The Spectator
19 May 2018 Aus
Australia
Betraying Trump and Israel
The decision by Australia to boycott the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem is yet another in a long…
Australian Columnists
Brown study
What a refreshing change it is, after decades of the mumbo jumbo of compromise and indifference, to have a president…
Australian notes
Want to know how low the commitment to free speech has sunk these days? About a week ago the White…
Australian Features
Business/Robbery etc
Having politically sabotaged the government’s tax reform package (and endangering its own prospective corporate tax cuts) the big end of…
Turnbull, winner?
It may be far too early to declare Malcolm Turnbull a potential winner of the next federal election but it’s…
A diplomatic error
An ancient Bedouin proverb says ‘I, against my brothers. I and my brothers against my cousins. I and my brothers…
Budget conjuring trick
The Federal Budget process is no more than a conjuring trick to ensure the next election results in a high-taxing,…
Keep the roots of Western Civilisation healthy
Last year’s same-sex marriage campaigns prompted Australians to think deeply about one of the principal institutions underpinning civil society. But…
Parklife
During more or less the whole 20 years that my wife and I have lived in the Blue Mountains we…
Features
Will Italy become the first country to fall to populism?
It looks indeed as if Italy — the beating pulse of European civilisation — will be the first country in…
Macron can see that the EU must change or die
It was a moment to cherish, not to spoil. But I wasn’t the only one at the grand Charlemagne prize…
What does friendship with Israel really mean?
Harold Macmillan once remarked that: ‘There are three bodies no sensible man ever directly challenges: the Roman Catholic Church, the…
The eradication of South Georgia’s rats proves we can do anything – even Brexit
The extermination of every single one of South Georgia’s rats, for the sake of its birds, was confirmed at a…
Wedding lists are out of control – just look at Harry and Meghan’s
I have a phobia of wedding lists. They always seem very presumptuous. Friends ask for monstrous amounts of things that…
Why do powerful men love to be spanked?
Spanking is back in the news. Le vice anglais was meant to be a dying art — a vestige of…
The right stuff: I’ll miss my friend Tom Wolfe
To some, Tom Wolfe’s death might seem a greater loss for readers on the right wing of American culture and…
Notes from Jerusalem: Everyone is in love with Donald Trump
‘Trump Make Israel Great’ reads the banner on the deserted hotel next to the new American embassy in Jerusalem. Unlike…
Nothing quite beats a British beach
‘May I take a picture of your snake?’ I asked the tattooed man with a python around his neck, regretting…
The Week
The choice for MPs is clear: support a free press or side with despots like Orban
That the House of Lords has survived as an unelected chamber is largely down to the Salisbury Convention, which holds…
Portrait of the week: Around 60 killed as US embassy opens in Jerusalem
Home Wages rose quicker than inflation in the first quarter of 2018, at an annual rate of 2.9 per cent,…
My fans say I could have won the Nobel – if it wasn’t for the bizarre sex
The family ranch, which my father acquired when I was about six years of age, lay along the banks of…
What do Gammons really think of gammon-gate?
Gammon vs gammon Controversy raged over whether calling an angry, white, right-wing man a ‘gammon’ is racist. The insult is…
Brexit and sovereignty
Brexiteers argue for ‘sovereignty’, i.e. that Brexit should release us entirely from the grip of Europe, leaving us free to…
Letters: My Iranian friends hate the mullahs and want them to be got rid of
Iran’s hated regime Sir: I disagree with the analysis of Christopher de Bellaigue (‘Trump’s folly’, 12 May). The Iranians I know,…
Columnists
The royals who do best are those who restrain their personalities
The last time we had a royal wedding of comparable dynastic importance (i.e. only a bit important), Prince Andrew married…
We need to stop buying into this ‘divided Britain’ narrative
Amid all the argument in Westminster, everyone can agree on one thing: the country is bitterly divided. The 52:48 divisions…
Turns out life’s not so easy – just look at Ulysses S. Grant
When Winston Churchill was at the nadir of his career, he wrote a biography of his ancestor, the Duke of…
Why this deluded affection for the Palestinians?
The worst entry for this year’s Euro-vision song contest was that vast cater-wauling aboriginal. I can’t remember her name, only…
We might be plunging towards Brexit chaos – but at least everyone has jobs
It’s heartening to see an authentic British entrepreneur heading this year’s Sunday Times Rich List, the industrial-ist Jim Ratcliffe, who…
Books
The wilder shores of excess in William Trevor’s fiction
A very prolific and long-standing writer of short stories reveals himself. William Trevor, who died in 2016, owned up to…
A violent ultimatum ended Giacometti’s brief flirtation with Marlene Dietrich
Those with long enough memories may remember Desmond Morris as the presenter of the hit ITV children’s programme of Zoo…
What was Donald Trump’s father doing at a notorious KKK rally in 1927?
