The title of Australia’s First Popularly Elected Female Prime Minister is still up for grabs, and the obvious two contenders…

“Cape Town is a lot like Sydney,” an ex-pat yarpie had assured me. But as I’m driven through the township…

The last week in parliament has been the political equivalent of a burger with the lot. The PM’s whistle-stop tour…

Those who critisise the Coalition from the Right for lacking ideological purity do Tony Abbott a disservice

A narcissistic and directionless Left have forgotten that real activism is more than just pictures

Those who claim the constitutional crisis of 1975 was a one-off are ignorant of their Australian history

God hardened their hearts

The greatest ever Australian was never lost for a one-liner

God hardened their hearts

Separating meditation from faith is a dubious business, morally and sometimes in its effects

Escaping the shadow of the Islamic State to a changed country

This rising Republican star Rand Paul combines a dull, reassuring manner with a Ukip-like insurgent appeal. It could take him to his party’s presidential candidacy

The former chief rabbi’s arguments for religion start from questions of community and identity, rather than theology

I’m sick of corporations and charities behaving like a 1990s student rag week. Who’s with me?

Why Samantha Lewthwaite almost certainly isn’t as monstrous – or as important – as the papers are telling you

One institution used to bind together the Spanish and the English. Only a museum remains

Cameron's every move seems to play into Farage's hands

Home The last British combat troops turned over Camp Bastion in Helmand to Afghan forces and withdrew from Afghanistan after…

And why was the Baron de Kepen such a turn-on?

Plus: The evolution of high-speed trains, and the British death toll of recent conflicts

Ancient Athens really knew how to deliver a protest vote

From ‘A Probationer’s Diary’, by a Red Cross volunteer, from The Spectator, 31 October 1914: Friday. The wounded are coming to-morrow.…

Italy’s to-do list Sir: You would expect a long letter of rebuttal by a piqued senior diplomat in response to…

Scottish Labour must have a strong, centrist leader to avoid giving in to the SNP’s intolerant lefist agenda

I’m battling my demons, and at my most vulnerable, but I’ve still managed to bring you a column

Heroin is against the law, so it’ll have to be e-cigarettes

Lord knows he’s embarrassing. But at this point Argentina should be embarrassed too

Plus: Signs of a bubble in Battersea, and a rash promise from Ed Davey

A review of In These Times: Living in Britain Through Napoleon’s Wars, 1793 – 1815, by Jenny Uglow. Britain shuddered in Bonaparte’s shadow, living in constant expectation of invasion and occupation

A review of Matchbox Theatre: Thirty Short Entertainments, by Michael Frayn. Other loo books may sell more come Christmas but none will bring more joy than this collection of ingenious playlets

A review of Lamentation, by C.J. Sansom. This latest instalment of the Matthew Shardlake series maintains momentum over 600 pages

A review of Lists of Note, compiled by Shaun Usher. This engrossing compendium includes entries by everyone from Leonardo da Vinci to Sid Vicious

A review of So, Anyway…, by John Cleese. This biography is a dull, dreary compendium of pompous self-congratulation and tetchy sarcasm

A review of Centuries of Change, by Ian Mortimer. It’s a book that is at its best offering counter-intuitive thoughts on the medieval period

When you compare Shami Chakrabarti's On Liberty with John Stuart Mill's, Mill leaves Chakrabarti standing

A review of Consumed, by David Cronenberg. The Canadian director-turned-author has arrived in his new medium with a number of unfortunate mutations

Fish and Chips: A History, by Panikos Panayi, is frustratingly academic and lacking in vinegar, but still full of fascinating facts

A review of A Brief History of Seven Killings, by Marlon James. This novel breaks new ground in its language, which oscillates between various stations on the ‘creole continuum'

A review of Being Mortal: Illness, Medicine and What Matters in the End. This is that rare thing: a truly important book

His works provoked riots in the 1970s. Now Allen Jones is back at the Royal Academy after 35 years in the wilderness

Stephen Bayley celebrates the 50th anniversary of this ambitious, and for its day visionary, campus

A pioneering show at the Fitzwilliam Museum unearths the ubiquity of mannequins in helping artists work out composition - and avoid working with 'filthy street urchins'

Deborah Ross proclaims Timothy Spall's grunty performance as J.M.W. Turner sublime

An extraordinary new exhibition at The Hague's Gemeentemuseum follows the arc of the abstract expressionist's career from beginning to end

Did Perry carve a penis on Huhne's pot because that's what Perry basically thinks Huhne is?

Ismene Brown falls for Aelita, Queen of the Martians, and her three-cupped metallic bra at the V&A

Plus: Michael Tanner catches two wretched Figaros - one that makes you not care and another that distracts

It's a huge change from his visit in 2000, when music with sacred words was still banned

Ismene Brown assesses their attempts to revive two unfashionable but vital choreographers Frederick Ashton and Robert Helpmann

Plus: a preachy new play from Soho theatre, Spine, that ultimately snares your sympathies

Plus: Female judges from Pakistan and South Africa exchange notes

I’m oversensitive to criticism of Australia by famous authors. Richard Flanagan, elated at winning the Man Booker Prize for The…

This is city that Fitzgerald's exuberant prose romanticised, or Gershwin's syncopations made jostle and throb

It helps to have a face to think of on Remembrance Sunday. Herbert Clarke's photograph is hanging in my hall

I suppose it's far easier to pick on less intimidating dog-owners

The Church of England wants us to love them. I'm starting to feel the opposite position is better

On the other hand, maybe Bob Ford will prove Anita Brookner wrong

Every obituary written about Tony Priday, who died recently aged 92, said what a class act he was. I would…

Tension has always existed between games of skill, such as chess or draughts, and games seemingly based on chance, like…

White to play. This is from Hebden-Mannion, Isle of Man 2014. White’s next move completely destroyed the black position. What…

In Competition No. 2871 you were invited to submit a dialogue in verse between man and God. The tone of…

Unclued lights (two of two words and one doing double duty), singly or paired, reveal some that are to be…

Extra letters in clues plus 1A give ‘the separation of philosophers into sages and cranks’, an extract from a quotation…

If I hadn’t summoned the courage to speak to her, I wouldn’t have managed all the other things I’m thankful I’ve done

Plus: What’s not to admire about Brian O’Driscoll

Plus: How to tell your goddaughter she has BO

So the owner is a control freak. I guessed that when I saw the tanks

C.J. Sansom and the battle with anachronism