The news that, behind our backs, the team that signed us up to the greatest betrayal of this nation by…

Poor Malcolm Turnbull gets such a bad press that it is good to have an opportunity to congratulate him on…

Before his death in July 1826, Thomas Jefferson wrote the epitaph for his own gravestone and insisted it carry ‘not…

Three major articles by the Australian’s editor-at-large Paul Kelly, and Tony Abbott’s even more major Heritage Foundation speech in Washington,…

Anti-‘Zionism’ seems to be bustin’ out all over. The Presbyterian Church USA, has become one of the more noisome sinks…

As a permanent reminder of the fragility of democracy when put under the combined pressure of economic crisis and populist…

Everywhere you look, from the free market to intelligence agencies, core democratic institutions are under attack – be it from…

Last week I wanted to move to a hut in the wilderness, as far away from people as possible. The…

Among political insiders, I detect some relief that the two-party-preferred Newspoll gap between the Turnbull government and the Shorten opposition…

Mention One Nation voters in elite circles, and they’ll be dismissed as backward, unsophisticated and easily misled. But when asked…

The UK Independence Party might be about to make a comeback. Ever since Theresa May’s Chequers deal on Brexit, which…

 Sydney For decades, Australia has been known as ‘the lucky country’. At the end of the world geographically, we are…

There was a time when middle-class liberals used to complain that the English were a nation of child haters. They…

‘Problème est masculin; solution est féminine,’ says Brigitte, the adored French teacher at the British embassy in Paris. Good way…

For millions of middle-aged children, finding good care for their parents is akin to a Grail quest — and just…

I spent a bit of time last week on the set of the new Brexit film, which James Graham has…

Kevin Boorman loves Hastings, and his enthusiasm is infectious. He was born here, he’s lived here all his life and…

The year 1976 rises like a spectre whenever the sun shines for more than a few days. That long, dry,…

Home Dame Margaret Hodge accused Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, of being an ‘anti-Semite’ and a ‘racist’ in front of…

Surely there is a bit of humbug in this outrage about the two remaining jihadi Beatles, Kotey and Elsheikh, and…

Relax Asked about her spare time, Theresa May said she liked walking, cooking (she has 150 cookbooks) and watching the…

Given that we use only 2 per cent of the rain that falls on these islands, one would not think…

From ‘The munitions strike’, 27 July 1918: It is necessary for the Government to make it clear that the present…

The Stauffenberg plot Sir: Matthew Olex-Szczytowski argues that the German officers who tried to kill Hitler did so only to…

At a speaker luncheon last week, someone I didn’t know passed me a note asking ‘Have you stopped supporting capital…

The last day of the parliamentary term is usually an occasion for the government to get a whole bunch of…

The latest exciting news is that it may very soon be possible for surgeons to perform uterine transplants, so endowing…

For your perfect summer read I’d recommend Zoé Oldenbourg’s 1949 classic medieval adventure The World Is Not Enough. It’ll comfortably…

I bought BT’s offer of an upgrade to ‘superfast’ broadband because the standard service seemed to be deteriorating just as…

They’re just kids! What’s your problem? This has become the default reaction of a whole raft of clever people to…

When Boris Johnson resigned recently he automatically gave up his right to use Chevening House in Kent, bequeathed by the…

If you go to the Campo dei Fiori in Rome on 17 February every year, you’ll find yourself surrounded by…

Lissa Evans has had a good idea for her new novel. It’s ‘suffragettes: the sequel’. She sets her story not…

Success as a rare books dealer, academic, publisher, broadcaster and author of several non-fiction books — at 70, Rick Gekoski…

Since the 17th century, a ‘humourist’ has been a witty person, and especially someone skilled in literary comedy. In 1871,…

The new novel by the author of the 2016 Booker shortlisted Eileen is at once a jumble of influences —…

Every cinema-loving person has a favourite Bruce Lee moment. My own comes towards the end of Enter the Dragon, the…

So much rubbish has been written over the years by those who feared, revered or pretended to know Nelson Mandela…

At the beginning of After the Party, Phyllis Forrester tells us she was in prison. While inside, her hair turned…

Visiting Pompeii, it is hard to miss the garden of the fugitives. It is on every other postcard in the…

What could be more British than nosying around someone else’s private property while munching on a slice of cake? The…

For many years I would chat genially with our local Jehovah, Stephen, who came door-to-door every few months or so,…

Raw, earthy, ear-piercing. It’s hard to decide which was more terrifying and unsettling: the roar of the elephants in Living…

Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest series Who Is America? isn’t funny. But then, nor was his terrible 2016 movie The Brothers…

The complexities of Schleswig-Holstein run deep. Here’s Emil Nolde, an artist born south of the German-Danish border and steeped in…

Alan Bennett’s new play, Allelujah!, is an NHS drama set in a friendly hospital in rural Yorkshire. Colin, an ambitious…

After just one episode, The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco (ITV, Wednesday) seems certain to stand out from the crowd. In…

‘They’ve dined well, they’ve drunk their fill, their brains are dull and slow. They’ll sit snoozing in the dark until…

Once he was known as ‘Australia’s lost impressionist’ and referred to as John Peter Russell. Now at the Art Gallery…

Reading is the best antidote to debauchery I know of, and I’ve been hitting the books lately. History mostly. Once…

Towering above this medieval French village is dun-coloured cliff of volcanic rock, dramatically floodlit at night, topped by two ancient…

Stefano came back to paint the front of the house. I have never been so pleased to see his red…

Maasai Mara   Last night the hyenas made off with our fudge cake. We are camped with a group of…

It’s hard to explain to non-bridge players just how all-consuming this game is. For those of us who move in…

This year’s British Championship commences today in Hull. Among a powerful field, which includes Michael Adams and defending champion Gawain…

Black to play. This position is from Brown-Adams, British Championship, Bournemouth 2016. Black has various ways to force mate but…

In Competition No. 3058 you were invited to supply snippets of mischievously/sadistically misleading advice for foreign tourists visiting Britain, or…

Each of ten clues contains a misprinted letter in the definition part. Corrections of misprints spell a word which can…

THE RUSSIA HOUSE, TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY and A MURDER OF QUALITY are novels by JOHN (41) LE CARRÉ, whose…

If you’re looking for a good beach read this summer, look no further. A few weeks ago I was reading…

So in the end it was a fallible Tiger that won all hearts at the Open, not the glowering, red-shirted…

Q. My wife’s much younger sister is lazy and impossible. She forgets birthdays, is invariably late, lets people down and…

Nando’s, c. 1987, is a restaurant in the Great North Leisure Park, Finchley, N12, off the North Circular, which is my…

We are suddenly all expected to know that county lines are to do with the selling of illegal drugs in…