By winning the battle, Labor have managed to lose the war. With such a monumental strategic blunder, Bill Shorten and…

Do not tick the box: stop the Aboriginal industry My father was born in 1903 at Tooan East in the…

For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the…

Just under two weeks until Budget. The office inbox is flooded with the first anti Budget campaign. Campaign tactics are…

Political cowardice and people on the move

Terrified of irrelevance, Christian churches are leaping onto a godless bandwagon

The ‘Lomborg affair’ shows the intellectual bankruptcy of contemporary Australian academia

Politicians everywhere have an uncanny knack of dividing, not uniting, their people

Cameron's data guru speaks exclusively to The Spectator

To fulfil his one-nation mission, there must be a reshuffle inside No. 10 itself

Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, soon got used to the surprise of the Conservatives being returned in the general…

Plus: an election too serious for cheesecake; and the amazing jumping rabbits

Plus: The careers of ex-MPs; Scotland’s fiscal balance; and Muslim attitudes to homosexuality

Humility and service have always been the secrets of winning over an electorate

From ‘Germany and the United States’, The Spectator, 15 May 1915: The text of President Wilson’s Note to Germany on the…

Modern migrant families Sir, In recounting the positions in print of the likes of Miranda Devine from the Right, and…

Plus: the BBC licence fee; Mrs Thatcher and the Jimmys; and Etonians in the Cabinet

Let ‘champagne socialist’ become a slur, and you give a free pass to those who want to drink it all themselves

Plus: The lessons of a post-poll bender

Fortunately for the country, however, he's a lucky one

Three studies of the gut give a whole new meaning to toilet books, says William Cook. They’re actually worth reading

Artists are so dull and self-important these days — witness Richard Cork’s and Hans Ulrich Obrist’s turgid, witless interviews with them, says Stephen Bayley

The Golden Age of crime writing is over and all the great fictional detectives are gone. Call it Inspector Lestrade’s revenge, says John Sutherland

Patrice Gueniffey’s 1,000-page biography of Napoleon may exhaust even the most ardent enthusiast, says Conrad Black —who counts himself as one. And there are another three volumes to come.

Tracey Thorn voices her anxieties in Naked at the Albert Hall,  a haunting memoir of singing and stage-fright

Jimfish, Christopher Hope’s caustic new satire on South Africa, has a surprisingly upbeat finale — but Patrick Flanery is unconvinced

First novels usually turn out to be fourth or fifth attempts, says Mario Reading. But this latest batch is a cut above average

Paul Heywood-Smith QC has written a weak case for Palestine. A much stronger book was there to be written, but…

On the eve of a UK visit, the 83-year-old king of comedy offers a few tips

Designer Alison Chitty provides the necessary visual volume but elsewhere there’s too much timidity - especially from Leigh

Plus: on the trail of the Anglo-Indians who’ve lived all their lives on the subcontinent but still feel British and what’s it like inside Grayson Perry’s head?

Winter’s Tale, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, even Midsummer Night’s Dream, all deserve to sink

Elijah Moshinsky is back in town, in Melbourne, where it all began. Responsible for the most insightful and beautiful productions…

No more European superstate, no more dominance from Brussels, no more foreign judges issuing left-wing human-rights ukases

From the North Sea, with a bunch of elderly snobs, to the Caribbean with 3,000 Americans on the Atkins diet

Why else would they vote to wreck the economy on principle

And this year’ runners and riders to watch

The best EBU tournament of the year is, IMHO, the Schapiro Spring Foursomes, held at the beginning of May in…

During the World Championship qualifier of 1959, grandmaster Pal Benko wore dark glasses to counter the hypnotic gaze of his…

White to play. This position is from Tal–Benko, Candidates 1959. Black has just advanced with … e5, attacking the white knight.…

In Competition No. 2897 you were asked for a job application by a well-known writer, living or dead. Inspiration for…

Clockwise round the grid from 37 runs a quotation plus its source (3,3,5,8,8,5,2,3,6,2,3,4) suggesting the outcome of 2. Remaining unclued…

The fictional SCHOLAR (28) was Billy Bunter, described by his creator, Frank Richards, as a ‘FAT GREEDY OWL (22A/31/26)’ (in…

It must be wrestled out of the control of the left

What Andrew Strauss – don’t call him ‘Straussie’ – needs to do

Plus: Kissing elderly ladies, and avoiding annoying phone calls

But not to worry: someone else will have borrowed it soon