The Week
30,000 gallons of wine, 2,000 golden bulls and a three-month party: how the ancients celebrated
The ancients certainly knew how to put on a celebration. Let us hope the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee comes up to…
Portrait of the week: Jubilee celebrations, energy bill discounts and a trade deal with Indiana
Home The Jubilee for the Queen’s 70 years on the throne was marked by two days of public holiday, 16,000…
Letters: Who’s responsible for Putin’s rise if not Russians?
Russian misrule Sir: Your editorial (‘Sanction Schroder’, 21 May) laments that western sanctions may be harming ordinary Russians, given that…
How profitable are Britain’s biggest oil companies?
A slip of the tongue George W. Bush condemned a political system where one man could wage a ‘brutal and…
Boris Johnson’s guilt
An ability to survive narrow scrapes has been one of Boris Johnson’s defining qualities. The pictures of Downing Street’s lockdown…
Putin is repeating Emperor Vitellius’s mistakes
Given Putin’s less than triumphant operation in Chechnya, where the Russian army suffered catastrophic losses, it is hardly surprising that…
I’ve written the perfect book
I met a Canadian couple for lunch in Edinburgh. They were from Vancouver – he a judge, she an opera…
Letters: The true state of Oxbridge admissions
Applying myself Sir: It was interesting to read David Abulafia’s rather damning critique of the Oxbridge admissions process (‘Who’s out’,…
Portrait of the week: Sue Gray reports, ScotRail slashes trains and monkeypox spreads
Home Sue Gray starched and ironed her report for publication after the Metropolitan Police wound up its own enquiries into…
Letters: Banning Russia’s culture only benefits Putin
Don’t ban Russia’s culture Sir: It is uncouth, illiterate and actually beneficial to Putin when theatres, opera houses and other…
Portrait of the week: Inflation’s 40-year high, Tory MP’s rape arrest and monkeypox in Britain
Home The annual rate of inflation, impelled by energy costs, rose to 9 per cent, its highest since 1982. Unemployment…
When did footballers’ wives become ‘WAGs’?
Wagtime Footballers’ wives Rebekah Vardy and Coleen Rooney are locked in a libel trial dubbed ‘Wagatha Christie’. The term WAGs,…
Lviv diary: ballet, bomb shelters – and everyone loves Boris
It is a glorious spring evening in Lviv and what could be better than a ballet gala at one of…
The ancient Greek ship that was too big for any harbour
The biggest cruise ship yet builthas just been launched, but in like-for-like terms, it comes nowhere near the Syracusia,built c.…
Sanction Gerhard Schröder
From the start of the war in Ukraine, the democratic world has shown striking unity in the economic boycott of…
Letters: What happened to hymns in schools?
Disarming by default Sir: Underpinning Rod Liddle’s amusing article on use of nuclear weapons last week is the reassurance provided…
The problem with Macron’s vision for Europe
The Ukraine crisis has transformed international affairs, forcing countries the world over to rethink their alliances and interests. New patterns…
Portrait of the week: The Queen’s Speech, Sinn Fein surge and an £184m lottery win
Home The Prince of Wales delivered the Queen’s Speech at the State Opening of Parliament sitting on a throne next…
The fire and fury of America’s abortion debate
I wonder at times how some of my fellow hacks in America get out of bed in the morning. The…
Putin’s emperor complex
Did Vladimir Putin ever use his infamous ‘historical’ account of Russia-Ukraine relations to consider how Ukrainians might react to his…
How hard is it to see an NHS dentist?
Biergate Sir Keir Starmer was facing the scandal of ‘beergate’. Biergate is a lane in the Lincolnshire village of Grainthorpe.…
Can anything save Boris Johnson?
As Boris Johnson faced the possibility of a no-confidence motion earlier this year, a large number of Tory MPs decided…
Who’s heard of Lorraine Kelly?
The right to buy The Prime Minister floated the idea of granting housing association tenants a blanket right to buy.…
It takes courage to be vulnerable like me
It has been wonderful to welcome seven refugees – and their four dogs – to my home in Suffolk. I’ve…
Letters: an artist’s work shouldn’t be judged by how he leads his life
Wrong is right Sir: Having spent most of my working life in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), I never pass up an…
