‘And just when it looked like Labor might hold on to power, Chris Bowen came thundering into town to snatch…

There are few issues of public interest that have aggravated me as much as the recent defenestration of Peter Costello.…

Hiding leftist policies behind vacuous words

Honours should be about merit (so here are mine)

2030 target is gone

The sweetest ten words in Hebrew

As Noa comes home, where are Muslim supporters?

France next?

How Hungary hopes to Make Europe Great Again

The West must rearm, and soon

We could be the richest people on Earth

Thanks to an underage relative who’d stolen my driving licence, I recently found myself ID-less at the local Co-op. I…

In downtown Düsseldorf, a district known as ‘the longest bar in the world’, hordes of happy England fans belted out…

If you’re going to fleece a bookies, it would be wise to ask a friend to place the bet on…

‘One of the things that’s coming up over and over again is Islamophobia,’ says Keir Starmer in a campaign video,…

Never mind Labour’s promise not to raise income tax, national insurance or VAT – the party will soon be jacking…

At the age of 66 I feel like a first-time voter. As a member of the House of Lords, I…

So much of life is a search for answers. How to get ahead, how to earn more money, how to…

Ukraine’s allies are running out of patience

Major error Sir: Even as a former Tory voter, I acknowledge that the predicted scale of the Conservative electoral defeat…

Keir Starmer is frustrated. He wants to talk about the future but interviewers like me will insist on asking him…

Home The electorate mulled over the words of Grant Shapps, the Defence Secretary: ‘You don’t want to have somebody receive…

Emmanuel Macron’s decision to call a snap election in France is turning out to be a blunder of Sunakian proportions.…

For some while I have marvelled at the way in which artworks seem to have become the focus of hatred…

For progressive onlookers abroad, the Labour landslide now projected next month will seem a cheerful counterweight to the EU parliamentary…

During the 1983 general election, I campaigned every single day with great zeal and avidity. I knocked on quite literally…

Odessa Our conference here is about Black Sea security, where I am the guest of UK Friends of Ukraine. Its…

On a street in Camberley, Surrey, a pensioner stands in the doorway, rollers in her hair, staring with some bemusement…

The opposite of attraction is repulsion. Political commentary gives too little attention to a party’s (or leader’s) capacity to repel.…

The seizure of enemy treasure, formerly known as plunder and pillage, is an ancient tool of war. Though still practised…

If the country were a person, it would need its friends to sit it down and deliver it a few home truths about its damaging behaviour to itself and others, says Michael Peel

Recent short stories and a novella all feature protagonists in pursuit of an ambition that puts them in varying degrees of peril

Russian hand pies, Polish chlodnik, Turkish fruit compote and a Latvian trifle are among the many dishes recreated in Edinburgh by the globetrotting Caroline Eden

The philosopher Nick Bostrom speculates imaginatively about the travails of extreme leisure, but we don’t get any guru-like nuggets

The wild and wonderful music that exploded from West Germany in the 1970s stemmed from a young generation’s determination to escape the trauma of the Nazi past

The original blood libel, which materialised after the First Crusade in the 11th century, proved a turning point for Jews, as a wave of religious frenzy swept communities away

On a visit to England in 1556, Ivan the Terrible’s envoy alienated Londoners with his extreme suspicions – and lurid insults have been exchanged ever since

A fictionalised version of Messud’s recent family history traces the many moves of three generations forced into exile from Algeria

The drama of the street is a constant theme, though Balzac himself took most pleasure in the city’s ‘gloomy passages and silent cul-de-sacs between midnight and two in the morning’

It was fascinating to see Patti LuPone that immense Broadway musical star interviewed with such palpable reverence by the ABC’s…

Jeff Nichols’s The Bikeriders is based on the book by photojournalist Danny Lyon, first published in 1968, about his years…

In 1958 an elderly gentleman staying at the Castle Hotel in Berwick-upon-Tweed gave the receptionist a doodle he had made…

Ask the man in the street to quote a line from one of Salman Rushdie’s novels, and he might struggle.…

Some Demon by Laura Waldren is a gem of a play that examines the techniques of manipulation and bullying practised…

‘A working class hero is something to be.’ Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer must have missed the conflicted, sardonic edge…

Over this summer you can see Swan Lake performed at the Royal Opera House by the Royal Ballet; at the…

In 1905, shortly before the world première of The Merry Widow, the Viennese theatre manager Wilhelm Karczag got cold feet…

Jason Dessen, the hero (and, as you’ll discover shortly, anti-hero) of Apple TV’s latest sci-fi caper Dark Matter, is a…

The other day, I went to see a nouveau riot-girl band called Claire Dance play in a disused factory in…

Being an AFL umpire does not look like a job for the thin-skinned. Given the passion of the code’s fan…

My thanks to Speccie reader Ian from Cairns for suggesting that the members of the Albanese government are post turtles.…

About halfway round the park, by the last spindly remnants of the Festival of Britain, I bumped into my Scandinavian…

Things could have been worse. My host was determined to lunch al fresco, and after all it was late June.…

Q. My husband and I will shortly be having some South American friends to stay. They come most years and…

‘Evelyn Waugh,’ said my husband when I asked who came up with the analogy of carrying a Ming vase. He…

Since it’s June, here is your cut-out-and-keep guide to hacking your summer holiday. One possibility. Don’t bother. Unless you have…

‘OK, there is a body with a knife there, and the police come and say nothing happened… You have to…

I’m in New Zealand on a speaking tour organised by the Kiwi Free Speech Union, and in some ways it’s…

In Competition 3354 you were invited to put yourselves in the shoes (or head) of a tech billionaire. Perhaps unsurprisingly,…

As the disappointingly unmacho South African toddled off after giving us a lecture about hedgehogs, I declared the contest over.…

White to play. Magnus Carlsen-Ding Liren, Norway Chess 2024. Ding’s last move, 29…Rb6-b2 was a blunder allowing a quick checkmate.…