Perhaps it’s been Malcolm’s cunning masterplan all along. And here’s how it works: spend month after month raising all sorts…

Working my way back to Australia after a long exile in the US, I stop off in London the day…

The progressive elites will try to do to Cruz what they did to Abbott

There is a role for government in innovation, but it’s not in picking winners

Conservative commentators railing against the latest aggrieved and offended victim are missing the real target

Universities are simply doing their job teaching middle-class life skills

The Alesandro Ljubicic interview

If Year One is anything to go by, Victoria under Daniel Andrews is in for a bumpy ride

Self harm and false allegations are all part of the deadly game certain ‘do-gooders’ are playing

2.5 million Syrian refugees have already arrived, and almost as many again are expected. How can Turkey cope?

Again and again I was asked: why is Britain supporting the terrorists in Syria’s civil war

Without proper control of our laws, the rest matters much less

He’s unpopular with the chattering classes, but at least the former Education Secretary doesn’t talk down to voters

They’re both very old – but he’s retro

Chasing the shadows of New Year’s Eve through the spring carnival

We have changed our understanding of whales and by doing so we have changed our understanding of the world

These brutal, needless deaths are driven by an underground economy that the state has consciously decided not to control

If George Osborne carries on hacking at tax relief, we’ll need to find new ways to save for our old age

It’s not that important to our economy – not yet, anyway – and its slowdown has been exaggerated

The maths has changed. And the Chancellor and the Bank of England could well change it further

Playing for England, you know you're in the team they all most want to beat, says James Simpson-Daniel

The way we fund medical training is out of date and does not take into account that there is a global marketplace for doctors

Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said that if Britain left the European Union, France could stop allowing British officials…

Plus: Piers Morgan, Ted Cruz, hopes for Hilary Benn, and why the Conservatives should get rid of Trident

Also in our Barometer column: where election spending goes; the distribution of arts subsidy; the riskiest snow sports

Britain has an opportunity to lay the foundations of an independent future

From ‘Marching through France’, The Spectator, 12 February 1916: Finally we came to the trenches themselves, and all around was…

Promoting Kevin Sir: I agree with Neil Brown that Kevin Rudd’s narcissism, activity without achievement etc. make him the perfect…

His proposed sovereignty law makes it harder for Boris Johnson and Michael Gove to back the ‘in’ campaign

Also in Charles Moore's notes: why Nigel Farage would not want Britain out; more on Bishop Bell

The predominance of brilliant black footballers contributed hugely to changing British views

Plus: Remembering Sir Jeremy Morse, the poet-banker of Lloyds

Lynn Knight extracts a rich history of birth, marriage, mourning — and top-to-toe glamour— from a box of Victorian buttons

With eagles now apparently the our best defence against drones, James Macdonald Lockhart’s Raptor is a timely survey of Britain’s elusive birds of prey

Bakewell’s random reflections on life are confused, contradictory — and, well, a bit half-baked

Anakana Schofield’s novel of social and mental breakdown fizzes with surface humour — but it’s not an easy read

Two new books take equal delight in celebrating the city’s violent past and vibrant present

Parks’s latest novel is entitled Thomas and Mary: A Love Story — but there is no romance, no Mary, and not much of a plot

Owen Hopkins rescues England’s least known architect from the shadows of Wren and Vanbrugh and gives him the prominence he deserves

George Finch was a brave mountaineer and an inventive scientist — but, according to Robert Wainwright, his fellow alpinists couldn’t stand him

There is little kindness in this novella about a hospitalised American writer estranged from her husband, children and parents— particularly her mother

In two books on the upheavals — and communist scare-mongering— 60 years ago at home and abroad, Soviet Man seems a model of tact compared to the imperious British establishment

Robert S. Boynton provides is a hair-raising account of North Korea’s kidnapping and brainwashing of countless Japanese citizens — to no purpose whatsoever

Richard Huscraft’s vivid stories of the Angevins’ precarious mini-empire make the 12th century a joy to read about for a change

Question marks over attribution - and character - are at the heart of the a forthcoming Giorgione exhibition at the Royal Academy

Plus: Tim Albery's Cosi for Opera North locks onto the opera's misogyny with sadistic intensity

The original was like going on a drunk night out with the funniest people you know. The sequel just made me feel old

Plus: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom at the Lyttelton is a gripping melodrama that makes you catch you breath with horror

Solemn yet unintentionally comical, the instrument is often overlooked. Yet you can't understand Bach without getting to grips with his chorale preludes

Plus: I hate myself for listening to the current Archers storyline but for the first time ever I simply can't miss an episode

BBC1's Happy Valley may sound excessive and silly, but it isn't half as excessive or silly as The X-Files which has just returned to Channel 5

We played them in the band at primary school but it was several decades before we appreciated the potential of…

As long, that is, as the sinners sin against themselves and not others

The highlight of the Cologne carnival was a wrestling match between a pair of drunk Italians dressed as polar bears

On the Surrey Hampshire border is a vet who follows such an outdated ethical code I won’t give his identity away

The ill-conceived Clean for the Queen campaign asks for deference on an embarrassing scale — and it won’t work

Stuck on Uhuru Highway I thought of Thomas Hardy and how fortunes can change

It’s got to be the most bizarre news story of the year: last week, no fewer than 50 Thai police…

The world champion is back on form. After winning the overall laurels in last year’s Grand Tour, and taking first…

White to play. This position is from Van Wely-Carlsen, Wijk aan Zee 2016. Carlsen had a lucky escape in this…

In Competition No. 2934 you were invited to submit a poem suitable for inclusion in Now We are Rich. You…

The unclued lights (one of two words), individually or as three pairs, are of a kind.   Across   9   …

The unclued lights are DOGS from the classics, legend or of noted people. First prize David Maddison, London E1 Runners-up…

I said yes to The Jump, in which seven contestants have already injured themselves. But they never called back

The nature of inequality has changed since the last century. It may no longer be as helpful

Plus: A Ladybird guide to the EU referendum; an invitation clash

A French professor, a magnificent game pie, and a former High Commissioner of Australia

Met Office, I’m looking at you