Features
Is the Princess of Wales watermaxxing?
It’s no secret that the royals struggle with relatability. But every so often, they stumble upon a PR masterstroke, almost…
Can Burnham resist the siren call of the left?
Power, when it is gained and lost, is transferred in stages: the actual, the visual and the constitutional. The latter…
The Iran war is Trump’s Suez crisis
Clarissa Eden famously declared that ‘in the past few weeks I have really felt as if the Suez Canal was…
Can I save Britain from war with Russia?
I t won’t be much of a consolation to Keir Starmer but I too was overwhelmed by the responsibilities of…
Long holidays are the worst
‘Is there ever a holiday so heavenly that one is not counting down the days?’ a friend texted me last…
The Spectator’s role in the birth of America
The Spectator was there at the founding of America. George Washington had six copies of the original 18th-century Spectator at…
The secret to dressing exceptionally well
As I scribble these words on a train to London, I’m wearing a lightweight Italian wool suit, a shirt from…
The real reason for the Dartmoor pony cull
Try as I might, I cannot think of an animal welfare issue that is more misunderstood than the survival of…
The glorious silliness of tribute band names
Seeing a tribute band can be a strange experience. There are your heroes on stage once more, magically rejuvenated and…
‘As soon as Andy wins, the world changes’: Burnham’s plans for power
There is no situation room, no wall of flatscreens or a hotline to the White House, just a few chairs…
The pernicious rise of the Fake Fuzz
The Harrow Council ‘enforcement officers’ might have been more extreme in their language than other members of the Fake Fuzz,…
The Brexit decade: was it worth it?
It may not feel or sound like it but Keir Starmer is a born-again Brexiteer. His achievements in office may…
America’s Anthropic blackout won’t make the world safer
For the first time, the United States government has switched off frontier artificial intelligence and forced the world to go…
The rise and rise of Australia’s Nigel Farage
Sydney For three decades, Australia’s political Establishment has been predicting Pauline Hanson’s demise. But whenever critics tried to administer the…
Why do men think it’s acceptable to wear a hat in church?
There’s often a traffic jam in front of the Battle of Britain window in Westminster Abbey and I recently found…
Britain must finally embrace gene editing
Around the turn of the century, the world embarked on an experiment. The Americas embraced the genetic modification of crops;…
Forever war: will Zelensky and Putin be brought to an exhausted peace?
Volodymyr Zelensky stood proudly on the steps of 10 Downing Street this week, flanked by Sir Keir Starmer and the…
Revealed: Andy Burnham’s reassuringly bland Cambridge years
There appears to be a missing chapter in the story of Andy Burnham. Depending on the whims of voters in…
From Holbein to Snapchat, how royals have mastered their own image
When Aston Villa won the Europa League recently, the focus was less on the football than on the Prince of…
Thanks to Trump, Tehran is winning
Among examples used to demonstrate the law of unintended consequences is the possibly apocryphal ‘cobra effect’. British colonial administrators in…
Might England just do it in the World Cup?
The World Cup has never been just a football tournament. Even if we don’t realise it at the time, it…
‘Make Germany normal again’: an interview with Germany’s exiled spy chief
Hans-Georg Maassen is an unlikely dissident. In his trademark three-piece suits and small glasses, he looks more like a law…
Norman Balon was much more than ‘London’s rudest landlord’
Norman Balon, who has died at the age of 99, missed the point when he defined himself as ‘London’s rudest…
My love for black and white birds
All my life I have been obsessed by black and white birds. Magpies are my tormentors, my morning omens of…
Decluttering is the ultimate act of love
‘You are going to die before me and leave me to deal with this, and I will curse your soul…
