world was learning of the Italian populist parties’ plans to form a coalition government. This would…
Let’s get real. Kindness is not going to save you – or the world
I originally thought of calling this piece: ‘Kindness is the New Rock ’n’ Roll’ — but only as a joke.…
Are Trump’s tariffs a good idea? The arguments for and against
Yes Supporters of the global free-trade regime that has been built up over the past 25 years like to think…
The jihadi sisterhood: meet the new breed of Islamist fanatics
‘Does the pin make me go ?’ Like most 16-year-old British schoolgirls, Safaa Boular was adept at using emojis. She…
The age of incivility: how social media amplifies our differences
How long ago it now seems that the big political worry was apathy. Today, wherever you look — Brexit negotiations,…
Notes on… Nucleus, the shiny new slightly secret nuclear archive
Doubtless Spectator readers based in Caithness will scoff when I say that the old fishing port of Wick (top right…
Europe has a democracy problem
This week the EU revealed its true nature. Rather than hand power to a Eurosceptic, the Italian President Sergio Mattarella…
Trump has turned the Mueller investigation on its head
Donald Trump got bad reviews in the press — no surprise — when he announced that Rudy Giuliani, the former…
Twenty20 is making cricket great again
Blame it on a marketing survey. In 2001, the England and Wales Cricket Board commissioned the biggest piece of market…
Pope Francis raises the white flag
Just before Ireland voted overwhelmingly to end the country’s constitutional ban on abortion, Catholics in the fishing village of Clogherhead…
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