Life
Restore’s unstoppable rise to power
As seen on X ‘Subversive.’ With this word I sign off my vitriolic X reply to Beth Rigby, who has…
The muddle over vanishingly unlikely
When my husband asked me whether I knew any mathematics at all, I replied by telling him that I had…
Trapped with the plane passengers from Hell
Provence Under late June’s ferocious heat dome, during what turned out to be an almost eight-hour drive to join Martin…
Dogs belong in the bedroom
‘No dog of mine will sleep on my bed,’ I swore, before Dennis came along. People who allowed dogs on…
How to save Britain’s train stations
As a more philosophical alternative to ‘You don’t have to be mad to work here, but it helps’, you occasionally…
How has Tower Hamlets really spent my council tax?
How does Tower Hamlets spend my council tax? I’ve been shovelling cash at them for 19 years so I strolled…
Kiwi life
Here is a useful test of human endurance. You are trapped in a lift in Wellington for ten hours with…
Language
A radio talkback caller described many of the activities of the bureaucrats living in the Canberra bubble as being nothing…
Thank God for Thomas Tuchel
Here’s an interesting question: had Thomas Tuchel been Portugal’s manager rather than England’s, would he have picked Cristiano Ronaldo to…
The only drink missing from The Spectator’s summer party
Last week the great and some not-so-good crammed into the gardens in Old Queen Street to gossip and carouse, sipping…
Confronting the climate Jeremiahs
The problem with being a well-known climate sceptic is that whenever there’s a heatwave, you get buttonholed by eco-zealots who…
Spectator Competition: Elemental
For Competition 3457 you were invited to submit a weather forecast in verse. There were nods to Shakespeare, Eliot, Hardy…
Why does the UAE value British racing more than we do?
You might remember that I mentioned His Excellency Mansoor Abulhoul, the United Arab Emirates ambassador to the UK, a couple…
The British spy at the heart of Italy’s Churchill conspiracy theory
Dante’s Beach, Ravenna In an attempt to avoid the infernal heat and the rhythmic maracas-style racket of the cicadas in…
Dear Mary: Help! I have four girlfriends
Q. I am 26 and my problem is that I have four girlfriends. None of them knows about the other…
Why doesn’t my daughter enjoy bonking?
As seen in the Times ‘You young people, I don’t even know where to start!’ My phone call to my…
Dog people are the worst
The couple who were on a climate crisis camping trip in Ballydehob messaged me in a desperate state. ‘We’re cold…
My beef with Bruce Anderson
My beef with the columnist Bruce Anderson began, as beefs do, at the Spectator summer party. Not this year’s –…
