The Spectator
Australia
Abandon ‘net zero’ and win
The path to electoral victory is crystal clear. Scott Morrison must abandon net zero to win the next election. Much…
Australian Features
Woke West gets a wake-up call
Diversity, inclusion and equity? DIE is an apt acronym
Selling Queensland down the river
How environmentalists and politicians helped cause the floods
Vote for the conservative candidate!
Yet another Speccie columnist stands for Parliament. This time in South Australia
We must act with courage, principle and honour
Ukraine: the West must stop rolling over to the Russian war criminal
Features
Convertibles
The earliest cars were technically convertibles because the technology to fit a roof did not exist. Now the dedicated retractable…
Moscow Notebook
Things fall apart. Moscow friends call to say that I have to urgently send my 19-year-old son out of Russia.…
The Week
Tacit approval
Last week Aristotle offered a lesson in tyrant theory. This week Tacitus (ad 56-c.120) offers one in tyrant practice. Tacitus…
Portrait of the week
Home President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine addressed a packed House of Commons by video, echoing Winston Churchill by declaring that…
After net zero
For years British energy policy has been an exercise in wishful thinking. We’ve been living in a fantasy world in…
Columnists
The madness of mutual mayhem — and not exploiting our own fuel reserves
I’ll approach the hot topic of a ban on Russian oil by way of personal anecdote: I’ve never been a…
Russia’s memory war
It seems strange now that any of us ever imagined that Putin might not invade. He thinks of Ukraine as…
Life must go on
Well, at least Covid is over. No sooner had Vladimir Putin’s tanks rolled into Ukraine than the UK’s Covid advisory…
Watching the clock
Having just dusted down my Geiger counter and argued with the family about whether or not there is room for…
The Spectator’s Notes
I wish people would not say Vladimir Putin is mad. One understands him much better if one says he is…
A price worth paying
Nato countries are being careful not to do anything that Russia could claim is an act of war. Just look…
Books
Which Mary is which?
Is there a patron saint of conjecture? Perhaps it is a name known only to Bible scholars, who have rich…
An awful warning
Sins of My Father begins with an ending. Describing her 61-year-old parent’s final desperate flight from a life of vibrant…
Cold comfort
The story of the five women waiting at home for Captain Scott and his doomed polar party is naturally occluded…
Mission accomplished
Nigel Farage was never even an MP, but Michael Crick argues convincingly that he is one of the top five…
The making of a murderer
Were it not for an event on the night of 14 April 1865, John Wilkes Booth would be remembered, if…
Merlin’s stones
When it comes to Stonehenge, we are like children continually asking why and never getting a conclusive answer. There are…
The lady vanishes
How to review a book that pokes fun at critics? When the protagonist of María Gainza’s Portrait of an Unknown…
A magical epic
When the first volume of Marlon James’s Dark Star trilogy appeared in 2019, it was quickly recognised as a masterly…
From the Gauls to the Gilets Jaunes
Philip Hensher is enthralled by Graham Robb’s evocative new history of France
Arts
Great musicals
It’s strange how literature finds its way into other mediums. The current French film festival includes a film of Balzac’s…
The Weather Station: How Is It That I Should Look at the Stars
Grade: C– Anyone remember that TV advert for Canada from the 1980s – a succession of colourful images, including a…
Renaissance radical
‘Camp,’ wrote Susan Sontag, ‘is the paintings of Carlo Crivelli, with their real jewels and trompe-l’oeil insects and cracks in…
Lobster and dead pig
ITV’s new version of The Ipcress File began with a close-up of a pair of black-rimmed glasses just like those…
Wonder woman
Shedding a Skin opens with an office nightmare. Amanda is a mixed-race employee in a predominantly white firm who gets…
Old Marr, new Marr
Andrew Marr got his voice back this week. That may come as a bit of a surprise to everybody who’s…
The artful todger
Mikey (Simon Rex) first appears striding down a road in utterly wrecked jeans and shirt. He is carrying nothing and…
The head in the bed
Fifty years since The Godfather’s release, Thomas W. Hodgkinson revisits the film’s most unforgettable scene
Life
Aussie life
There’s nothing like a war and a flood to ease pretend problems like exaggerated viral outbreaks off the front pages.…
2546: Picture book
43 (two words) created 1A (four words) and 3 10 14 (seven words). The latter inspired 17 30, whose work…
Embolden
The most emboldened man on earth must be Vladimir Putin. Everything seems to embolden him. Treating Russia as a pariah…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. Rory Sutherland recently wrote about high-end takeaways (Wiki Man, 19 February). In the last London lockdown, I was fortunate…
The waste land
I was going to be jolly this week, for variety and denial, but I changed my mind. Instead, I wonder…
Time for rugby to sort itself out
If you were one of the sharp-suited head honchos at CVC Capital Partners, the private equity megalith that has ploughed…
Puzzle No. 693
Black to play. Shirov-Kramnik, Groningen 1993. Shirov threatens Rg3-h3+ so Kramnik forced a draw: 1…Rxg7+ 2 Rxg7+ Kh6 3 Rg8…
My three straight weeks of saintliness
I’m currently standing at the top of Brownie Point Mountain, having spent the past two weeks looking after our three…
Solution to 2543: Parts of Speech
Unclued lights are the many parts each man plays, from the ‘Seven ages’ speech by Jaques (29D) in As You…
Bookish
In Competition No. 3239, you were invited to submit political manifestos inspired by literary heroes. Sajid Javid loves Ayn Rand:…
Taking risks
I do not, as a rule, go looking for a fight on a Sunday morning. Chess, if it must be…











































































