The Week
The human factor
Just over 30 years ago, Margaret Thatcher’s government decided to look at local government finance. A young aide, John Redwood,…
Pericles vs Corbyn
Whatever else one can say about Jeremy Corbyn, one thing is clear: he is a leader who does not believe…
The clock towers bigger than Big Ben
Bigger Bens Big Ben will have a £29m refurbishment. Who has the biggest clock tower? Kremlin Clock: Installed on the…
Boris Johnson’s diary: Amid the China hype, remember Japan
Frankly I don’t know why the British media made such a big fat fuss last week when I accidentally flattened…
Revenge and Edith Cavell
From ‘Reprisals’, The Spectator, 23 October 1915: The Germans lately executed Miss Cavell, a good and brave English hospital nurse, on a…
Portrait of the week
Home Xi Jinping, the ruler of China, came, with his wife Peng Liyuan, a folk singer, for a state visit…
N.M. Gwynne’s diary: Old names worth dropping
As I get older (and my 74th birthday is now close), I get deeper and deeper into nostalgia. I do…
Australian letters
Machiavellian Mal Sir: Spring has arrived! The shackles of Winter have been broken, the blossoms are blooming, the sun is…
Socrates and Galen on the Great British Bake Off
As the national girth expands by the second, Auntie, never backward about lecturing us on the topic, continues to glory…
Our debt to Serbia
From ‘Boldness, Boldness and Again Boldness’, The Spectator, 16 October 1915: There are considerations of faith and honour which must in any…
Four great demolition disasters
Bang goes the plan The demolition of six tower blocks in Glasgow failed when the top half of two of…
Britain should not mistake its allies for friends
It would be hard to dream up a more absurd piece of political satire than an agency of the British…
Portrait of the week
Home Two groups were launched, one in favour of remaining in the European Union and the other in favour of…
Britain should not mistake its allies for friends
It would be hard to dream up a more absurd piece of political satire than an agency of the British…
Socrates and Galen on the Great British Bake Off
As the national girth expands by the second, Auntie, never backward about lecturing us on the topic, continues to glory…
Four great demolition disasters
Bang goes the plan The demolition of six tower blocks in Glasgow failed when the top half of two of…
N.M. Gwynne’s diary: Old names worth dropping
As I get older (and my 74th birthday is now close), I get deeper and deeper into nostalgia. I do…
Our debt to Serbia
From ‘Boldness, Boldness and Again Boldness’, The Spectator, 16 October 1915: There are considerations of faith and honour which must in any…
Portrait of the week
Home Two groups were launched, one in favour of remaining in the European Union and the other in favour of…
Bulgarian tragedy
From ‘Bulgaria and Greece’, The Spectator, 9 October 1915: The fact that the British people will in all probability soon be…
Barometer
The death of Diesel The Volkswagen scandal has brought into question the future of the diesel engine. A century ago…
Edmund de Waal’s diary: Selling nothing, and why writers need ping-pong
On the top landing of the Royal Academy is the Sackler Sculpture Corridor, a long stony shelf of torsos of…
Portrait of the week
Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, told the Conservative party conference in Manchester: ‘We need a national crusade to get…
It's not Tory vs Labour; it's the party of government v the party of protest
Political party conferences have, in recent years, felt like an empty ritual. They used to be convened in seaside towns,…
John McDonnell’s true economic guru: the emperor Nero
John McDonnell, shadow chancellor in the Corbynite splinter-group, has announced that £120 billion is waiting to be reclaimed from tax…
