The next federal election is a shoo-in for the Coalition. This statement may appear counter-intuitive, but is nonetheless true. The…

It looks as if Australia is going well in its campaign to win a seat on the United Nations Human…

An American in Paris Donald Trump has withdrawn from the Paris Agreement on climate change. Bravo. The remainder, the 146…

From time to time, a political leader embodies the past, present and future of their nation. Such is Aung San…

Few sensible people who have ever looked at a map would dispute that we are a bit physically isolated down…

Elon Musk is such a good salesman that, despite formidable and blindingly obvious problems, he has managed to convince everyone…

Malcolm Turnbull’s speech to London think tank Policy Exchange on 11 July provided an insight into his government’s ideology, and…

Ernst Bertram’s study Nietzsche: Versuch einer Mythologie was published in 1918, but its first English translation, under the subtitle Attempt…

July is a wonderful month, blessed by federal parliament not sitting and so temporarily depriving the Turnbull government of opportunities…

The Spycatcher trial established Malcolm Turnbull’s reputation at the time as a brilliant champion of free speech. Personally, reviewing a…

When my husband and I arrived in our adored Amsterdam on a sun-drenched schoolday afternoon — less than an hour…

I found the land of lost content last week, west of the Clee Hills in the Shropshire Housman wrote about,…

I first walked into the Oval as a small boy in the early 1950s. My family home was in Brixton,…

Mark Zuckerberg says that Facebook could be to its users what churches are to congregations: it could help them feel…

Edward Colston, mega-rich philanthropist around the year 1700, is the nearest thing Bristol has to a patron saint. The largest…

When I order a cup of tea in Costa, the barista says: ‘Perfect!’ I ask for tap water in a…

Last weekend Daniel Barenboim brought the Staatskapelle Berlin to perform at the BBC Proms for a cycle of Elgar’s symphonies.…

It was surreal to sit in the Donmar Warehouse and watch Committee, a musical based on the investigation into the…

Humanitarian efforts are creating an even greater migrant crisis

It used to be said that loyalty was the Conservatives’ secret weapon. While other parties might descend into internecine warfare,…

Stats 101 Sir: Jeremy Sammut’s discussion (July 15) of Tim Soutphommasane’s argument that “equality of opportunity is a myth in…

Monday morning and I am heading south on Harley Street towards a rendezvous with ramifications, a date that is also…

Home Theresa May, the Prime Minister, told MPs before the summer recess: ‘No backbiting, no carping. The choice is me…

Now here’s a tricky question. The world’s largest oil company, potentially worth six times as much as ExxonMobil and ten…

‘Brexit,’ says my friend David Aaronovitch, ‘is dying.’ We Remainer irreconcilables certainly hope so. But there’s a slim chance the…

The Egyptian-born Muslim cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi was once invited to speak in this country — and the row which developed…

We went to the first night of the Proms last week. Thinking it was all over, we left the auditorium…

Theresa May has made it to the summer. In the aftermath of the election, Downing Street’s immediate aim was to…

Among the many curiosities revealed in this book, few are more startling than the fact that at the height of…

Christopher Wilson’s new novel is much easier to enjoy than to categorise. And ‘enjoy’ is definitely the right word, even…

After years of estrangement in a foreign land, what can immigrants expect to find on their return home? The remembered…

My old friend Richard Ingrams was said always to write The Spectator’s television reviews sitting in the next-door room to…

‘It was a shock, and an epiphany,’ says Fiona Sampson, to realise that many of her favourite places were built…

Most books about British traitors feature those who spied for Russia before and during the Cold War, making it easy…

A screenwriter sits in a lovely rented house somewhere up an Alp in early December. The air is clear, the…

It can’t be easy to switch between editing others people’s fiction and writing your own: how do you suspend that…

The viewer could treat this exhibition as an exercise in ‘compare and contrast’, or follow my preference and simply enjoy…

Great novels rarely make great movies, but for half a century one director has been showing all the others how…

Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk has already been described as ‘a masterpiece’ and ‘a glorious, breathtakingly vivid triumph’, but we need to…

Some art can be made in solitude, straight out of the artist’s head. But portraiture is a game for two.…

Summer nights, hot and humid, mean just one thing — it’s Proms season again. Sore feet, sweaty armpits, queuing outside…

I’m a bit worried about Game of Thrones (Sky Atlantic). Not seriously worried: there’s too much money invested, too much…

‘Rarely, rarely, comest thou, Spirit of Delight!’ wrote Elgar, quoting Shelley, at the top of his Second Symphony. He should…

The new Grange Park Opera at Horsley is amazing, as everyone who visits it must agree. In less than a…

The most compelling pop singers in music right now — at least in the branch where pop singers still play…

The RSC’s summer blockbuster is about Queen Anne. It’s called Queen Anne. It opens at the Inns of Court where…

Unclued lights are words from a famous poem whose title will appear in the completed grid and must be shaded.…

Redundant words were 12A virgin, 16A crazy, 38A mammal, 18D state, 21D greed, 25D tendon, 34D extremist. These respectively defined…

Q. Last summer a friend of my brother-in-law’s house-sat for us while we were in Greece for a week. We…

Katz’s Delicatessen, established 1888, is a theme park of Jewish-American food, with tribute gift shop, on the lower east side…

Valencia was a furnace. During the short ride from the airport, the taxi driver supplemented his chat about the weather…

The Foreword didn’t bode well. This was on the first page of The Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices. It…

Two months after I cancelled Sky, a strange letter arrived in the post. ‘We are writing to you because we…

For obvious reasons this column always welcomes ‘King Roger Rules The World’ headlines on the back pages. And the front…

As a Game of Thrones fan, I feel ambivalent about the fact that the saga is finally wending its way…

A woman I once encountered at the dining table whose prime years were clearly behind her described herself as ‘approaching…

The first week of July is heaven for those of us who don’t normally hear the words ‘bridge’ and ‘holiday’…

New in Chess is one of the world’s leading chess magazines. At one time or another, every contemporary champion and…

White to play. This position is from Quparadze-Uzunoglu, Cesme 2017. Black is hoping for counterplay on the a1-h8 diagonal but…

In Competition No. 3007 you were invited to submit a poem about Larry, the Downing Street cat. Larry came to…

I switch personalities at Spectator parties, depending who the guests are: for our readers’ tea party, I am a warm…