The Week
It’s not just Scotland’s drugs shame – it’s Britain’s
Twenty years ago, the Scottish parliament was reconvened after a lapse of almost three centuries. The logic for devolution was…
Portrait of the week: Theresa May’s new role, England’s cricket victory and the world’s steepest street
Home In a televised debate between the rivals for election by members of the Conservative party as their new leader…
Nick Robinson: I’ve underestimated Boris ever since our Oxford clashes
By this time next week the Johnson era will surely have begun. ‘We can, we will, we must now escape…
When will man make it to Mars?
Mars missions When will there be a manned Mars mission? — As early as 1962, Nasa studied the practicalities of…
Roman plebs would have known how to tackle Corbyn’s cabal
Jeremy Corbyn’s refusal to take serious action against Labour’s anti-Semitic members is no surprise: Marxists know who their friends are.…
Letters: Melissa Kite saved my life – twice
Leave we must Sir: It is interesting that as the Brexit process drags, people become more distanced from what was…
The Tories can profit from Labour panic
In some alternative universe the Labour party, as under Tony Blair in the mid 1990s, is busily preparing for government,…
Portrait of the week: A resignation in Washington, Labour departures and a plague of toxic caterpillars
Home Sir Kim Darroch resigned as British ambassador to Washington after the Mail on Sunday published disobliging emails he had…
Petronella Wyatt: I’ve been turned into a curiosity – and Boris is to blame
I am beginning to feel like a sort of fairground curiosity: one of those pickled things in jars that Victorians…
An absurd craze
From ‘Keeping fat’ by Geoffrey Wheatcroft, 7 October 1978: The running craze is a symptom of our deplorable age, in…
Is women’s football really that popular?
Ode to all sorts Brexit party MPs were likened to Nazis for turning their backs on a recital of ‘Ode to…
Politics, Pandora and the tender leaves of hope
With parliament irretrievably deadlocked over Brexit and the EU intransigent, there remains little belief that either of the prime ministerial…
Australian Letters
Turnbull and the Prez Sir: Peta Credlin (‘Turnbull, the G-G, Porter and Dutton’, July 6) writes an incisive article on…
The Hong Kong protesters deserve Britain’s full support
When the tanks were rolling into Tiananmen Square and the Cold War hadn’t yet formally come to an end, it…
Portrait of the week: Boris vs Jeremy, Brexit party rallies and Hong Kong protests
Home Boris Johnson, the bookies’ favourite for the leadership of the Conservative party, would, if he became prime minister, ‘show…
Joan Collins: The night I got a TV star to flash Boris Johnson
It has been a spring of party madness in London and New York. I was lucky enough to have several…
How many dogs are there in Britain?
Model hobbies Asked what he did to relax, Boris Johnson claimed that he liked to make model buses. Some others…
Do Greek plays really need a ‘modern twist’?
Rufus Norris, the National Theatre’s artistic director, has revealed that all those tedious ancient plays will from now on be…
Letters: Stop and search is messy, confrontational and absolutely necessary
Support for stop and search Sir: Mary Wakefield is rightly exasperated by fatuous comments over police use of stop and…
Britain will soon have to pick a side in the US-Iran spat
Crises in the Gulf and Conservative leadership elections come around with unnerving regularity. It is not unknown for both to…
Portrait of the week: Boris’s barney, a stink at Southern Water and a pricy royal renovation
Home A neighbour of Boris Johnson, 55 (a candidate for the leadership of the Conservative party and hence for the…
Will Boris Johnson break up the Union?
I spent the early part of last week in London, filming what are known in the television trade as PTCs…
How many 999 calls are genuine emergencies?
To debate or not to debate Is Boris Johnson wise to shun TV debates? — Prior to the 2015 Labour…
Rory’s classic mistakes
If Rory Stewart had taken full advantage of his education at Eton and read classics at Oxford rather than PPE,…
Letters: God does lead us into temptation
Appeasement? Sir: Your editorial (‘Plan B’, 22 June) refers to the need for Boris Johnson, as prospective PM, to have…
