‘The destruction of Isil requires a military solution – it requires boots on the ground. But they must be the…

As our Prime Minister has observed many times, there has never been a better time to be alive, what with…

‘We have really everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language.’ As ever, Oscar Wilde was right. Block…

Blue collar white males are the latest target for the sneering classes

We may be shocked by the Islamists’ barbarity, but we can’t say we weren’t warned

The same people who cry ‘racial profiling’ over checks on Muslims are happy to see Israelis and Jews barred from many countries

Peter Costello overcooked his barbecue stopper

Lower prices are just the beginning in Bunnings’ UK plans

He was born rich, and has grown richer outsourcing jobs to China and Mexico. But his supporters don’t care

It’s not only Muslims and Mexicans he denounces... banks and big business get the biggest kicking of all

The England team is riding high, but most of its stars learned to play in public schools

Michael Lewis, the author behind the new movie The Big Short, is furious that reforms have been blocked

Girls from this traditional school for nannies are in huge demand around the world

Life outside the EU could be very good for us

But no one – friends, relatives, colleagues or immigration officials – will ever believe that

It’s the home of Australian Riesling, and is remarkably unspoilt

Glenn Greenwald’s partner was rightly held

Plus: junior doctors, Burkino Faso, Jakarta, drug trials

Plus: Laying down the law to transsexuals; the dress code of Jan Morris

Plus: how many police are armed, and how much we spend on furniture

The frivolity of driving for pleasure in January 1916

Dunreadin Sir: As a Spectator subscriber, I read every issue from cover to cover. Sadly I often find myself wondering…

His refugee policy has been both humane and politically sustainable. Angela Merkel’s has been neither

Plus: the late Bishop Bell of Chichester; Airey Neave; the IRA; China; and the problematic case of Tesco wine

But then all the best actors are ignored, regardless of race. The Academy Awards committee prefers third-rate ones

It should be allowed to remain — but opposite it should be erected a new statue of Lobengula, the great Matabele leader

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is so far out of the political mainstream he needs a whole new dictionary of terms

He’s the only one of a Dad’s Army of pundits no longer on hand to commentate on the looming financial crisis

The vast, sprawling entity, generally considered a byword for inefficiency, actually worked remarkably well, according to Peter H. Wilson

Julian Barnes’s latest novel, The Noise of Time, is a brilliant portrait of an artist trying not to sign away his soul

If you read one nature book this year, make it Sooyong Park’s account of wildlife hell among the most beautiful — and persecuted — animals on earth

Alive, Alive Oh!, Athill’s latest manifesto for living life to the full, could not be bettered

Amy Liptrot’s frank memoir of dipsomania, and drying out, in the  remotest of the Orkneys makes for addictive reading

Molly Crabapple’s account of misogyny and exploitation in the American art world is a valuable political document, strikingly illustrated

Emily Chappell’s vivid memoir, What Goes Around, is a welcome new take on London from a cycle courier’s perspective

Ysenda Maxtone Graham finds Irving’s latest novel, Avenue of Mysteries — largely concerned with the Catholic church — one holy mess

Gorky’s The Mother, hailed as a paean to socialist ideals when first published, is surprisingly topical a century later

In Australia there are tens of thousands of emotionally stable, financially secure but medically infertile people. As much as they…

His frigid self-control concealed an emotional volcano, says Martin Gayford

Reputedly the highest paid screenwriter in the business, Davies is unrepentant about the gratuitous rumpy-pumpy in his adaptions of the classics

A film about the financial crash that sounds boring on paper but that will fill you with righteous anger

Plus: a monumental feat of memory and performance by a sensational talent at the Southwark Playhouse

And their Latin dancers are showing us Brits that, in classical ballet, technical dazzle isn’t vulgar - it’s vital

And was Gustavo Dudamel happy with Barenboim’s Morton Feldman speeds in the Brahms? It certainly saved Barenboim from playing too many wrong notes

Plus: Radio Five Live goes inside one of the largest hospitals in the UK, Queen Elizabeth in Birmingham

It makes Channel 4's Deutschland 83 a seductive Sunday night rival to BBC's War and Peace

There’s never been a better time to be… in Canberra. Parliament isn’t sitting, there’s decent accommodation at reasonable rates; best…

Last time we met, as I wielded my crow bar, she jumped into a taxi and fled the scene

I thought our former PM was just a gentle cricket lover but it turns out that he’s a Master of the Universe

Forget the cultural sights — just give me a club soda and five days by the pool

Don’t give up the fags and the booze: longevity for its own sake is the least worthy of human aspirations

Without the little tracks such as Warwick the racing world would be lost

The New Year got off to a great start with TGR’s annual auction pairs, the best run tournament I have…

Paul Keres, the Estonian grandmaster and many times world championship contender, was born a hundred years ago this month. His…

White to play. This position is from Keres-Spassky, Gothenburg 1955. Can you spot White’s crushing blow? Answers to me at…

In Competition No. 2931 you were invited to submit a psychiatric report on a well-known figure in literature. Shakespearean characters…

The unclued lights, one of two words, are of a kind, verifiable in Brewer.   Across   1    After…

The unclued lights (1A, 1D, 6A/33, 13, 18, 32 and 38/24) are seven of the ‘Twelve Curious CUSTOMS Worth Reviving’,…

It’s beginning to look as though the Labour leader really does sympathise with terrorists

League Two giant killers are in the running for three titles... and their stadium has no fourth stand

Plus: A party co-host worries that her hospitality will go unnoticed

It’s always done the best salt beef in central London, but post-renovation the place just isn’t the same

It’s not going to be replaced with the boxed set, so you might as well stop seething

Goodness. Gracious. Me. I had a lurking suspicion that Spectator Australia readers enjoyed a glass of wine, but judging by…