Tony Abbott was right. As I hurried along Phillip Street in Sydney the other Sunday afternoon to the service in…

The first week of September marks not only the first anniversary of the election of the Abbott Government, but the…

The Black Death and other forms of plague are already on Islamic terrorists’ shopping lists

Ideology? Not such a bad idea after all

One of our greatest films celebrates its twentieth birthday

The Paid Parental Leave scheme should be scrapped in favour of an HECS-style loans scheme

The legacy of the maligned Menzies pre-empts and outshines that of the worshipped Whitlam

Ideology? Not such a bad idea after all

It's not about economics – it's about Britain, its values, and what might be destroyed if the country is snapped in two

'National character' is real, and it's not simply down to geography, language, religion or even genetics

The former mayor on Ireland, Scotland, his great rival, and his right-wing Uncle Ken

Democracy and competition – the spirit of the best of ancient Greece – are what make my city great

Cricket has provided education and direction in the lives of thousands

Nicky Haslam's notebook of a season of laughter and sadness

It was one cowboy after another. Then a friend introduced me to Artur

The Scottish independence referendum is the most important vote in recent British history

Home England suddenly began to take the prospect of Scottish independence seriously after a poll of 1,084 people by YouGov…

Plus: Saving Asian tigers, and taking on the Vatican

Plus: Competing estimates of our reserves of oil and badgers

Could the Mayor’s lecture have been dropping a hint about airports? Perish the thought

‘An apology’, from The Spectator, 12 September 1914: We are informed that a story told in a letter from a correspondent…

Leave her alone Sir: I refer to the article “Shorten comes clean” by Rowan Dean on page vii of The…

The success of Yes Scotland seems less shocking when you see the anti-political mood it has tapped into

But if you ask Ian Katz, he’s the future of Newsnight

It’s just taken me a while to notice

Plus: Remembering Sir Jasper Hollom

A review of A Shake of the Dice: Modernity Britain 1959 – 62, by David Kynaston. A formidable and intimate history of four remarkable years

A review of Ashes in the Wind, by Christopher Bland. It's not all arson, ambushes, beatings and murders. Just mostly

A review of A Buzz in the Meadow, by Dave Goulson. This bumble specialist narrates the lurid life histories of insects – and the devastating decline of the bee – with the enthusiasm of a young Gerald Durrell

A review of The Dark Net: Inside the Digital Underworld, by Jamie Bartlett. Essential reading for anyone engaged with the web and the effects it is having on our culture

A review of The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses and the Rise of the Tudors, by Dan Jones, who says it's all Henry VI's fault

A review of Mr Mac and Me, by Esther Freud. Though it sounds promising, Freud’s second novel doesn’t get the tone right

But on reflection is it really imaginable that Britain will have anti-Semitic pogroms within the next few years?

A review of Stone Mattress, by Margaret Atwood. These sharp, wry, humane tales mark a return to form from the acclaimed author

A review of Known Unknowns, by Charles Saatchi. An old-fashioned chamber of horrors in the mould of Ripley’s Believe It or Not

A review of Outline, by Rachel Cusk. A surprisingly compelling, dream-like new novel from the acclaimed but difficult author

A review of William Goldman, by Sean Egan. Cursorily researched and wretchedly written, this biography needn’t be taken seriously

On the 450th anniversary of the Italian artist’s death, we should celebrate the impact this egomaniac had on Western art

Daniel Jackson foresees a desecrated cultural landscape for an independent Scotland, with artists forced to do Salmond’s bidding

Plus: at the Morley Gallery it is the popular arts that have produced some of most poignant and unfamiliar images

Still, Joni Mitchell retires from time to time, appalled by the iniquities of the music business and her own inability to overcome them

Though both the Proms performances of Elektra and Salome, and the Winslow Hall production of Lucia di Lammermoor get full marks

Plus: the Scots dialect shouldn’t put you off The Flouers o’Edinburgh at the Finborough Theatre that uses suspense and surprise reversals to great effect

But will anyone shed a tear for the Welsh valleys, where a fifth of the working-age population is stuck on benefits?

Plus: Alison Steadman spoofs a sex-mad insect and Ambridge is rocked by the arrival of a pregnant ex

Plus: an appreciation of Would I Lie To You?

The village of Bibbenluke sits at the point where the Monaro Highway crosses the Bombala River. It’s beautiful, remote,  and…

Unfortunately, it was racing I was there for

An idyllic place and the idealist who studied it

After all, I'm not going to get the HRT I need here

Without one, my position as a poultry-keeper is under threat

Unlike poker, there’s not much money to be made from bridge tournaments (consider yourself lucky if you win £40 in…

Fabiano Caruana has dominated the Sinquefield Cup in St Louis in a way that almost defies belief. The Italo-American grandmaster,…

White to play. This is from Caruana–Nakamura, Sinquefield Cup, St Louis 2014. Caruana could have registered an even greater performance…

In Competition No. 2864 you were invited to submit an imaginary feature from a newspaper’s health pages extolling the benefits…

The unclued lights are of a specific kind. Additionally each is a legitimate inflected headword in Chambers. Elsewhere, ignore one…

The unclued lights are BUTTERFLIES (as is the ‘comma’ in the title). The pairs are 7/34A, 13/24, 33/6 and 35/25.…

After all, lots of the seem to blame me for things already

They're scared to praise British culture, so they talk money. It doesn't work

Plus: Learn to blow your nose without being noticed; and prevent book theft

Four remarkable clubs, three of which may not realise they’re clubs

An etymology lesson for Lord Ashdown