This week, a ‘voluntary assisted dying’ Bill will be presented to the NSW Parliament, following the recent passage of similar…

What would happen after a loss? Here’s an important question to ponder. What direction would the federal Liberal party take…

Two revolutionary ideas to keep our subs afloat In June 1989 Paul Keating memorably said, ‘I guarantee if you walk…

The ‘experts’ have destroyed their own credibility

The players prepare for the Glasgow Grand Final

A better way to spend the BCA’s $50 billion

The Left has become what it used to despise

The woke elite declares open season on the unvaccinated

How ISKP and the Taliban threaten the world with new jihadism

All politics is local. Even in China

Net zero only the beginning ‘Net zero emissions’ are only the beginning. A similar sleight of hand is occurring with…

Why are so many people putting the planet before parenthood?

The joy of a cluttered museum

Last weekend, for the 54th time, hundreds of competitors met to compete for the title of world conker champion in…

Italy’s anti-Green Pass movement has a new figurehead

There’s no way I could bring children into this world

What has happened to Lebanon is a tragedy

Our plans for the Seychelles twice thwarted, we finally decide on Gozo, Malta. Afraid that the Insulate Britain brigade might…

Boris is returning conservatism to its roots

Home In an extraordinary wrangle between government departments, the Treasury accused Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, of ‘making things up’…

Gasbags Sir: Seb Kennedy tells us that, like Covid, our looming energy crisis came from China (‘Power grab’, 9 October).…

Professor Kathleen Stock of Sussex University is accused by a group of students of being transphobic and a danger to…

Coronavirus may have fallen out of the news cycle but the threat of the virus has certainly not passed. Britain…

I’m on a book tour which involves 65 speeches in 60 days in Britain, Washington, Philadelphia, Virginia, Mexico, California and…

Wrong place, wrong time The name of the village of Nelson, north of Cardiff, was described as ‘problematic’ in an…

Covid transformed the role of the state. During the pandemic, the government did things it would never normally even contemplate.…

Many negative qualities are ascribed to politicians — name-calling, absenteeism, drunkenness — but you rarely hear of my favourite political…

If there’s anyone in Britain who knows how to keep grocery shelves stacked, it’s former Tesco chief executive Sir Dave…

A report by MPs into the spread of the coronavirus has concluded that the government’s approach constituted one of this…

I have not watched the BBC’s new period drama Ridley Road because I knew it would be impossible for the…

Philip Hensher finds this year’s Booker shortlist more concerned with serious world issues than vivid characterisation

As a writer who obsesses over the right title to grab a target audience, seeing a book subtitled ‘Song Collectors…

In the three centuries between 1450 and 1750 in Europe it is estimated that up to 100,000 women were burned,…

E.H. Carr’s 1961 book What is History? has cast a long shadow over the discipline. I recall being assigned to…

The story of the Cambridge spies has been served up so often that it has become stale — too detailed,…

‘Reading is a celebration of the mystery of ourselves,’ according to Elizabeth Strout, who writes to help readers understand themselves…

For modern America, Harlem is a once maligned, now much vaunted literary totem, which continues to occupy a gargantuan place…

Eileen Atkins belongs to a singular generation of British actresses, among them Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Sian Phillips and Vanessa…

And so we look like being able to see live performance again in the two biggest cities in Australia: Sydney…

Sumptuous, glorious, luminous, lavish: Granada’s 40-year-old adaptation of Brideshead Revisited remains the sine qua non of mini-series, says Mark McGinness

Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel is set in the 14th century and is a tale of rivalry and rape told…

Should we be worried that Squid Game is the most popular show in Netflix’s history? If it’s a case of…

In the winter of 1861, visitors to the Louvre might have seen a young artist painstakingly copying one of the…

Here goes. The Young Vic’s Hamlet, directed by Greg Hersov, is a triumph. This is a pared-back, plain-speaking version done…

Leos Janacek cared about words. He’d hang about central Brno, notebook in hand, eavesdropping on conversations and trying to capture…

Many of us who grew up loving the Smiths have rather shelved that affection in recent years. Many of us,…

‘I’ve actually seen ghosts.’ This statement comes less than ten minutes into the first episode of Dark House, a limited-series…

The political career of Christian Porter has been destroyed by the ABC. This is someone who was the Commonwealth Attorney-General…

A Speccie reader has emailed asking me for an explanation of the word ‘climatarian’. We know what Presbyterians are, she…

The horse lorry arrived and lowered its ramp — and I stood in front of it knowing that my thoroughbred…

Catriona and I were late for lunch at Vernon’s because I couldn’t get out of bed. The four of them…

The Gold Cup is the most prestigious Open Teams event in Britain, and has been ever since Colonel ‘Pops’ Beasley…

I know what Keats was on about with his mists and mellow fruitfulness, but autumn is less of a joy…

They have stepped into the pop-culture spotlight via the HBO hit Succession, a hatchet job on the very rich and…

Could rugby union get any better? The entertainment in the Premiership is breathtaking and the overall product as good as…

There’s a rude gesture in Pickwick that I don’t quite understand. Mr Jackson, a young lawyer’s clerk in conversation with…

Q. On a train journey the other day I sat opposite someone I found immensely attractive. We struck up a…

There is a Batman restaurant in London, or rather there was: Savini at the Criterion on Piccadilly Circus. Savini was…

What is it about retro food? I don’t mean nostalgic food, from school dinner favourites to your grandmother’s signature dishes.…

I’m sympathetic to Oliver Dowden’s formula for defusing culture-war disputes about statues of controversial historic figures: ‘retain and explain’. That…

In Competition No. 3220, you were invited to supply a newly discovered short story by a well-known 19th- or 20th-century…

The hero pauses, plays the move, and announces ‘Checkmate!’ The villain crumples in shock. It’s a scene played out countless…

Unclued entries are words (one hyphened) or phrases (three of four words each, one of three words, two each of…

White to play and mate in one. I found this puzzle online, composed by someone with the pseudonym ‘Illion’. I…

The [5 Down] MILESTONE puzzle number 2525 is the product of PRIME numbers 101 TIMES 5 TIMES 5, equivalently the…