The Spectator
Australia
Dutton’s genuine leadership
There is a rather delicious irony in the timing of Sky News’s documentary about the chaos, destabilisation, backstabbing and all-round…
London notes
Against common perceptions most political functions are drably catered affairs. Cheap wine, nuts, chips, maybe of the gourmet Red Rock…
Australian Features
Where has all the science gone
Why we must say No to the World Health Organisation
Our enemies have all the time in the world
Patiently waiting while the West does their dirty work for them
Features
Zelensky must be honest about the state of the war
‘Happy New Year! The year of our victory!’ said Volodymyr Zelensky on 1 January. After the liberation of the Kharkiv…
The Week
Columnists
Books
A choice of this year’s cook books
Recipes and food history from Blanche Vaughan, Sky McAlpine, Pen Vogler, Fuschia Dunlop and Fred Hogge, among others
The feel-good football story of Watford Forever
From the age of six, Reggie Dwight followed Watford FC’s fortunes avidly – and when he became the multimillionaire Elton John decided to do all he could to improve them
Prejudice in Pennsylvania: The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride, reviewed
Inspired by his own family history, McBride explores the problems faced by a Jewish shopkeeper and her black neighbours in the small town of Chicken Hill in the 1930s
Leap of faith: the miraculous phenomenon of levitating saints
St Joseph of Cupertino liked to nest in the tops of trees, and Allied pilots were dissuaded by the airborne Padre Pio from dropping bombs near his monastery in Apulia
The balance of power between humans and machines
Robert Skidelsky dismisses the possibility of our annihilation by a superintelligent computer system, since ‘science tells us that we cannot create such a being’. But does it?
How has the Conservative party’s ‘Dr No’ escaped everyone’s notice for so long?
This malevolent figure has been at the centre of the party for more than 40 years, says Nadine Dorries. But nothing in The Plot bears much relation to reality
Was there ever a time of equality in human society?
Living in open savannahs, men and women had no choice but to cooperate. But evolution caused men to fight and dominate, resulting in sexism and social hierarchy
Arts
People of extraordinary glamour
A refreshing and humbling prospect, in a world where we sometimes imagine cultural coverage gets better, is to revisit the…
Life
Aussie life
I’ve never been a fan of Gordon Ramsay. More prudie than foodie, perhaps, I’ve always believed that what comes out…
Language
At first glance ‘deafening silence’ looks like an oxymoron – a noun linked to a contradictory adjective. We know all…











































































