Life
Why does Farage care if he’s on Desert Island Discs?
The big revelation in Lord Ashcroft’s forthcoming biography of Nigel Farage is that he’s been banned from Desert Island Discs.…
Aussie life
The deeper you look at how our civilisation has evolved since the Enlightenment, the brighter the deception shines. The first…
Language
When ‘lie’ was banned by the Speaker of the House as unparliamentary language, I wondered if it was time to…
Beef olives – classic comfort food, without an olive in sight
We all did mad things during the first Covid lockdown. For some it was getting a dog or starting up…
The film producer with eyes on the Derby
I broke into a skip last week as I walked up the steps of Carlton House Terrace towards the Turf…
All good holidays start with a border checkpoint
What a treat it was to escape to Cyprus for some sun and a last-minute mini-break. I left the builder…
Labour is secretly desperate to keep children on social media
I’ve spent the last few days composing a response to the government’s consultation on whether to introduce a statutory minimum…
Dear Mary: how can I get rid of my friends’ wives from our WhatsApp group?
Q. When I left university I set up a WhatsApp group with several male friends to cover our interest in…
Italy’s doomed war on English
‘Italians are not inventing any new words,’ the head of the Italian language academy told the Telegraph. ‘They’re not creating…
‘It feels subversive to eat so much carbohydrate in Mayfair’: Claridge’s ArtSpace Café and Bakery reviewed
Claridge’s grew nine storeys in the last decade: it’s a metaphor. The ornamental 1897 castle on Brook Street has expanded…
Spectator Competition: Acrostic
For Competition 3451 you were invited to supply an acrostic poem praising or dispraising a public figure in which the…
Reading Jeremy’s words only gets harder
Provence In the hope of renting out the main cave house during the summer, I’ve been clearing to make room…
I’ll be praying for Arsenal’s God squad
Looking forward to the World Cup? I do hope so. You can complain and say that a gargantuan tournament without…
Aussie life
Visitors have a licence to offend, and some visitors offend more than others, and it was reasonable to assume that…
Language
Speccie reader Tim writes: ‘I’m interested to know when (and why) “partner” took on its new meanings. Years ago, I…
Our local nudists are running wild
Dante’s Beach, Ravenna It was midnight, more or less, and my middle daughter, Magdalena, 18, said with all the untroubled…
‘It’s all small plates because the girls are the main course’: Rhino at The Windmill reviewed
You don’t go to a strip club expecting to put something in your mouth unless you’re an incorrigible roué. So…
We’ve lost our only anti-vaxxer friend in the village
‘Can I go now?’ said the farmer I was talking to over my gate, and he looked so scared I…
2750: Lincoln Memorial – solution
Solvers had to highlight the BINARY (101010111110) and HEXADECIMAL (ABE) forms of the PUZZLE NUMBER (2750), thereby both filling in…
