The Week
Portrait of the Week: Brexit rumbles on, a panda escapes and Denmark builds a fence
Home Theresa May, the Prime Minister, set off to seek a change to the Irish backstop of the EU withdrawal…
The story of Alex Salmond is (far) stranger than fiction
For legal reasons I shouldn’t say much about the Alex Salmond case, but it does bolster the argument that the…
On political tribalism
From The Spectator, No. 152, 24 July 1711: There cannot a greater judgment befall a country than such a dreadful…
Sick of award ceremonies? So were the ancients
All over the world, from Armenia (the Silver Apricot) to India (the Golden Conch) and the UK (the Shaftas, honest),…
Letters: why are we paying so much attention to vegans?
Vegan excess Sir: As a lifelong vegetarian I am heartily sick of vegans and of the amount of attention that…
Dyson’s move shows he thinks the Brexit opportunity will be squandered
If knighthoods could be removed by vote of parliament, Sir James Dyson would be first in line. Knighted for being…
Portrait of the week: May’s Brexit Plan B, IRA bombs and no one goes to Davos
Home Theresa May, the Prime Minister, having survived a parliamentary vote of no confidence, came to the Commons with an…
In defence of Fiona Bruce
Will I be allowed to take my dog to Europe after 29 March? A trivial question, you might think, in…
Letters: my autism is a challenge, not an affliction
Autistic freedom Sir: Jonathan Mitchell, an autistic writer, argues that autism is an affliction and that a cure should be…
Brexiteers’ faith in parliament is now being put to the test
An unexpected outcome of the tortuous process of Brexit negotiations has been the enhancement of Britain’s reputation as a parliamentary…
Portrait of the week: May’s historic loss, Brexit chaos and the US shutdown
Home Brexit threw politics into unpredictable chaos. The government was defeated by an unparalleled majority of 230 — 432 to…
It’s not communist buildings that are bleak – it’s capitalist budget hotel chains
A few of us on the Labour left decide to see if it is possible to conjure, from nowhere, a…
The rejection of the people’s mandate – then and now
The Transport Secretary Chris Grayling may be quite right (not words one often reads) to warn that failure to deliver…
Where does the expression ‘deep state’ come from?
Turkey and the deep state Boris Johnson said that if Brexit was blocked, the public would blame it on the…
Australian letters
Shakespeare in love Sir: James Allan (“Australian Notes”, The Spectator, Australia Jan 5) correctly identifies the paucity of knowledge of…
Political discourse in the UK is broken – here’s how we fix it
For several weeks now, a group of anti-Brexit protesters have found a way of regularly appearing on television news. They…
Portrait of the week: a government defeat, the harassment of Anna Soubry and Trump’s wall crisis
Home The government drifted towards a vote by the Commons, which it had cancelled in December, on its withdrawal agreement…
If anyone knows May’s secret plan, it’s Philip
As a hack who lived and breathed the financial crisis, you might think that at the start of 2008 and…
Those tempted to turn over a new leaf this year should remember Aesop’s fables
At this time of year the media urge us all to turn over a new leaf and believe that we…
Letters: Europe is changing – so do we really need to leave?
The changing EU Sir: If, as Frederik Erixon writes, ‘there is a strange pre-revolutionary atmosphere in Brussels’ and ‘power will be…
A dozen migrants in Kent is not a crisis. But government panic could turn it into one
It has been a messy start to the new year for Sajid Javid. For months now, migrants using small boats…
Portrait of the week: A migrant ‘crisis’, Gatwick drone awards and Donald Trump to withdraw troops from Syria
Home The number of would-be migrants known to have reached England in small boats from France in the last two…
The telltale signs your child is texting about Jeeves and Wooster
You’ll be relieved to learn my penguin is back. ‘How long was it gone?’ you ask. About six months. ‘And…
A model president
From The Spectator, 4 January 1919: President Wilson arrived in London on Thursday week, and was greeted with full expression…
How the year began
Why are our years structured as they are? Censorinus in his de die natali (‘Birthday Book’) for his chum Caerellius…
