Talk of Cory Bernardi’s ‘betrayal’, or of him ‘ratting out’ on his colleagues, is disingenuous twaddle at best. As we…

Until a few days ago I was planning to start this column with: ‘Have you noticed how the heat has…

President Trump was right. It was a ‘dumb deal’, dumb for both Australia and the United States. First, it was…

It’s hard to imagine that, less than five years ago, Cory Bernardi was Tony Abbott’s parliamentary secretary. The role suited…

January 29, 2017 might be remembered by Australians and Americans as the day when the President of the United States,…

In the warm afterglow of the festival of tennis that was the Australian Open, and the glorious men’s final match…

I have argued before that New Zealand and Australia might combine their defence forces, providing New Zealand pulled its weight…

At last a rational solution to Australia’s government-generated economically-crazy job-destroying energy crisis? Or just more pie in the sky from…

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day to the last syllable of PM…

F. Scott Fitzgerald got it wrong; it’s not the rich who are different from you and me — it’s the…

Just before Christmas, Sajid Javid performed a ritual he has observed twice a year throughout his adult life: he read…

There aren’t many toy companies that could make headlines in the business press merely by expanding their London offices —…

In typical theatrical style, the outgoing Bishop of London, Richard Chartres, he of the sonorous voice and imposing beard, ‘never…

You know the old designation NSIT — Not Safe in Taxis? Well, we need a new one: TSIU — Too…

Henry, our springer spaniel, has died, suddenly and prematurely. With the passing weeks, we are becoming accustomed to the strange…

Is France on the brink of a political revolution? Already, four established candidates for the presidency — two former presidents…

The governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, raises his growth forecasts and suddenly everyone believes the ‘expert’. So…

Match of the knights Emails emerged suggesting David Beckham would rather appreciate a knighthood. How many goals do you have…

February Fill-Dyke. But north Norfolk is dry, at least in terms of rain. Instead we have coastal flooding. Three years…

From ‘The United States and Britain’, The Spectator, 10 February 1917: It would be easy to write down a hundred…

Bankstown lefty Sir: Paul Keating’s political legacy was pretty good, but I have to scoff at his ‘world’s greatest treasurer’…

Home John Bercow, the Speaker of the House of Commons, said he was ‘strongly opposed’ to an address being made…

Throughout John Bercow’s political career he has felt the need to atone for his student days when he was a…

There are few things more predictable than people talking about the unpredictability of politics. We live in an age, we…

How will we remember him, do you suppose? If you’re a committed football fan, possibly for that exquisite chip from…

As we have been reminded this week, the most famous words (apart from ‘Order, order’) ever uttered by a Speaker…

Almost a decade after the financial crisis loomed, our high streets and town centres are full of life again: who…

Boy is planning his gap year. Every few hours he rings from school to give me a progress report. ‘I’m…

We all think pretty highly of ourselves these days, free from old-fashioned ideas about sin. We’re good people. And yet……

Once upon a time, Australian politics was known for its stability. Long periods of one party or another in office,…

In Deaths of the Poets two living examples of the species, Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts, retail the closing…

Michael Chabon’s back. He’d never gone away, of course — more than a dozen books in all — but it’s…

Molly Keane achieved fame and critical acclaim in 1981 aged 75, when she published the novel Good Behaviour, a razor-sharp…

There isn’t a clear line separating crime and literary fiction, but a border zone where ideas are passed from one…

August Geiger led an unremarkable life. Born in 1926, the third of ten children of a Catholic farming family in…

I was a young, aspiring writer when I decided to leave everything behind and move to Istanbul more than two…

‘I was single, straight, and female,’ Emily Witt begins, with all the élan of an alcoholic stating her name and…

Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky was born in the wrong place at the wrong time. Had his Polish ancestor not been exiled to…

If ever there was a book for our uncaring, unsharing times, it is Gwendoline Riley’s First Love, in which Neve,…

I used to work for Ludo, as we all knew him on BBC2’s Did You See?, and was once thought…

2016 was probably the year even the most optimistic of us — those who can genuinely square the new populist…

In the mid-6th century, legend has it, St Brendan set off from Ireland with a currach-load of monks on a…

Unlike with buses, you wait ages and ages for one fabulous film as framed by the older female perspective to…

No Californian could have painted Hockney’s pools. No La-La Land artist, raised on sun and orange juice, would have done…

Those poor Canadian rappers. Hailing from a country with a functioning benefits system, sensible firearms restrictions and relatively harmonious race…

Brahms didn’t always have a beard. The picture in the London Symphony Orchestra’s programme book showed him clean-shaven, and rightly.…

Fully to enjoy Opera North’s new production of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel you need to take a trinocular perspective on…

The BBC foreign correspondent Hugh Sykes was meant to be talking about how music has shaped his life with Sarah…

With the Shannon Matthews story, it’s not easy to accentuate the positive — but BBC1’s The Moorside (Tuesday) is having…

Tennessee Williams’s breakthrough play is a portrait of his dysfunctional family. A young writer, Tom (Williams’s real name), lives with…

If you missed the 100 Objects from the British Museum on display at the Museum of Australia, don’t despair, there…

It’s so hard not to whinge when you’ve had bad luck at bridge — it’s just one of those things…

The Tradewise tournament at Gibraltar has gained a colossal reputation and is even challenging the traditional tournament at Wijk aan…

Black to play. This position is from Gledura-Topalov, Gibraltar 2017. Bulgarian grandmaster Veselin Topalov is not the force he used…

In Competition No. 2984 you were invited to follow in the footsteps of Green Day and Moby and provide Donald…

The unclued lights, which include the German eighth, are of a kind. Ignore all accents.   Across 1    Lines fish…

The unclued lights are items of headgear.  First prize Tony Watson, Twyford, BerkshireRunners-up Philip Berridge, Spalding, Lincolnshire; R.C. Teuton, Frampton…

Q. A (very attractive) man I knew at university invited me to a party given by him and his girlfriend.…

To the Western Isles, or at least to its embassy in Belgravia. Boisdale restaurant always claims to be extra-territorial. There…

When I was young my recurring nightmare was that I would die and be reincarnated as a polo pony. I…

Dr Ivan Mindlin was the in-house casino doctor at the Stardust in Las Vegas in the early 1970s. Mention any…

A law I’d like to see passed would exact severe penalties for the use of the word trope. It is…

The builder boyfriend declared himself very happy with his £65 pee. He insisted it was good value for money because…

For the past six years or so a variety of arts organisations have been campaigning against the English Baccalaureate, or…

A few months ago I was stuck in traffic on my way to give a talk at the Royal College…

 Laikipia plateau, Kenya My great-grandpa Ernest Wise was an engineer who sailed to South Africa towards the end of the…