The Week
Australian letters
Sterner stuff Sir: I refer to Mark Higgie’s article in The Spectator Australia last week. I served with DFAT for…
As the Tories rail against Corbyn’s past, they’re losing the fight for the future
The news that Jeremy Corbyn met a Czechoslovakian agent three times during the 1980s, when the Cold War was still…
Portrait of the week: Jeremy Corbyn attacks the press over spy claims
Home Someone called Jan Sarkocy said that, as a Czech Security Service agent in London under the name Jan Dymic,…
Steven Pinker’s Diary: my advice to the new president of Harvard
Everyone’s mood is affected by the news, especially bad news. A recent review found that heavy news-watchers show ‘misperception of…
How to get the Winter Olympics experience at home
The great indoors How to get the Winter Olympics experience without leaving England: — The Snow Centre, Hemel Hempstead: ‘London’s…
Australian letters
Love is love Sir: What total hypocrisy: the words attacking Barnaby Joyce from the same people who argued we must…
Portrait of the Week: Oxfam faces losing funding as crisis grows over abuse claims
Home The Charity Commission said it would hold a statutory inquiry into a scandal in which Oxfam staff paid for…
My trip to Pakistan’s ‘Jihadi Disneyland’
Not so long ago, Barack Obama called Waziristan ‘the most dangerous place in the world’. It was the losing front…
Trotsky’s audacity
From ‘News of the week’, 16 February 1918: Last Sunday M. Trotsky announced at Brest-Litovsk that Russia would fight no…
Article 50 and the Athenians
Europe, a majority of MPs (party loyalties aside), the Lords, the civil service, the BBC and the CBI are all…
Are these the coldest Winter Olympics ever?
Museums of curiosity The former culture secretary Ed Vaizey suggested that there are quite enough museums in Britain, and that…
Letters: the militant suffragettes set back their own cause
Suffragette setbacks Sir: Jane Ridley (‘Women on the warpath’, Books, 10 February) claims that Millicent Fawcett and her suffragists had ‘got nowhere’…
Why we shouldn’t try the jihadi ‘Beatles’ in Britain
The success of the military campaign against Isis in Syria and Iraq has left behind a diplomatic and legal problem:…
This crash is just a return to normality
It is easy to mock the most strident critics of capitalism, like Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn. It’s harder to…
Civil partnerships for all and the Queen’s swans dying of bird flu
Home Stagecoach and Virgin could only manage to run the East Coast rail franchise for a few more weeks, Chris…
Joan Collins: Want to know why all the Oscar films are boring? I’ll tell you
I’ve been meaning to write a Spectator diary since the summer but as a Gemini with Aries rising I find…
Corbyn is the master of ‘raising issues’ – with no result in sight
Jeremy Corbyn is the master of ‘raising issues’. He received an obscure prize last year for his ‘work for disarmament…
Dire warnings of a Brexit university brain drain? They’re a myth
How to sell snake oil Ex-cabinet secretary Lord O’Donnell accused Brexiteers of ‘selling snake oil’. How do you sell snake…
Letters: Leave Theresa May alone – she’s doing her best
Stop knocking May Sir: I find this knocking of Theresa May increasingly depressing (‘Theresa’s choice’, 3 February). She has a terrible job…
Donald Trump has a genius for damaging his own reputation
It’s easy to see why Donald Trump gets angry. He is presiding over a robust economy, growing at the fastest…
A Brexit transition period is ‘a new Norman Conquest’ says Jacob Rees-Mogg
Home The EU published its negotiating position on Britain’s period of transition, from 30 March 2019 until 31 December 2020.…
Why women are still fuming over my Desert Island slips
It never occurred to me, when I was interviewed for Desert Island Discs back in November, that I’d actually be…
Ikea’s founder was a billionaire skinflint – but others were even worse
Tight money Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of Ikea, was worth an estimated £40 billion. Yet the eighth richest man in…
Outsourcing has a long history
The outsourcing business Carillion has gone bust because its bids for government work have been far too low. The problems…
Australian letters
Onward Christian soldiers? Sir: Hal Colebatch contemplates the revival of the religious military orders to protect Christianity from the attacks…
