By any rational measure, Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s state visit to the United States should be judged a success. The…

There is no doubt about the vigour and enthusiasm of the Morrison government in bringing about social reform. Only the…

My choice of newspapers was limited. Given my little Spanish, the New York Times was always going to win out…

It was 1966. We were two young Australians, fresh out of Melbourne University. We decided to drive from India to…

Frederick Kelly was a celebrated Australian sportsman who won the Diamond Challenge Sculls at the Henley Regatta three times and…

Of the 27 original candidates who entered the race for Democratic Party nomination for the 2020 US presidential election, only…

Whether our universities have ever lived up to their lofty ideals is difficult to say. What is clear is that…

It was a big week for the noisy Australians. Some 300,000 downed pens and nobly put aside the tedium of…

Some revolutions such as the American War of Independence, succeed and result in the birth of great nations. Some, such…

Having failed to reverse the 2016 election through impeachment or declaration of mental impairment, the American mainstream media are determined…

You’re surprised? Really? What are you surprised by? The specifics — that 11 non-elected, mostly public-school-educated judges, and doubtlessly Remainers…

When Jeremy Corbyn declared at Labour conference that his party would only allow an election once no deal had been…

Arrived in Remain-on-sea (also known as Brighton) for Labour party conference. As an old-fashioned trade unionist hailing from a working-class…

Democrats have long criticized Donald Trump for his addiction to Twitter, his rolling-news attention span, the backlit narcissism of his…

Michael Gove stands in front of an empty throne in the magnificent Cabinet Office room. George III was the last…

At first glance, Nathan Taylor might seem the very definition of a ‘right on’ hipster. He goes by the name…

When my siblings and I were clearing out my dad’s bookshelves (he died earlier this year), I made sure to…

The election campaign was off to an unexciting start even by Canada’s standards. A well-known but fluffy incumbent, Liberal Justin…

The oil-for-security alliance between the US and Saudi Arabia, forged in 1945 when Franklin D. Roosevelt met King Abdul Aziz…

You could say it started because of the French. The turmoil caused by their revolution got the British military worried…

Home Eleven justices of the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that in advising the Queen to prorogue parliament ‘the Prime Minister’s…

David Cameron’s revelation that he sought ‘a raising of the eyebrow’ from the Queen during the 2014 Scottish referendum campaign…

Journey’s end Holidaymakers are being flown home after travel company Thomas Cook failed. The idea might have horrified the company’s…

The Athenians invented the referendum: after debate in the citizens’ assembly, they voted through all political decisions by a show…

On judging the judges Sir: The spectacle of judges questioning essentially political decisions is not an edifying one. But we…

Until recently, we used to comfort ourselves with the thought that the United Kingdom’s uncodified constitution was a great national…

Is that enormous silver spider that Lady Hale wore her badge of office? If so, it is appropriate. The Supreme…

A Prime Minister held in No. 10 against his will. The very notion seems absurd, but this is essentially what is…

‘Why don’t you just join the Liberal Democrats?’ If I’ve heard that once in the past couple of years I’ve…

I don’t usually get up early just for an appointment at a bank. Yet last Tuesday in New York, I…

It’s not obvious that the state has a moral obligation to repatriate holidaymakers whenever a tour operator goes bust, as…

Lymeswold; Hi-de-Hi!; nuclear-free zones; Walkmans; the Metro; Red Robbo; the SDP; Michael Foot’s Cenotaph donkey-jacket; Protest and Survive; Steve Davis…

Novelist, essayist, painter, poet, composer. Oh yes, and pianist: Stephen Hough does all of these things very well — and…

This is the story of a solo voyage in a 31ft- wooden sailing boat called Tsambika. Philip Marsden pilots his…

The backdrop of Michel Houellebecq’s novel is by now well established. In this — his eighth — the bleak, essentially…

Pick up a Penguin Classic from a cult Danish author who ‘struggled with alcohol and drug abuse’ and took her…

Medical training is a process of toughening up: take iron that’s vulnerable to rust, add carbon and make steel. That’s…

Genuinely surrealist novels are as rare as hen’s teeth. They are a different form from the magic realist, the absurdist,…

In Whitechapel, in the mid 19th century, rolling and selling cigars was a way for a newly arrived immigrant to…

Ray Galton and Alan Simpson remain pre-eminent as writers of television comedy, but their closest rivals Dick Clement and Ian…

At present we have a series of ‘culture wars’ over a wide range of issues — race, gender, sexuality, power…

‘Welcome,’ says our guide Stuart Bellehewe, with an imperious sweep of his arm, ‘to the cathedral of shit.’ Before us…

Radio 4, how do I love thee? Rather as one loves the flocked wallpaper that came with the house. It…

Sir Lenny Henry, the former comedian, is wont to complain to anyone who’ll listen that there isn’t enough ‘diversity’ on…

How do you take your Carmen? Sun-drenched exotic fantasy with a side order of castanets, or cool and gritty, sour…

The Goldfinch is an adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Donna Tartt that centres on a great work of…

Tony Hawks’s musical, Midlife Cowboy, has transferred from Edinburgh to the Pleasance, Islington. At press night, the comedy elite showed…

Grade: D+ Pleasant memories — of hearing ‘Raw Power’ for the first time and later the amiably shambolic chug of…

The Toxteth is a hotel on Glebe Point Road in Sydney. Cliff Hardy probably called it a pub. Hardy was…

New York The master of the love letter to New York, E.B. White, eloquently described the city as a place…

We gathered around in the sunshine and watched the coffin being lowered into the freshly dug trench. Stratifications visible on…

The Union Jack is flying on the front of my house. After a long discussion with the local council, planning…

With shorter days and leaves falling, I begin to itch for the more sporting, less obviously commercial world of jump…

The World Championships, held in Wuhan, China, came to the end of a gruelling eight days of qualification (eight teams…

In my pantheon of heroes a particular place of honour is occupied by the hypermodern grandmaster Richard Réti, the first…

White to play. This position is from Van Foreest-Bortnyk, St Louis 2019. How did White break through on the kingside…

In Competition No. 3117 you were invited to recast a famous political speech as a sonnet.   Lots of you…

The unclued lights are of a kind, all confirmed in Chambers or Oxford. A portmanteau word (7) defining this phenomenon…

The poem is La Belle Dame sans Merci by John Keats. ATONY (2), CORYZA (3), LOCKJAW (6), ENTERITIS (8) and…

I cannot recall a week in which Britain’s private schools have received better PR. The Labour party has pledged to…

It’s difficult to go into the office nowadays, since most of my colleagues are so distraught by the prospect of…

Q. Every three months or so my PA blossoms into a great beauty for a couple of weeks, then has…

My friend Dominic decided that it was time to convoke a lunch. There were matters to discuss, including that perennial…

The title of the television review and discussion programme Late Night Line-Up is a curious one. I’d be interested if…