The Week
Letters
The real road menace Sir: I write in anger after reading Mark Mason’s malicious attack on mobility scooters (‘Hell on…
A deadly silence
One Friday, 28 people were rescued by the Italian coastguard when the boat on which they were fleeing Libya capsized in…
Demosthenes vs Michael Fallon
Secretary of State for Defence Michael Fallon’s claim that Ed Miliband, having practised on his brother, would also stab his…
Barometer
Out of tune The use of a song, ‘Love Natural’ by the Crystal Fighters, at the launch of the Labour…
Am I still an Englishman?
From ‘Some reflections of an alien enemy: the contradiction between being and feeling an Englishman, by a Czech’, The Spectator, 17…
Portrait of the week
Home Launching the Conservative party manifesto, David Cameron, the party leader, told voters he wanted to ‘turn the good news…
Swing time
The age of two-party politics is over: we know that because everyone keeps saying so. We are entering an era…
Portrait of the week
Home Tony Blair, the former prime minister, opposed a referendum on membership of the EU. In a speech at Sedgefield…
Diary
So far, what an infuriating election campaign. We have the most extraordinary array of digital, paper and broadcasting media at…
Barometer
The Scottish way of death Nicola Sturgeon said the SNP would block a rise in the state pension age on…
Voting for heroes
To judge from elections, the purpose of politics is to win power by promising to make people better off. Plato,…
Before Dad’s Army
From ‘Our Home Guards’, The Spectator, 10 April 1915: There is nothing of the national picnic; or of playing at soldiers…
Australian letters
Fraser’s Folly Sir: Thoroughly enjoyed the tributes to Mr Fraser (Spectator Australia 28 March). So Peaches has his trousers; I…
Swing time
The age of two-party politics is over: we know that because everyone keeps saying so. We are entering an era…
Voting for heroes
To judge from elections, the purpose of politics is to win power by promising to make people better off. Plato,…
Barometer
The Scottish way of death Nicola Sturgeon said the SNP would block a rise in the state pension age on…
Before Dad’s Army
From ‘Our Home Guards’, The Spectator, 10 April 1915: There is nothing of the national picnic; or of playing at soldiers…
Portrait of the week
Home Tony Blair, the former prime minister, opposed a referendum on membership of the EU. In a speech at Sedgefield…
Passion, please
When launching the Conservatives’ campaign this week, David Cameron told party activists that the general election was ‘on a knife…
Portrait of the week
Home The nation greeted with well disguised enthusiasm the beginning of the general election campaign after the dissolution of parliament.…
Diary
I am living in rustic seclusion while writing a book. Our only cultural outing of the week was to Newbury…
Barometer
Royally paid Staff at Windsor Castle were balloted in strike action over pay. What can you earn in the royal…
Sober into battle
From ‘News of the Week’, The Spectator, 3 April 1915: The chief obstacle to prohibition, as we point out elsewhere, is…
Letters
Unity’s modern equivalents Sir: I don’t understand why David Pryce-Jones is still banging on about the Mitfords (‘You are always…
Caesar, Pompey and the SNP
Alex Salmond, the ex-first minister who proved incapable of making Scotland independent, has assured the world that he and his…