The figure of Donald Trump looms over Sarah Churchwell’s new history of American national identity, which highlights the ugliest features…
The stubborn old Hanoverians saw new Gunpowder Plots everywhere
Once won, rights and freedoms are taken for granted. We all find it difficult to imagine life before the Married…
A brave, bold failure
In the high summer of 1944 the Allies achieved their major victory in Normandy with the closing of the German…
Arts
The real stars of Kew’s newly restored Temperate House
The glasshouses at Kew Gardens are so popular that they can be quite unbearably busy at weekends. And why shouldn’t…
Whoever signed off on the ending deserves a good thrashing: On Chesil Beach reviewed
On Chesil Beach is an adaptation of the Ian McEwen novella set in 1962 when ‘conversation about sexual difficulties was…
The troubling history behind the healthy, happy smile
In his Physiognomische Fragmente, published between 1775 and 1778, the Swiss physiognomist Johann Kaspar Lavater insisted that ‘clean, white and…
How does David Matthews get away with writing symphonies with tunes in them?
‘All fish in flood and fowl of flight/ Be mirthful now and make melody’ writes the poet William Dunbar in…
The greatest French museum you’ve never heard of
Imagine a French museum that’s second only to the Louvre when it comes to paintings, with an eye-watering collection of…
Grief-conjurors, space-mincers and earth-shovellers: performance roundup
They enter two by two. Grannies, mainly. Headscarved, mainly. Some locking arms. A bit glum. Like rejects from Noah’s ark.…
India’s Sistine ceiling
In Tamil Nadu we found that we were exotic. Although there were some other western tourists around, in most of…
Rarely have I sat through such a chaotic and whimsical script: Describe the Night reviewed
Describe the Night opens in Poland in 1920 where two Russian soldiers, Isaac and Nikolai, discuss truth and falsehood. Next…
Sky Atlantic’s Patrick Melrose adaptation is triumphant
Warning: if you haven’t seen it yet, the first episode of the much-anticipated Patrick Melrose (Sky Atlantic, Sunday) contains scenes…
How hospices make you think differently about life
The timing of the Today programme’s series about hospices could not have been more apt, coming as it did so…
A Bowie tribute album: Arctic Monkey’s Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino reviewed
Grade: B+ Oh, terrific — a concept album about a 1970s hotel somewhere in space, plus an attack on our…
Tafelmusik – Bach and His World
One of the most admired music ensembles in the world is touring for Musica Viva Australia until 4 June (Perth,…
Life
The other side of D-Day
Omaha Beach, Normandy I am standing in a German cement bunker having walked through a large gaping hole caused by…
Will LSD cure my Brexit obsession?
An 87-year-old friend, a former doctor, has been urging me for some while to have a look at the latest…
My name’s Melissa and my horse is a grassoholic
Laminitis is a lot like alcoholism. Once you cross the line you can’t go back. ‘My name’s Gracie and I’m…
Musical chairs
Chess, the musical by Sir Tim Rice and the male half of ABBA, Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, runs at…
no. 506
White to play. This position is a variation from Carlsen-Wojtaszek, Vugar Gashimov Memorial, Shamkir 2018. How can White power through?…
New word order
In Competition No. 3048 you were invited to take an existing word and alter it by a) adding a letter,…
2359: Down
The unclued lights (two of two words) can be all be preceded by the same word which solvers have to…
to 2356: Beetle
The unclued lights are compositions by Vaughan Williams; 17, 19/8, 21/23, 27/11, 36/4, 43/28 with the title of the puzzle…
The left’s ‘gammon’ slur just shows conservatives are winning
I was disappointed by the reaction of my fellow conservatives to gammon-gate. For those who haven’t been following this mini-scandal,…
Lord’s next week is the place to be
Good for Ed Smith. The new national selector can’t just rock a fine pair of sunglasses, he can make bold…
Dear Mary: How can I explain the cushion I must take everywhere to sit on?
Q. I have incurable, inoperable back pain that severely hinders my ability to sit and necessitates my taking a cushion…
Here’s where you come to eat dreams – for £95 a head: Ollie Dabbous’s Hide reviewed
Hide is a £20 million restaurant at the Green Park end of Piccadilly, on the three lower floors of a…
Is Donald Trump really bonkers?
John Kelly, the White House Chief of Staff, has a way with words. During the invasion of Iraq in 2003…
