The Week
Portrait of the week
Home Shares in Royal Mail are to be sold by the middle of this month, before postmen can go on…
Diary
So mysterious, the Conservative party. In every poll, our five most admired institutions are the NHS, the BBC, the Royal…
The middle people
Party conferences always provide the most agreeable spectacle of politicians desperately trying to appeal to both the diehards among the…
Barometer
Does workfare work? George Osborne announced a ‘work for benefits’ scheme. ‘Workfare’ schemes have been attacked by the left. Do…
The end of Aids
In a week in which the world is once again invited to consider the prospect of climatic Armageddon, it would…
Diary
They say nothing beats the feeling of seeing your book in print. But for me, the proudest moment was presenting…
Portrait of the week
Home The General Medical Council said it was dropping cases against four doctors who worked at Stafford Hospital at the…
Tacitus on Damian McBride
Damian McBride’s revelations about back-stabbing in Gordon’s imperial court raise a serious question: what was in it for him? The…
Letters
Why we joined Sir: I was astonished by the assertion made by Wyn Grant (Letters, 21 September) that ‘the postwar…
A climate glasnost
Next week, those who made dire predictions of ruinous climate change face their own inconvenient truth. The summary of the…
Portrait of the week
Home The government sold 6 per cent of Lloyds Banking Group to big investors for £3.2 billion. It still owns…
Diary
The looming centenary of the outbreak of the first world war offers an opportunity to break away from the Blackadder/Oh!…
Barometer
Vitamins and the veil A judge at Blackfriars Crown Court allowed a niqab-wearing defendant to identify herself only to a…
Pleb power
Momentarily banish thoughts of policemen on duty at the House of Commons, and picture a Roman pleb. You will probably…
Letters
Party politics Sir: I don’t think it is true that I would be unhappy in any party, as Ross Clark…
Saving the BBC
Three years ago, our columnist and former editor Charles Moore was summoned to Hastings Magistrates’ Court to pay £807 for…
Diary
‘Wider still and wider, may thy bounds be set,’ the ecstatic throng sang at the Last Night of the Proms.…
Portrait of the week
Home George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said that the British economy was ‘turning a corner’, with ‘tentative signs…
Barometer
Trust us The National Trust opened the Big Brother House at Elstree Studios at the weekend. Some other less grand…
Herodotus in Sochi
As a result of Russian laws against propagating homosexuality, there are calls to boycott the 2013 Winter Olympics in Sochi…
Letters
Tories and Italians Sir: Roger Scruton must be laughing, or more likely crying, to hear his Meaning of Conservatism described…
The right man
By conventional wisdom, Tony Abbott should not become Prime Minister of Australia this weekend. He ought to be too conservative,…
Portrait of the week
Home Having recalled Parliament to debate British military action over Syria, David Cameron, the Prime Minister, found the government defeated,…
Diary
Days ago, I’d have bet that even the most bitterly partisan Congress in generations would jib at humiliating their commander-in-chief.…
Vegetius vs Obama
So the USA must launch its onslaught against Syria without the Brits. Well, if Obama will make public announcements of…
