Ancient and modern
Xenophon on immigration
Nearly half of Britain’s billionaires are foreigners, and government hopes many more will now come in on the government ‘start…
Ukraine vs Sparta
As rebels, terrorists, fascists, foreign forces, activists, separatists, militants, militias, nationalist groups, Neo-Nazis, Right Sector forces — take your pick — spread…
Boris’s Periclean optimism
What is Boris’s great secret? Does it lie in the bust of the Athenian statesman Pericles (c. 495–429 bc) that…
A war for ‘human rights’
What a splendidly liberal leader Mr Putin has turned out to be, desiring nothing other for his fellow Russians than…
How we could hound officials
If the continuing rows over the expenses and lifestyles of certain MPs cast all of them in a bad light,…
Socrates on Maria Miller
Our former culture secretary, Maria Miller, is still apparently baffled at the fuss created by her fighting to the last…
David Cameron, oracle
Nigel Farage rather missed a trick in his debate over the EU with Nick Clegg. The Prime Minister has promised…
Epicurus on particle physics
According to a top TV scientist, in the beginning there was ‘empty space’ and ‘energy’. After a big bang, the…
Good teachers
Last week in The Spectator, Daisy Christodoulou argued that, contrary to current educational theory, children learned best via direct instruction…
Cicero on Putin
Last September Russian President Vladimir Putin warned against a ‘unipolar’ world, saying that the national revival of Russia was in…
Harriet Harman vs Socrates
Since apologising has recently been all the rage, refusing to apologise, as Harriet Harman has done over the NCCL’s connection…
Yanukovych vs Caligula
Tyrants never learn, do they? From Caligula through Gadaffi to the ex-Ukrainian prime minister Viktor Yanukovych, they rule not to…
Hadrian on the Somerset floods
Since the Somerset Levels are a flood plain, nature will flood it. Romans had no problems with that. Much of…
Rome’s student politics
Foreign students getting on to courses under false pretences, overstaying their welcome and so on are nothing new. Ask the Romans.…
Democritus on the 50p rate
What a song and dance about a tax rise affecting a minuscule proportion of the richest in society! Greeks would…
In our best interests
There is, apparently, an ‘obesity epidemic’ in the UK, such that two million people could benefit from weight-loss surgery. Ancient Greeks…
Rory Stewart’s big idea
In last week’s Spectator, Rory Stewart, MP for Penrith, was reported to be proposing that we should create in Britain…
Ovid on selfies
A ‘meme’ is ‘an idea, behaviour, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture, often by mimicry’.…
Why start in January?
The ancients were an inquisitive lot, a characteristic shown to best effect in works like Aristotle’s Problems (‘Why do sex-maniacs’…
While shepherds watched…
‘And lo, there were shepherds in the fields, watching over their flocks by night…’ Reading recently that it was…
Master charlatans at work
To watch the Revd Paul Flowers being grilled by the Treasury Select Committee on his role in the demise of…
Why slaves had it better in Rome
The grim tales of ‘modern slavery’ that are currently emerging across the UK make one wonder whether ancient Roman slavery…
Aristotle on the age of consent
Prime Minister Cameron has rejected the proposal that the age of sexual consent be reduced from 16 to 15, arguing…
Happiness in your own hands
On 21 November The Spectator is hosting a discussion about addiction — disease or choice? — and how we should…
Art history
‘Democracy has bad taste’, declared potter Grayson Perry in his Reith Lectures on the BBC about art. Tell that to…
