The push for changing our Constitution to recognise explicitly the special status in Australia of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders…

Frankly, I cannot see anything wrong in paying people smugglers to go home; had I been in the government’s position…

I had occasion the other day to dig up a piece I had written 50 years ago for Geoffrey Dutton’s…

The last Parliamentary fortnight before the winter recess begins with the focus on national security, amid claims that the Abbott…

The plan to recognise Indigenous Australians within the Constitution will self destruct after this message...

The idea of an Indigenous representative body enshrined in the Constitution risks killing the Recognition campaign

Rather than a phony, legalistic preamble, let the Australian monarch recognise who was here first

Divorce as a protest to gay marriage is brave. But why not divorce now? Or better still, not at all.

There is an eco-warrior in the Vatican

Divorce as a protest to gay marriage is brave. But why not divorce now? Or better still, not at all.

As soon as the decision is made, the €55 billion bill comes due. That’s why it keeps not happening

When the profits of multinational corporations depend on an aura of Corinthian virtue, expect moral contortions

Nigel Farage and his senior adviser were caught up by the glamour of the Tea Party – to the fury of some in their own party

The customer-service questionnaire is a sign of a company that doesn’t trust its staff to care

He plays only the best bits, and he’s her favourite classical performer ever

The top scare stories about Britain leaving the EU — and how to answer them

Dutch is a challenge, too – but one I’m getting better at

The legal profession has gone unreformed for far too long

Home Tens of thousands took part in a demonstration in London against austerity, and thousands more in other cities. Russell…

…and the woman I might actually turn for. Plus: any chance of men’s final tickets for Wimbledon?

Plus: the figures on knife crime, crowds at religious festivals, and the prevalence of paedophilia

Strife and competition motivate all – so go for the braver option, Mr Tsipras

From ‘The Inexpugnability of Russia’, The Spectator, 26 June 1915: At this moment, after nearly a year’s fighting, Russia is only…

Hidden Reids Sir: In his piece on Alan Reid Peter Coleman has asked if there are other hidden works on…

Plus: The Pope and species loss; a wet speech by my parliamentary ancestor; and a brilliant charity

The EU is going to have to change significantly whatever happens to Britain – and Britain should take advantage

The bias was crystal clear when I was there. It’s got much worse since

I’ve never assumed my emails and internet activity are completely private. Has anyone?

The 25-year-old singer is a model of frictionless aspiration; less a rebel, more a CEO

Plus: Potash, fear and fracking in north Yorkshire; and Kirk Kerkorian, a Babe Ruth of investing

Bunny Garnett and Henrietta Bingham may have been borderline members of the Group, but they made up for it with their scandalous escapades, as Sarah Knights and Emily Bingham reveal

Frank McLynn’s latest biography is too lenient to the ‘Ruler of the Universe’, whose reign of terror was responsible for nearly 40 million deaths

A troubled marriage, global conspiracy, Swedish noir and the Mau-Mau in Kenya — from Renée Knight, David Shafer, Christoffer Carlsson and William Shaw

In Deeper than Indigo, Jenny Balfour Paul confesses to having an out-of body experience with the 19th-century adventurer and indigo hand, Thomas Machell

Scarlett Thomas’s The Seed Collectors is a clever, chaotic, filthily gorgeous, satirical Aga-saga

The British beat second world war shortages at home by adapting inventively, and in some cases carrying on much as before, according to Duff Hart-Davis’s Our Land at War

Rachel Johnson’s latest novel delves deep into the lives of Notting Hill’s super-rich. What Fresh Hell will it bring?

In Operation Nemesis Eric Bogosian shows how, in the 1920s, the world turned a blind eye to widespread revenge killings for the 1915 Armenian massacres

Jim Shepard’s novel The Book of Aron tells (with the bitterest black humour) the little-known story of a real-life paediatrician who devoted his life to the orphans of the Warsaw ghetto

Jeremy Hutchinson, who successfully defended some of the most notorious figures of the 20th century, had a criminal record himself — for accidentally shooting a policeman

Sunjeev Sahota’s novel, The Year of the Runaways, highlighting the horrific plight of Indian immigrants to Britain, is the best novel of the year, says Cressida Connolly

Gentrification is not a recipe for twee middle-class accessorising; it’s about bringing dead cities - like Detroit and Stoke - back to life

Ronald Wilford invented the chimera of ‘the great conductor’ and, as president of Columbia Artists, sold it at unimaginable profit

Peter Bogdanovich's new movie is built on absurd coincidences and bad jokes and unsympathetic characters and Imogen Poots lays on a Brooklyn accent with several trowels

Longborough's new production of Tristan und Isolde will remain a yardstick, says Michael Tanner. And Continuum Ensemble's night of miniature operas at King's Place made a strong impression

Tate Britain's new exhibition pursues some interesting byways but it doesn't really answer the question

Jonathan Maitland’s new play, An Audience with Jimmy Savile at the Park, reminds us that Machiavelli had nothing on Savile. And Motherfucker with the Hat at the Lyttleton may be a Mamet knock-off but it’s a hit with the punters

Host Chris Evans only has three noticeable qualities: big glasses, carrot-coloured hair and a ready laugh. His lack of threatening intellect rendered him perfect for the Nineties

Plus: Patrick Marber imagines sipping champagne with Anthony Burgess; Esther Rantzen bares all; and what’s it really like to have dementia?

This is a very operatic time in Sydney; the SSO has just done Tristan & Isolde, OA has opened it’s…

Will the Low life correspondent and I survive his book launch?

They make my ‘low’ life seem incredibly tame

My spaniel and I take our lives into our hands every time we go to Tooting Common

Law enforcement has little effect on road safety

But the nine times Ascot winner keeps quiet about his successes

A feast of bridge is looming! Tromso in Norway is host to the Open European Championships starting on Saturday, and…

In serious competitive chess the play is regulated by time limits for completion of the moves. In the mid-19th century,…

White to play. This position is from Vachier-Lagrave-Caruana, Norway Blitz 2015. How did White finish off at once? Answers to…

In Competition No. 2903 you were invited to provide an extract from an article in an interiors magazine featuring some…

Unclued lights (one hyphened) are words from a poem whose subject appears in the completed grid. A clued light is…

The theme word is CLIMBER. All unclued lights are therefore entered going upwards. There are three different types of climbers:…

If I had people replying to letters over my signature, I’d give them a style book the size of a telephone directory

It’s something to see – even if it still doesn’t make him likeable

Plus: Is it correct to stand for nine-year-old boys? And how best to dodge communal fun on a coach tour

The original Ivy, the Mummy Ivy, the Iviest Ivy of them all — her children have eaten her

Nowadays everything’s on the cusp, from Idris Elba to supermarkets. Once upon a time, however, it was only planets