Ancient and modern
Too clever by half
Organs of the press are filled with opinion pages. The sublime confidence about Covid with which commentators advance these opinions,…
Revenge of the snitch
If neighbours break whatever new Covid rules might soon emerge, it has been suggested that the Good Citizen might snitch…
When language gets polluted
Pursuing last week’s theme, this week’s column raises the question: if there is no such thing as ‘race’ — since…
The Romans and race
Rod Liddle has questioned whether Ms Jolly, chief librarian of the British Library, was right to say that whites invented…
Little wonder
The British Museum’s aim is to use its collection ‘for the benefit and education of humanity’. If that manifests itself…
Learning the hard way
Many commentators have argued that the recent grading controversy indicates just how important public examinations are. Up to a point,…
World without borders
The kind of arguments raging about migrants crossing the Channel to enter Britain illegally never raged in the Ancient Roman…
Rotating the Lords
Arguments about the purpose or indeed very existence of anything resembling the House of Lords would have struck classical democratic…
Weighty matters
Tackling obesity is the latest government initiative, universally condemned as nannying. Ask a Spartan. From an early age, Spartan children…
On a Roman road
Should the PM move parliament to York? There is, of course, historical precedent for such a move, as he very…
Wars and unjust peace
In 1984, China agreed a ‘one country, two systems’ treaty with the UK, designed to control the relationship between Hong…
Phantoms of liberty
Word has it that ministers already do not bother to argue their corner with the government’s inner ring, while a…
Assuming liability
When Covid-19 first appeared, its similarity to Sars made some assume it could not mount a pandemic; others that it…
Why stop at statues?
The actor John Cleese has been wondering if we should destroy Greek statues because Greeks believed ‘a cultured society was…
Usefulness before justice
When the PM’s chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, was discovered to have made his fateful journey to Durham during lockdown, there…
Home-schooling, Plato style
Education is cumulative. The idea that it will be lost on a generation because, for one out of 42 terms…
Roman pop-up hospitals
The speed with which ‘model’ Nightingale hospitals have been designed and erected across the UK reminds one of the experts…
The health of the people
The Prime Minister recently quoted Cicero’s famous dictum salus populi suprema lex esto, translating it as ‘Let the health (salus)…
Happy hebdomaversary
The Spectator’s 10,000th hebdomaversary (hebdomas, ‘a group of seven’: a weekly cannot have an anniversary) will surely be celebrated with…
When life becomes art
Covid-19 has not yet reached its peak but already the moguls of the small screen are plotting how to monetise,…
Crisis management
When a major crisis strikes in the modern world, the state and international bodies such as the IMF and World…
Needs must
It must be infuriating for those who see the Prime Minister as a prisoner of a rigid elitist mindset that…
How to be self-sufficient
Those with signs of Covid-19 are being asked to ‘self-isolate’ (Latin insula, ‘island’). But do they have the mindset for…
Ancient and modern
Plagued by the past
Viral hysteria
Last week Ross Clark expatiated on the hysteria and panic generated by Covid-19 that threatens to send the world into…
