The agility with which both Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten have innovatively attempted to leap upon the Donald Trump bandwagon…

I have a confession to make. When late last year, on the ill-fated panel show The Verdict, I publicly declared…

Of all the hare-brained ideas that governments come up with, the deal with the US to take refugees from Manus…

Hoots of derision greeted me when I began predicting at the beginning of the year that Donald Trump would win…

On 2 July this year, a handful of Australians from the West, numbering in the tens of thousands, dispatched a…

Here is journalist Rex Murphy of Canada’s National Post calling out the patent bias of so many journalists and opinion…

The hidden cost of Australian nanny-state ‘do-good’ legislation is out of control – and you’re paying for it. Only the…

The new government seems to be struggling with the logistical intricacies of removing Britain from the European Union. I can…

‘A more thrilling, uplifting, glorious way of living has yet to be invented,’ the jockey John Francome said of National…

What was your favourite response from the liberals to Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election? Actress Emma Watson…

Trump’s victory sets a test for conservatives, a test they are failing with embarrassing ineptitude. They are making the oldest…

Let’s take stock. Donald Trump, until last week, had never done a government job or held an elected office. He…

Donald J. Trump always keeps everyone guessing. Is the president-elect ditching his crazy act in order to bring in a…

Though he is a big fan of the European Union, Barack Obama brings bad karma to it. So perhaps he…

Moscow To the Union Jack pub on Potapovsky Lane for a US election night party. The jolly Muscovite Trump supporters…

“Is she really going out with him?’ asks the old Joe Jackson song about a mixed-attractiveness couple. ‘They say that…

‘America’s journey into the great unknown’, screamed a headline greeting Donald Trump’s election as next President of the United States.…

Long divisions Donald Trump reaffirmed his plan for a border wall between the US and Mexico, but said parts might…

One of the stated objectives of this week’s brief strike by prison officers was to publicise the dire conditions in…

Wisdom of crowds Sir: According to Matthew Parris (‘Can we trust the people?’ 12 November), I have become part of the…

Home Nigel Farage, the caretaker leader of Ukip, was photographed with a smiling Donald Trump as the two men held…

Nobody knows anything. William Goldman’s famous first law of the movie business — that no one can say before the…

From ‘English versus German banking’, The Spectator, 18 November 1916: At the present moment a good many of us are in…

 Houston, Texas It’s hard to find anyone in polite society here who admits to having voted for Trump, even among…

So I made £250 betting on Trump to win the presidency. It would have been more, except that every time…

A few weeks ago I discovered that while he should have been focused on the fight of his life during…

What are now called ‘fiscal events’—the Budget and the Autumn Statement—have become the biggest dates in the Westminster calendar. The…

On a day when much fuss was being made about ‘false news’ on the net, it was amusing to study…

Over the past year, we have lost two names cherished by Spectator readers. Rodney Milnes, our opera critic for 20…

A few years ago, in Berne, I visited the apartment where Einstein wrote his theory of special relativity, which changed…

To write, and indeed to read, a history of considerable range, both in terms of chronology and of subject matter,…

When turbaned warriors from Daesh (or Isis) advanced on Raqqa in Syria two years ago, they whooped wildly about having…

The ten pallbearers at Thomas Hardy’s funeral in Westminster Abbey on 16 January 1928 included Kipling, Barrie, Housman, Gosse, Galsworthy,…

The gift books come in all shapes and sizes this year: big, little, tiny, huge, long, short, fat and thin,…

Ali Smith is that rare thing in Britain: a much-beloved experimental writer. Part of her attraction for readers is that…

Constellation by Adrien Bosc (Serpent’s Tail, £12.99) picks nimbly along the divide between fiction and non-fiction. It’s really a speculative…

Robert Twigger’s father was born in a Himalayan hill resort and carried to school in a sedan chair. His son,…

The new government seems to be struggling with the logistical intricacies of removing Britain from the European Union. I can…

Indignation is an adaptation of Philip Roth’s 2008 novel and amazingly, for an adaptation of a Philip Roth novel —…

It’s funny, isn’t it, how a dust jacket on a book can draw you to it from the other end…

Whenever the words ‘stucco house’ appear in the newspapers, you can be certain the occupiers have been up to no…

I wonder why ENO has invested in a new production of Berg’s Lulu, when the previous one, which we first…

Barbed wire, concrete, razor blades, passports, Bakelite and the sewage system are all crucial to the way we live now…

If I tell you that on Monday there was an hour-long documentary about the history of stamp-collecting, then you probably…

One of David Bowie’s last works, Lazarus, is a musical based on Walter Tevis’s novel The Man Who Fell to…

David Mamet has a birthday next week; he’ll be turning 69. Quite a grand old man of American letters. Playwright…

‘What is man, that thou art mindful of him?’ asks the Psalmist. It’s a good question. God Himself doesn’t give…

In Competition No. 2974 you were invited to submit a resignation letter from God.   Despite mankind’s attempts to kill…

In eight clues, cryptic indications omit reference to parts of answers; these parts must be highlighted, to reveal a word…

Q. Following a lavish house party I received a flood of effusive thank-you letters, the bulk of which praised the…

I started watching The Crown, the £100-million television series on the early years of the Queen’s reign, on Netflix but…

The day after the American people applied a very welcome touch on the brakes to the Enlightenment juggernaut, I went…

At the Queen’s Coronation, the Duke of Northumberland carried the Sword of Mercy called Cortana. I mention this for three…

A few months ago I joined forces with Sir Anthony Seldon, the vice-chancellor of Buckingham University, to run an idea…

There are only three infallible rules in advertising. Be distinctive. Make a lot of noise. And try to feature a…

Have you ever felt that none of your partners are on the same wavelength as you? Despite regularly partnering the…

The early games of the World Championship in New York between Magnus Carlsen and Sergei Karjakin did little to contribute…

In PYGMALION (21D), ELIZA (32) said NOT BLOODY LIKELY! (7A/9/12).  Synonyms were NEGATIVE (24), RARE (35), ODDS-ON (20). GB SHAW…

A few days ago, on the Dorset/Somerset marches, autumn was still in orderly retreat. Although a pear tree’s leaves had…

New York   The only thing worse than a sore loser, I suppose, is a sore winner, but thank God…

The Israeli chef and I have become firm friends since he moved out of my flat. He has his own…

 Aero Club of East Africa   The world looked so clean and untroubled during the flight in Bob’s light aircraft…

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White to play. This is a position from Topalov-Caruana, St Louis 2016. Can you spot White’s crushing blow? Answers to…