The extraordinary victory of John Key and his National party in New Zealand’s recent election came as a relief to…

Every three years in New Zealand, incumbent politicians must hit the campaign trail. Since 2008, I have chased votes in…

The Upper House in our federal parliament has become a maverick - much like those who sit in it

Feminism has lost the plot with the Stella Prize schools literary program

Recognising Aboriginal people in the Constitution throws up a multitude of problems

Western leaders keep insisting that the Islamic State has nothing to do with Islam

McMahon - the controversy rages

McMahon - the controversy rages

It's time for the Prime Minister to make up his mind. Will he seize the chance to reshape British politics?

Most of our prominent politicians studied the same subject at Oxford. Is it any wonder we’re so badly governed?

An interview with the former Czech president, possibly the West’s last truly outspoken leader

There is a glaring double standard in our adoration for our pets and our tolerance for intensive farming

They should be left in their digs to learn on the job

An interview with the new, hawkish Defence Secretary

I’m not sure what took me to Salvador Dalí’s house in Port Lligat, but it sure as hell wasn’t admiration.…

Islamic State must be defeated by supporting its enemies in the Middle East

Waiting to die Sir: Forgive my delay, only getting around to reading the UK content of the 12 July issue…

Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, visited New York for talks at the United Nations; he said Britain supported the…

Plus: My unlikely friendship with Simon Cowell

The strange places where marijuana plants have sprung up; plus, what would an English parliament look like?

He doesn’t like the verdict of the people, so he threatens to declare independence anyway

Some Conservatives pine for a leader who can bring the family back together -- and look wistfully towards Boris

It’s condemned for its outrageous sexism, racism, misogyny and violence. But it’s damn good fun

Plus: How far and how fast will Tesco fall?

We may pretend we don’t negotiate, but in private we natter away like there’s no tomorrow

A former Liberian warlord persuaded me that it is possible to rehumanise monstrous men

A review of ‘Letters to Vera’, by Vladimir Nabokov. Most love letters would not be worth reading. But Nabokov turns what he sees into sentences of pure magic

Ah, democracy. The informed will of the majority. If only the practice was as simple as the theory. When it…

A review of ‘Rendez-vous with Art’, by Philippe de Montebello and Martin Gayford. It’s a minor miracle that this book doesn’t lapse into self-indulgent meandering

A review of ‘Only When I Laugh: My Autobiography’, by Paul Merton. He writes candidly about his psychiatric incarceration but, elsewhere, there’s too much swanking

A review of ‘Plenty More’, by Yotam Ottolenghi. If you can make sense of this cook’s unpronounceable ingredients, you should have a delicious meal

A review of ‘Please, Mister Postman’, by Alan Johnson. This second instalment of the former minister’s autobiography takes us from the urban jungle of Notting Hill to the cusp of political power

A review of ‘Political Order and Political Decay’, by Francis Fukuyama. This excellent volume of comparative history and political science should be read by politicians and public alike

A review of ‘The Edge of Words: God and the Habits of Language’, by Rowan Williams. Atheists have nothing to fear from this attempt to find a proof for God in linguistic philosophy

A review of ‘I Joke Too Much: The Theatre Director’s Tale’, by Michael Rudman. Despite the dearth of score-settling, there’s a good laugh on almost every page

A review of ‘How To Be A Conservative’, by Roger Scruton. He ends with a passionate, romantic appeal on behalf of western society

A review of ‘The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher: Stories’, by Hilary Mantel. There’s a lot of horror, plenty of wraiths and a fair bit of humour in these contemporary short stories

Stephen Bayley explores how the camera shapes our relationship with architecture

It also reveals a painter more concerned with the world around him than with formal abstraction

And will Hoyland-obsessive Damien Hirst’s most lasting achievement be as a curator?

Plus: more satisfying Rossini at the Royal Opera House

The duo behind the hit BBC sitcom have had a disastrously off day with What We Did On Our Holiday

It all began in the mid-1960s for the Brilliant Creatures: Germaine, Clive, Barry & Bob, now given de luxe treatment…

The work of Austin Lee and Ed Fornieles embodies what culture might be were it filtered entirely through social media

Whether with subject matter, paint or the palette knife, the 17th century Dutch master was a magician

Plus: no less dramatic illiteracy is to be found in Howard Brenton’s Doctor Scroggy’s War at Shakespeare’s Globe

Plus: James Walton finds a cunning combination of familiar elements in BBC1’s drama The Driver

The good times might return if the monarchy were restored

Is this what they mean by change of life empowerment?

The 19 of a great 1A of 6 and for the 1D occurred in 37 25 years ago this month.…

In Vanity Fair (18/2), George Osborne is associated with 6/30 and 10/31. As Chancellor, he was preceded by 8, 26…

Where I met a charming bunch of drug-addled wasters and reprobates

In fact, it may be much better without them

My wife’s family tree

There aren’t many instantly recognisable stars in the bridge world, but Andrew Robson is definitely one — as he was…

This week, a tribute to the one major Scottish contribution to chess, the invention of the Scotch game, later to…

White to play. This position is from Yu–Ganguly, Indonesia 2012. This encounter also started with the Scotch Game opening. Both…

In Competition No. 2866 you were invited to pick a well-known poem and write a short story with the same…

Women spend ten days a year in a grumpy mood, according to the Daily Mail. The top triggers include being…

Or was it designed to create far more division than necessary?

Plus: If you don’t like wearing high heels, why not stand on a block of wood?

For the love of the Loire

‘Islamic’ is debatable and so is ‘state’; yet the media drops the definite article