If we continue down that path, we are going to leave future Australians with a lesser quality of life and…

Quos deus vult perdere, prius dementat – with apologies to Boswell. (‘Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.’)…

Sour grapes - or inside knowledge?

Oxford students being the custodians of Western civilisation, I expect a big rollup of young tweed eager for a dose…

Mr Abbott’s problem is that he’s got ‘yielding’ and ‘unyielding the wrong way around

Think the Liberals federal leadership spill was bizarre? Try the Northern Territory’s

From anti-terror laws to Section 18C, both sides of politics have a bet each way

The culture of the ‘selfie’ is now infecting our, er, culture

Smartphone romance is all swipes, clicks and sexts. And real life is going the same way

On Murdoch, big business, Syria and Palestine, the Labour leader has changed the game. Some will never forgive him

Religion, as a special category of life, is a modern, Protestant invention and the most anachronistic feature of modern paganism is that it so eagerly claims to be a religion at all

She was magnificent. Then something terrible happened

In its efforts to reflect the real world, the BBC’s flagship soap has unconsciously embraced the Tory vision

It’s a favourite charity of David Cameron and many celebrities. But does it do what it claims to do?

More freedom means more chance to make mistakes. Here’s how to use the Osborne reforms responsibly

A careful contrarian’s guide to betting against the oil bust

How much the economy does or doesn’t grow from here is neither here nor there for the stock market

For the visitor, Fez offers up extremes by the hour, be it the beggar a palatial riad hotel or hammer blows from the metalworkers market set against the calm of the mosque

Nato must be a defensive alliance, not a welfare state with bombs

Home Philip Hammond, the foreign secretary, told Parliament that Britain reserved the right to supply arms to Ukraine, as ‘We…

Plus: The strange feeling of a final chapter, and hope in Sri Lanka

Plus: How far did Japanese prices deflate? And just how dangerous are lorries?

Security vs liberty. Home win

From ‘Prohibition in Scotland during the War’, The Spectator, 13 February 1915: At present the economic waste caused by drunkenness…

Royal slip Sir: Philip Murphy’s ‘Sir’ Bob Carr of Italy article (Spectator Australia, 7 February) refers, in relation to Prince…

But they won't know the truth until it's too late

It’s heaven to pour a fair-trade coffee and snigger at the letters page, with its epic self-regard and its outrage

An old acquaintance who’s a millionaire investor has given me a few ideas

Plus: The mysteries of deflation, and a £55 million pound shop deal

The last ruler of the Persian empire will always be eclipsed by his famous adversary Alexander the Great, according to a review of Darius by Pierre Briant

A review of The Utopia Experiment by Dylan Evans reminds us that designs for living always end in tears, or worse

Following S.J. Watson’s bestselling Before I Go to Sleep, Second Life provides a similarly compelling, claustrophobic slice of domestic noir

A review of Mad Men and Bad Men by Sam Delaney suggests that the admen in charge of political campaigns are the first to doubt their effectiveness

In a review of A Spool of Blue Thread, Anne Tyler’s latest and possibly last novel, Susan Hill is captivated by the everyday lives of an unremarkable Baltimore family

A review of After Hitler by Michael Jones describes the last defiant days of the German Reich and how the SS continued to massacre women and children to the bitter end

A review of Nothing is True and Everything is Possible by Peter Pomerantsev describes the chilling world of modern Russia where the aim is to fool all the people all of the time

William Cook reports from the sooty Belgian netherworld near Mons that made an artist of Van Gogh

Paul Morley reports from two experimental new exhibitions: PJ Harvey at Somerset House and Christian Marclay at the White Cube

Plus: are Jonathan Burrows and Matteo Fargion losing their satirical touch?

Damian Thompson explores the politics of classical music from the butt-kissing of Dudamel and Gergiev to the German nationalism of Christian Thielemann

Edward Gardner’s conducting was so good he should be knighted forthwith, insists Michael Tanner

Plus: a sweet and captivating confection ruined by a violent end at Theatre503

Deborah Ross catches a subtle humdinger of a film about love and real estate

Plus: David Tennant’s heroic debut on Just a Minute

Bob Odenkirk is undeniably brilliant as Saul Goodman

He gave himself the name ‘Tennessee’; a creative and public relations masterstroke for a still unknown 28 year-old writer. Born…

But last week in Gstaad was as good as it gets: the slopes were empty, the sun shining and the snow perfect

It was all a very long way from E.M. Forster and Mastermind

It only took several calls, two days and 25 emails

Not only will the passenger have nothing to do; he will have nothing to fear

But I’ll still offer to fight anybody who says Africa is beyond hope

Before returning to Australia about a decade ago, Michael Courtney spent several years playing high-stake rubber bridge in London. Those…

The Tradewise Masters in Gibraltar has been won by the American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura, with the British co-champion David Howell…

White to play. This position is a variation from Bellin-Georgiadis, Gibraltar 2015. White has given up his queen. How does…

In Competition No. 2884 you were invited to submit a poem in praise or dispraise of beards. The beard has…

Each of sixteen clues contains one misprinted letter in the definition part. Corrections of misprints spell the name (three words)…

Material from superfluous words in clues gives ‘fingers on buzzers’ (describing 2/20 and 8/33), ‘your starter for ten’ (indicating 31,…

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon wants to improve Scotland’s education system by pouring money into it. It’s the wrong approach

Who knew there was a surrealist protestor at the Kennedy assassination? Or a whole clique of professional game-show contestants?

Plus: how to fend off a corridor-creeping host, and the difficulty of backseat kissing

Jokes relieve stress, and soldiers have plenty of that

And Jane Austen used ‘sure’ as an emphatic yes