The Week
Australian Letters
Well-meaning Whitlam Sir: Over recent months we have been subjected to an unprecedented amount of vainglory from the ALP and…
How to fight Ukip
In the 2005 general election this magazine supported the Conservatives, with one exception — we urged voters in Medway not to…
Portrait of the week
Home The last British combat troops turned over Camp Bastion in Helmand to Afghan forces and withdrew from Afghanistan after…
Diary
To the British embassy in Paris for a colloquium on ‘Napoleon and Wellington in War and Peace’ organised by our…
Barometer
What’s special about Rochester What is special about Rochester and Strood? — Rochester has the second oldest cathedral and school…
Why ostracism beats Ukip
For all Nigel Farage’s appealing bluster, he is never going to be in a position to get us out of…
From the archives
From ‘A Probationer’s Diary’, by a Red Cross volunteer, from The Spectator, 31 October 1914: Friday. The wounded are coming to-morrow.…
Letters
Italy’s to-do list Sir: You would expect a long letter of rebuttal by a piqued senior diplomat in response to…
Dicing with debt
George Osborne has declared victory over Ed Balls, the IMF and all the others who warned that his austerity measures…
Portrait of the week
Home A hundred firemen could not prevent wooden cooling towers at Didcot B gas-fuelled power station in Oxfordshire from burning…
Diary
In order to promote the Dylan Thomas in Fitzrovia festival, I am trying to persuade Jason Morell, the director, that…
The Greeks and rape
A footballer serves his sentence for rape, insisting on his innocence. Debate rages whether he should play again. To us,…
From the archives
From ‘Topics of the day’, The Spectator, 24 October 1914: That spies are a great danger at the present time,…
Australian letters
Cultured Brisbane Sir: Re Culture Buff 11 October. One sore point. I could do without the patronising remark about Brisbane…
Turkey goes cold
Turkey has long been a bridge between the West and the Middle East. Its record on free speech may be…
Portrait of the week
Home Checks began at British airports for passengers who might have come from west Africa with Ebola fever (even though…
Diary
‘Please God, make me good, but not yet.’ I know the feeling. As I get older and more deeply retired,…
Barometer
Dirty dancing David Cameron was accused of causing racial offence by posing with blacked-up Morris dancers, though it was pointed…
Hannibal vs the Islamic State
Whatever the Islamic State hopes ultimately to achieve by its current onslaught on all and sundry in the Middle East,…
From the archives
From ‘War and wild life’, The Spectator, 17 October 1914: The siege of Antwerp has been a minor tragedy in…
Letters
Nothing to fear Sir: So long as we are not breaking any law, we have nothing to fear from the…
How to beat Ebola
There is something depressing about the fact that it has taken a sick Spanish nurse to put Ebola back on…
Portrait of the week
Home Alan Henning, 47, a British volunteer aid worker taken captive in Syria by Islamic State, was murdered, and footage…
Diary
It was quite fun being named as the new writer of 007 — although actually I’d make a lousy spy.…
Barometer
How to deal with a troll In Scandinavian mythology, trolls were shady creatures who lived below ground and varied in…
