With Tony Abbott’s stunning election victory, it is time that the Australian media had a comprehensive purging of those within…

Mr Putin suggests that Syria submit its chemical weapons to international control. Syria’s foreign minister thinks this is a good…

After we had lobbed a few atom bombs on Japan in 1945, the Emperor delivered himself of the understatement of…

My home city of London is famous for producing two of the world’s longest-standing and best-written political magazines. You are…

Tony Abbott’s unusual agenda threatens its future

The left are still drunk on the poisonous propaganda they have long consumed

The new PM is a role model for British conservatives

British pensioners here are being discriminated against — it’s time to unfreeze their state pensions annually

The decline of tribal loyalties spells the end of the big traditional political organisations

The RBS disaster has a distinctly Scottish flavour

The world’s most famous atheist shows off his human side

Take it from me, Mr Farage: you need to change your name

Honesty may be the best and only realistic policy

  Beirut News that the Syrian regime has agreed to hand in its arsenal of chemical weapons is a great…

I am in a yurt, talking about death. Everyone is seated in a circle, and I am the next-to-last person…

We arrive at the tiny Greek island of Sikinos on a blustery day, making landing rather difficult. Is there transport…

Three years ago, our columnist and former editor Charles Moore was summoned to Hastings Magistrates’ Court to pay £807 for…

‘Wider still and wider, may thy bounds be set,’ the ecstatic throng sang at the Last Night of the Proms.…

Home George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said that the British economy was ‘turning a corner’, with ‘tentative signs…

Trust us The National Trust opened the Big Brother House at Elstree Studios at the weekend. Some other less grand…

As a result of Russian laws against propagating homosexuality, there are calls to boycott the 2013 Winter Olympics in Sochi…

Tories and Italians Sir: Roger Scruton must be laughing, or more likely crying, to hear his Meaning of Conservatism described…

His party may be struggling to reach double digits in the polls, but Nick Clegg is entitled to feel smug…

‘Corruption’ is a subtle word, because it describes a process rather than an event. It does not merely mean bad…

The Syrian rebels who liberated the mountain village of Maaloula apparently immediately set about converting the predominantly Christian population to…

The RSPB has come out against fracking and urged the government to ‘rethink its shale gas policies’. And of course…

I’ve never met the woman that the Newsnight editor Ian Katz this week accidentally described as ‘boring, snoring Rachel Reeves’,…

A big hello to the revived Trustee Savings Bank — the spin-off of 631 Lloyds branches that were going to…

David Crane is taken aback by the particular contempt Max Hastings appears to reserve for the British at the outbreak of the first world war

In the first draft of the screenplay for the film Gladiator, the character to be played by Russell Crowe (‘father…

In both his novels and non-fiction, D. J. Taylor has long been fascinated by the period between the wars. Now…

Like Miranda Seymour, the author of this considerable work on Anglo-German relations, I was raised in a Germanophile home. I…

It is by now surely beyond doubt that those governments committed to fighting the war on drugs — and on…

The historian of China Frank Dikötter has taken a sledgehammer to demolish perhaps the last remaining shibboleth of modern Chinese…

There is a hoary Cold War joke about a newly invented translating machine. On a test run, the CIA scientists…

Every fashion era has its monster and in ours it’s Karl Lagerfeld, a man who has so emptied himself on…

Given the outcome of recent military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is pertinent to look for one particular quality…

Since his suicide, David Foster Wallace has made the transition from major writer to major industry. Hence this UK issue…

In 1998, the Jamaican singer Bounty Killer released a single, ‘Can’t Believe Mi Eyes’, which expressed incredulity that men should…

For some reason you don’t expect people to be fans of the Mitford sisters, as others are fans of Doctor…

Robert Gore-Langton meets Gregory Doran, new artistic director at the RSC

How and when do you become ‘a fan’, exactly? You can usually spot pop stars who are losing touch with…

Suddenly they’re all at it. Actors, that is, writing plays. David Haig, Rory Kinnear and Simon Paisley Day are all…

A mixed exhibition of paintings, drawings and prints devoted to the subject of the tree might sound an unexciting event,…

The many opera performances at the Proms this year have all been so successful, especially the Wagner series, that I…

Just do it, quoth the Nike advert — and these men just did it. Grass, asphalt, fear, pain, doubt and…

Funny what rises from the rubble. In 1916 British army officer Captain Fred Roberts was searching the bombed-out remains of…

Five women, five very different stories of arriving in the UK, often unwillingly and always alone. How did they cope…

So, there’s this guy called Bob Dylan and, across just seven years in the 1960s, he’d released nine albums that…

To London for a brief visit to meet Spectator readers, as nice a reason as I can think of for…

One evening last week, I trotted over to the caravan site’s clubhouse to use the wifi and pick up emails.…

‘Congratulations! You’ve qualified for The Sunshine Tour!’ beamed the lady judge, as she pinned a rosette to my horse’s bridle.…

It is exactly 40 years since my elder brother John gave up a successful career as a publisher to set…

Cape Peron was my easiest choice for our Twelve to Follow. When Henry Candy smiles his gentle smile, as he…

In any sport, a sense of elation is a dangerous thing. When a player does something good, he can’t afford…

It is often said that the great chessboard artist, Polish Grandmaster Akiba Rubinstein, was afflicted during tournament play by an…

Black to play. This position is from Rotlewi-Rubinstein, Lodz 1907. This is the conclusion of one of Rubinstein’s most famous…

In Competition 2814 you were invited to describe how a great writer stumbled upon an idea that he or she…

Each of 23 clues comprises a definition part and a hidden consecutive jumble of the answer including one extra letter.…

Twelve unclued lights are names of ARTISTS which are ANAGRAMS (9) of superfluous words in clues.   First prize E.…

I was at a surprise birthday party for a member of the cabinet last week when a Conservative minister spotted…

I am surprised no more attention has been given to Martin Vander Weyer’s suggestion in The Spectator two weeks ago…

Q. What to do when you are an unwilling eavesdropper in a train carriage in which people you know assume…

Marcher country, the Jura lies to the east of Burgundy and the contrast is marked. Burgundy: the very name is…

Oxford Dictionaries have been adding some rather silly words to their online resources, such as phablet (‘a smartphone with a…