On April 3rd, 2018, a group of conservative Coalition backbenchers announced the formation of the Monash Forum. Many dismissed this…

I am afraid I cannot join in the universal and maudlin distress into which so many of our fellow citizens…

It is unclear, at time of writing, whether an application to stage America’s inaugural Straight Pride Parade on the streets…

Reading the spectacular biography Nixonland is like stepping back into the future when it comes to the current presidency, and…

In the land of the so-called ‘fair go’ it comes as no surprise that the words ‘fair’ and ‘fairer’ seemed…

Last week, with all the stealth of the pirates of Penzance, Australia’s Federal Police, raided not one but two major…

Despite constant doom-saying over climate and commentators wringing their hands over floods in Queensland and droughts in NSW and Victoria,…

Since the advent of cable news and the internet most politically-interested Aussies now follow US politics more than UK politics.…

They recently released a poll over here in Britain. Only women were polled and they were asked ‘Would you sleep…

The euphoria is understandable. After trailing Labor in the polls throughout the last parliament, the Liberals can be forgiven a…

The suggestion that Australia may well be the world’s most secretive democracy is even more ludicrous when we consider its…

Even before the government this week announced a legally binding target to cut greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by…

Whatever the authorities in Beijing say, the anger on the streets of Hong Kong isn’t synthetic, nor is it stirred…

Our upstairs neighbours are not the sort of people you want to have run-ins with. They have regular moped deliveries…

There are plenty of much-anticipated contests in the 2019 Cricket World Cup. But nothing to compare with this Sunday’s match…

 New York For leftist anti-Trumpers like me, the Mueller report was initially a godsend, though not for the more obvious…

When I was growing up in the late 1960s, boys like me craved the admiration and approval of our dads;…

I am memorialised twice in my village church. Not in some premature lapidary way, but in the visitors’ book. The…

‘Choice’ is a word that is used liberally in Conservative thinking — whether it be about schools, hospitals or consumer…

Home Michael Gove, the Environment Secretary, a candidate for the Conservative leadership, admitted he had used cocaine several times 20…

It was when the kindly folk at the Theatre Royal Haymarket said ‘You’ll be in Paul Whitehouse’s dressing-room’ that it…

As Tory hopefuls bid to become prime minister, they might like to reflect on Cyrus the Great (r. 557-530 bc),…

What’s in a name? If Jeremy Hunt wins the Conservative leadership election both prime minister and leader of the opposition…

ABC bites Sir: It has been widely reported that the ABC in its wisdom is mounting a court case against…

You would think it would be unarguable that ‘Serious times demand a serious leader’. This, with small verbal variations, is…

There’s a joke going around the various warring tribes in the Tory leadership contest. They might not win this time,…

The BBC has advised its journalists not to use the word ‘terror’ or ‘terrorist’ when some bloke blows himself up…

Cocaine is an abominable drug, by far the most hateful of all the various uppers and downers and psychoactives because…

As I write these words, I regret to inform you, John Cleese is on his way to being cancelled. Now…

Hounds are baying for the blood of former star investment manager Neil Woodford, whose shrinking funds have closed for withdrawals.…

The crusades are part of everyone’s mental image of the Middle Ages. They extended, in one form or another, from…

Meet Deen Datta, a nervous, practical and cautious man, born and brought up in Calcutta, who now lives in Brooklyn,…

What is it about Naomi Wolf that inspires such venom? Perhaps that she’s American, brash, media-savvy and not averse to…

Anne de Courcy, an escapee from tabloid journalism, has become a polished historian of British high society in the 20th…

K.S. Komireddi sets out to establish his secular credentials before he sets up his primary argument: which is that India’s…

As rousing death-and-glory speeches go, it is one of the best. With a besieging Roman army only hours from storming…

I couldn’t help thinking, as I read this book, of an old story, vaguely recalled from English A-level classes, about…

Brian Bilston’s life is summed up perfectly by the incident with his neighbour’s dog. The annoying Mrs McNulty comes round…

Susannah Stapleton’s erudite but hugely entertaining debut is a true-life detective story about the quest for a true-life detective. A…

Western attitudes to piracy have dripped with hubris. In his classic history of 1932, Philip Gosse confidently argued that European…

In 2002 I flew to New York to interview the dance music producer whose 1999 release Play remains the bestselling…

‘Playing God is indeed playing with fire,’ observed Ronald Dworkin. ‘But that is what we mortals have done since Prometheus,…

If you’ve paid even passing attention to early reports of the Spice Girls comeback tour, you will be aware of…

Usually, the return of Killing Eve would be pretty much guaranteed to provide the most unconventional, rule-busting TV programme of…

Nine on a Thursday morning is University Hour for those of us who don’t commute to an office every day.…

Sometimes it’s hard to describe a play without appearing to defame the writer, the performer and the theatre responsible for…

‘It is no easier to make a good painting,’ wrote Vincent van Gogh to his brother Theo, than it is…

Where was the desire, the frisson, the flicker of attraction? Hell, where was the sex? I ask because a week…

Diego Maradona, Asif Kapadia’s take on the poor boy from the slums of Buenos Aires who became a footballing god,…

‘Tutto nel mondo e burla’ sings the company at the end of Verdi’s Falstaff — ‘All the world’s a joke’…

A magnificent Empire-style townhouse near the Bois de Boulogne contains a remarkable collection of paintings. On rue Louis Boilly, the…

A lady once offered to go to bed with me if I could ensure that she would write The Spectator’s…

As usual I go downstairs at five o’clock in the morning and into the dining room, which now serves as…

When is planning permission for four loft windows actually planning permission for two? Or simultaneously vice versa? It’s a very…

Bridge is such a complex, multi-layered game that a single hand can be approached in myriad ways, depending on the…

The Isle of Lewis chess pieces are one of the proudest possessions of the British Museum and also the National Museum…

White to play. This position is a variation from Ding Liren-So, Stavanger 2019. White could continue the attack with 1…

In Competition No. 3102 you were invited to submit a fan letter from one well-known person from the field of…

It is the centenary of a daring feat. Unclued lights (two of two words) include two surnames, two locations (two…

The unclued lights are all hybrid animals whose names are formed by combining the names of the two original animals.…

If I were a pensioner, I’d be a bit miffed by the BBC’s decision to end the policy of giving…

Hardly any men can hit a tennis ball on clay better than Dominic Thiem. Unfortunately he ran into one who…

Q. A friend of 30 years moved abroad three years ago. He then was diagnosed with throat cancer but mercifully…

I am obsessed with Fortnum & Mason, and the jams of the England that never was but could be. It…

‘How many words will you use today, first used by Thomas Browne in the 17th century?’ asked a trailer on…