The Week
Diary
Spring in Somerset — again. If someone had told me last February that I’d spend seven of the next 12…
Portrait of the Week
Home The much-anticipated decriminalisation of two consenting people meeting over coffee on a park bench was declared for 8 March…
Diary
Did Nicola Sturgeon lie to the Scottish parliament? A Holyrood committee into the now infamous Alex Salmond affair has been…
Letters
Too many bishops Sir: As a former Anglican clergyman, I have been following your articles about the current state of…
Barometer
Target practice The government hit its target of giving a first Covid vaccine to 15 million of the most vulnerable…
Navalny vs the emperors
A Roman emperor would consider the tyrant Putin’s treatment of Alexei Navalny’s supporters as foolish but, looking at Russia as…
Portrait of the Week
Home The target was achieved of vaccinating, by the middle of February, about 15 million people of 70 or over,…
On life and liberty
When the Prime Minister sets out his ‘roadmap’ for easing Covid restrictions on Monday, it will be against a backdrop…
Rebuilding welfare
Amid the many failures of public policy during the Covid crisis, one success has gone largely unnoticed. The Universal Credit…
Barometer
Temper, temper A Zoom video of a disruptive parish council meeting in Handforth, Cheshire, went viral. It is not the…
Portrait of the week
Home On Sunday 7 February, as the week began, 11,465,210 people in the United Kingdom had received a first vaccination…
Letters
Save on bishops Sir: The Church of England is once again missing the point if its financial crisis will result…
Natural successor
When it comes to natural history, Sir David Attenborough rules the airwaves. Pliny the Elder (d. ad 79) who, as…
Diary
We weren’t long into Bruce Castor’s opening speech defending Donald Trump in his impeachment trial before we knew it was…
Barometer
Best before The government plans to introduce labels on domestic appliances informing consumers how long they are likely to last.…
Diary
My great-great-grandmother, born on a Barbadian plantation and transported to what was British Guiana in the 19th century, gave rise…
Letters
Good conductors Sir: Yes, it is sad to see talents like Sir Simon Rattle and Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla leaving our shores…
On liberalism
Certain parts of academia seem to wish to turn the study of classics away from a historical, language- and evidence-based…
The Scottish play
Scottish politics tends to go through long bouts of single-party dominance. In the 19th century, the Liberals were in charge.…
Portrait of the week
Home About 80,000 people in eight places in Surrey, London, Kent, Hertfordshire, Southport and Walsall were asked in door-to-door visits…
Cicero, mutuality and BLM
The Black Lives Matter website (different from the new Black Liberation Movement) mostly presents an image of an organisation of…
Portrait of the week
Home Supplies of the Pfizer vaccine (made in Belgium) were feared to be at risk from a declaration by the…
Barometer
New normal Why have so many people started saying ‘normalcy’ rather than ‘normality’? — Normalcy has been traced back to…
Letters
Canterbury tales Sir: Having opened my copy of The Spectator upon arrival in the post, I read your article ‘Welby’s…
Diary
I start the week with someone throwing faeces at me. I thought people were supposed to clap for doctors these…
