The Week
Sam Neill’s diary: Back in Blighty, remembering drinking binges of yore
I am back in the UK for work. Great time to turn up — after the grim, grey grind of…
Are pigeons braver than dogs?
Animal spirit A labrador blown up with her handler while sniffing for bombs in Afghanistan in 2008 became the 64th…
What Boris and Pericles have in common
What is Boris’s great secret? Does it lie in the bust of the Athenian statesman Pericles (c. 495–429 bc) that…
Spectator letters: Julie Burchill's faith, Belgravia's basements, and the real cost of rail commuting
Burchill’s flimsy faith Sir: It is funny that it now falls to the Julie Burchills of this world, the old…
How to lose Scotland
For centuries, the possibility of Scottish independence seemed so remote as to be laughable. Until recently the nationalists seemed quixotic,…
Portrait of the week
Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, appeared in public with George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer — the first…
Joan Collins’s Diary: Springtime in the City of Angels
Ahh! Spring has sprung at last! Or has it? Leaving a warm and sunlit London last month we expected balmy…
Ancient and Modern: 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…
Spectator letters: Why Aids is still a threat, elephants are altruistic, and crime has gone online
Aids is still deadly Sir: Dr Pemberton (‘Life after Aids’, 19 April) subscribes to the now prevalent view that we have…
Vladimir Putin knows what he stands for. Do we?
Possibly because his oratory is no match for his much-displayed pectoral muscles, the speeches of Vladimir Putin are seldom reported…
Portrait of the week
Home Nigel Evans, who had resigned as deputy speaker before being cleared of a bundle of rape and sexual assault…
Andrew Marr's diary: Ruins on Crete and a spat with Alex Salmond
A week away in Crete: I’ve come for the archaeology and culture — little patches of Minos, ancient Greece, Byzantium and…
MPs should be grateful not to be in ancient Athens
If the continuing rows over the expenses and lifestyles of certain MPs cast all of them in a bad light,…
Spectator letters: On wind turbines, Churchill's only exam success, and the red-trousered mayor of Bristol
When the wind blows Sir: Clare Oxford’s piece (‘Gone with the wind turbines’, 12 April) is both timely and sad.…
Runaway runners and other other sporting refugees
Done a runner Mami Konneh Lahun, a 24-year-old athlete from Sierra Leone, went missing after finishing as the 20th-placed woman…
It's time to stop the omnishambles - and send Lynton Crosby to No. 10
Yet again, the Conservative party has reminded us that it is quite capable of losing the next election. The events…
Portrait of the week
Home Maria Miller resigned as Culture Secretary after a week of being the centre of a game of hunt-the-issue. She…
Jan Moir's diary
Sunday afternoon brings the bomb squad to South Kensington. From my third-floor window, I see them fan out through the…
Socrates on Maria Miller
Our former culture secretary, Maria Miller, is still apparently baffled at the fuss created by her fighting to the last…
The rise and fall of the Red Road flats
Flat pack Some facts about Glasgow’s Red Road Flats, built in 1968, which are to be demolished as part of…
Spectator letters: Remembering Clarissa Tan; and Hugo Rifkind replies to Matt Ridley
In loving memory Sir: When Clarissa Tan covered last year’s Good Funeral Awards, it quickly became apparent that she was…
François Hollande's France is a preview of Ed Miliband's Britain. And it's terrifying
François Hollande and Ed Miliband could be political blood brothers. Neither has held down a job outside politics for any…
Portrait of the week
Home George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, made ‘a commitment to fight for full employment in Britain’ and for…
Nigel Farage’s diary: Comfort for Cameron, and the wonders of German traffic
What a week! I was thrilled to have a chance to confront Nick Clegg but my excitement was tempered with…
Is David Cameron trying to imitate the Delphic Oracle?
Nigel Farage rather missed a trick in his debate over the EU with Nick Clegg. The Prime Minister has promised…
