Is Anthony Albanese the most ignorant person to ever occupy the role of Australian prime minister? Or is he simply…

Now that our blessed Sovereign has gone to God after a lifetime of selfless service, the true story of the…

Where are we up to on lockdowns, mandates and vaccines?

From Sweden to Italy, the culture wars are raging

Across the Anglosphere the Left is under assault - except here

What was I thinking?

Australian reliance on luck is a risky strategy

Dignity starts at the top

What the outpouring of emotion for ER II really means

Xi fails to see the funny side

The Constitution saved us

Will Putin push the button to save himself?

Meet Russia’s new opposition

There were two world premieres during the Queen’s funeral on Monday. One was a beautiful setting of some verses from…

Is Wes Streeting Labour’s next leader?

The sad demise of the church pew

The Energy Price Guarantee may cost much less than is feared

What tricks will Bolsonaro play to win a second term?

Our new King isn’t the only royal to have lost his rag over a leaky pen, as happened when he…

When Liz Truss entered the leadership race there was no such thing as ‘Trussonomics’. She began her campaign with no…

Public dissent, from riots to republicans objecting to homage to the Queen, is dealt with by the police, a force…

Home Queen Elizabeth was buried in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, beside her husband and father, after a funeral at…

When the Queen died, I was on my way to Kyiv. My mind focused on the war in Ukraine, I…

The Queen’s kindness Sir: Last week’s Spectator (17 September) was thoughtful, insightful and at times hilarious; just the tonic I…

The namesakes Some of history’s other Charles IIIs: – Charles III, King of Naples (1382-86): forced Pope Urban VI into…

The saddest thing I saw this week was a dating advert written by a woman – let’s call her Jane…

I see that Green campaigning groups are angry that the Conservative party has received donations from the aviation industry, because…

Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng are determined to show that Britain’s economy is under new management. They want to indicate…

Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng – keen to sharpen the City’s competitive edge, we’re told – wants to remove the legislative cap,…

If this were a Catholic country, up would go the cry for canonisation. When Pope John Paul II died, the…

As I have said many times in recent years, if you import the world’s people you import the world’s problems.…

When I think of Kamila Shamsie’s Home Fire, I picture a pot boiling on a hob, the water level rising…

This is an important and topical book. Mary Sarotte traces the difficult course of Russia’s relations with Europe and the…

Ralph Vaughan Williams’s towering position in our national life is now beyond dispute – and can only grow, says Simon Heffer

Welcome to Mingheria, ‘pearl of the Levant’. On a spring day, as the 20th century dawns, you disembark at this…

Love him or loathe him, Lucian Freud was a maverick genius whose life from the off was as singular as…

On Sunday 17 September 1820, John Keats and his travelling companion, the young painter Joseph Severn, set sail for Italy,…

As introductions go, ‘My name is Agnès, but that is not important’ does not have quite the same confidence as…

In a week dominated by the death of the Queen it’s a strange thing that Jean-Luc Godard, the man who…

It is high time the Arts Council put ENO and ENB out of their misery, says Rupert Christiansen

The first night of the new season at Covent Garden was cancelled when the solemn news came through. The second…

Good, better, best was the satisfying trajectory of Northern Ballet’s terrific programme of three original short works, which moves south…

‘It seems to me that I have to choose between 2 extremes of affection for nature… English, or Southern… The…

Catherine Called Birdy is written and directed by Lena Dunham and it’s a medieval comedy about a 14-year-old girl resisting…

Few forms of music have colonised the world like metal and hip-hop. Wherever you go you will find these two…

Look at this line. ‘I’m 80 years old. I find that unforgivable.’ Could an actor get a laugh on ‘unforgivable’?…

Crossfire was a three-part drama in more ways than one. Running every night from Tuesday to Thursday, it brought together…

As I sit in my study at the end of the day listening to the heavy rain and wondering when…

European and Indian languages seem to be related in the very distant past. Linguists are able, for example, to trace…

White to play and mate in two moves. Composed by Carl Schlechter, Allgemeine Sport-Zeitung, 1908. What is White’s first move?…

Bardo St James’s Restaurant – a name which reads like a map – is a vast new Italian restaurant in…

Don’t bother watching those gazillion-dollar TV prequels to The Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones. Who needs gratuitous…

The London Mindsports Centre in Hammersmith opened its doors in 2021, after it was converted from a Salvation Army building.…

‘We got a gusher!’ exclaimed my husband in his idea of the accent of a Texan oil prospector. Normally, I’m…

The unclued Across lights (including a pair) are of a kind and the unclued Down lights can be preceded by…

The TEN unclued lights are Scottish islands – or ‘INCHES’. First prize Mrs F.A. Bull, Canterbury Runners-up Susan Hay, Wolverhampton;…

In Competition No. 3267, you were invited to supply a song from the songbook of one of today’s corporate giants.…

Q. We have been invited to a small but formal dinner in the presence of someone who has been a…

Wroclaw, in Poland, played host to the Open World Championships in August this year. The Open Teams, the first event…

The cyclist was on the wrong side of the road coming towards me head-on. It was a winding country lane…

Laikipia Plateau, Kenya Until only a few years ago, the constellations blazed across the sky above the farm at night…

We were four round the little table in the nunnery kitchen: a 90-year-old German lady and her man; a nun…

Privilege at birth displeases wannabe types, and the subject came up rather a lot last week, especially in the Land…

I thought one of the benefits of being cancelled – I lost five positions in quick succession at the beginning…