The Week
Portrait of the Week
Home Parliament was recalled after the rapid fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban. Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, returned from…
Soaking the rich
Oxfam is arguing that if all billionaires forked out 99 per cent of their profits made during the Covid pandemic,…
Barometer
Student takeover Where did the Taliban come from? — The word ‘Taliban’ means simply ‘students’ in Pashtun. They were originally…
Barking up the right tree
The government’s promise to fund a pilot scheme promoting the teaching of Latin in secondary schools is music to the…
Barometer
Woolly thinking There were protests in Whitehall to save Geronimo, an alpaca due to be put down after testing positive…
Letters
Wage concern Sir: Martin Vander Weyer’s call for higher wages to end the shortage of British HGV drivers (‘Your country…
Portrait of the Week
Home With less frightening domestic data on the coronavirus pandemic to ponder, subjects such as the rivalry between Boris Johnson,…
Diary
For obvious reasons, stocks in ex-editors of The Spectator are experiencing an all-time low. But my own complaint is with…
Office politics
After seizing so much power during the pandemic, Boris Johnson’s government is having trouble working out where its remit now…
Portrait of the week
Home After the number of people ‘pinged’ (alerted by an NHS Covid-19 app) neared 700,000, the app was adjusted so…
Barometer
Happy valet Police Scotland dropped what they said was a randomly generated codeword — ‘Bunter’ — for the security operation…
The mild West
An athlete seeking sanctuary in a foreign embassy after a state–sponsored attempt to spirit her home from the Olympics; a…
Letters
Here illegally Sir: Unfortunately, Charlotte Eagar misses the point (‘The alpha migrants’, 31 July). The Channel migrants may be ‘bright…
Simone’s Olympic trial
The outstanding gymnast Simone Biles has pulled out of several Olympic events, saying: ‘I just don’t trust myself as much…
Diary
I’ve always been a Spectator reader, so I’m delighted to be writing a diary about the Olympics from Tokyo. My…
Letters
A note about manure Sir: I am afraid Matt Ridley shows a lack of understanding about agriculture in general and…
Diary
The past week has seen another media splash about the self-exiled Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Following the recent ruckus…
Portrait of the week
Home The daily number of coronavirus cases detected by tests fell from 54,674 on 17 July to 23,511 by 27…
Mug’s Games
Winners at the Olympics were thought to have come as close to a god as any man could. But that…
The new insularity
There is something bizarre about a sporting event designed to bring people and nations together but from which spectators have…
Barometer
Reinventing the wheels Skateboarding made its debut at the Olympics. Who invented the skateboard? — There are many reports of…
Portrait of the week
Home On the eve of the day that most coronavirus restrictions were to be lifted, the Prime Minister and Chancellor…
Letters
Out of Afghanistan Sir: Boyd Tonkin’s review of Anna Aslanyan’s Dancing on Ropes highlights the post-war abandonment of local Afghan…
Barometer
Waiting Games What did Japan, and the world, look like the last time Tokyo held the Olympics in 1964? —…
Diary
You always remember when a prime minister calls you to ask you to take on a new role, and you…
