The Spectator
28 September 2024 Aus
Unwelcome
Australia
Unwelcome
Issues controversially raised in this magazine often pop up, usually several weeks or months later, in mainstream political debate. And…
Australian Features
Canadian lessons for the Coalition
The left-wing Trudeau government is collapsing by the day
Queensland saves its best attack on free speech for last
Just before the state election...
Mad, bad & dangerous to know
Labor’s Misinformation/Disinformation Bill is a disgrace
Albanese government shames Australia before the world
Don’t let activist judges govern
Features
It may be too late to save trail hunting
There’s a grumble, often repeated among country folk, that ‘hunting people got hunting banned’. What they mean (I think) is…
What does ‘victory’ for Ukraine look like?
This week in New York Volodymyr Zelensky will present Joe Biden with a ‘Victory Plan’ for Ukraine. But how to…
Why the Tories lost – by the Tory leadership candidates
As the four candidates prepare to make their pitch at the Conservative party conference in Birmingham, we quizzed them about…
The death of widowhood
There were many tributes paid to the Jersey aid worker Simon Boas when he died of throat cancer in July,…
Who’s on top in the Tory leadership contest?
In recent years, the Conservative party conference has become something of an irrelevance. Often it is little more than a…
Is Israel trying to drag America into a war with Iran?
The American general David Petraeus famously asked of the invasion of Iraq: ‘Tell me how this ends.’ That’s the question…
Why French students want English uniforms
Béziers, France The École Mairan in Béziers in southern France is a happy neighbourhood elementary school housed in a superb…
Trams make a comeback
Earlier this month, the fortunate folk of Frankfurt were entertained by the 11th annual tram-drivers competition, with entries from 26…
The Week
Where did ‘heckler’ come from?
What the heckler No party conference would be complete without a heckler or two, but where did the term come…
What would the Romans have made of Keir Starmer’s freebies?
An ancient Greek, counting up the value of the gifts that Sir Keir Starmer had received over his spotless political…
Letters: The case for assisted dying
Craic down Sir: If Ireland had been investing in infrastructure as Ross Clark writes (‘Bog down’, 21 September), Dublin would…
The best podcasts to fall asleep to
‘Yous!’ a train cleaner in rubber gloves says as we arrive at Liverpool Lime Street. ‘What are yous doing here?’…
Portrait of the week: Starmer’s sausages slip-up, Israel’s strikes on Lebanon and Amazon staff summoned back to office
Home Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, in his speech to the Labour party conference in Liverpool, said that ‘if…
Are the Tories in any state to choose a leader?
Are the Conservatives in a fit state to choose a new leader? The party that gathers in Birmingham next week…
Columnists
Who’d be an MP now?
Sir Keir Starmer offered a sausage to fortune when he let Lord Alli bankroll half the cabinet. One’s heart does…
Inside Labour’s love affair with Lord Alli
As a peer who hates publicity, Lord Alli might have been expected to dodge the Labour conference – given the…
My lessons for David Lammy
There is worryingly little time left to make the appropriate preparations for Bridget Phillipson’s official birthday, on 19 December. As…
Will AI make bricklayers better-paid than barristers?
Old tortoise that I am, my head usually yanks back into my shell when people start talking about artificial intelligence.…
Sky News has lost its way
Occasionally I am told that I go too hard on the BBC. It is an understandable gripe which I sometimes…
The Murdochs’ next move: Rightmove
Next month’s Budget tax raids on capital have provoked a festival of creative doom-mongering on the fringes of Labour’s conference…
Whatever happened to Lionel Shriver?
For many readers, my absence from these pages may have gone unnoticed. Those few who’ve detected my disappearance might have…
Books
A wish-fulfilment romance: Intermezzo, by Sally Rooney, reviewed
Rooney’s fourth novel is another case of compare and contrast, with various pairings of anxious characters struggling through their twenties and thirties in picturesque Dublin
The hare-raising experience that changed my life
When Chloe Dalton adopts an abandoned new-born leveret, she soon finds her domestic routine radically altered
The Crimean War spelt the end of hymns to heroism and glory
Writing from opposite sides, Leo Tolstoy and William Howard Russell exposed the horror of conditions in a quagmire war which seemed to have no meaning
How the Rillington Place murders turned Britain into a nation of ghouls
With titillating newspaper coverage making John Christie’s trial a hot ticket, everyone seemed to want to peep behind the curtains of the house of horror – or even break in
The mystery of female desire deepens
When Gillian Anderson appealed to women to send her their sexual fantasies, she guaranteed strict anonymity – prompting a ‘torrent of unbridled passion from across the world’
When Britannia ceased to rule the waves
The final volume of N.A.M. Rodger’s magisterial history documents the gradual decline of Britain’s naval power as the empire disintegrated
A dark satanic cult: The Third Realm, by Karl Ove Knausgaard, reviewed
Knausgaard’s unsettling novel continues to explore previous themes in the series, including the strange phenomenon of the black metal music scene in socially balanced Norway
Starving street urchins sell their sisters in the chaos of Naples, 1944
When the Allies arrived in the city in the wake of the German retreat, they were shocked by the child prostitutes, shady commerce and downright miseria
The flowering of enlightenment under Oliver Cromwell
Far from being a puritanical wasteland, revolutionary Britain saw the foundation of the Oxford Circle, a group of philosophers and scientists who bridged the political divide of the times
Is now the most exciting point in human history?
Since today’s computers can process information beyond human capabilities, we are on a precipice never faced before, says Yuval Noah Harari, in another sweeping narrative
Arts
Maturity and tenderness
So now it is spring and that carnival season with its promise of Melbourne Cups and AFL grand finals hits…
Like The Joker, but less pretentious: The Penguin reviewed
Doctor Who fans may remember that after the show’s triumphant return in the early 2000s, we found out that showrunner…
The fascinating mechanics of striking a deal
If you wish to know how to become a master negotiator, a formidable body of books will now offer to…
Expressive and eloquent: Northern Ballet’s Three Short Ballets reviewed
Ballet companies have become dismally timid about exploring their 20th-century heritage: everything nowadays must be either box-fresh new or a…
A box set for those on the spectrum: Markus Poschner’s Bruckner Symphonies reviewed
Grade: B+ Anton Bruckner wrote 11 symphonies – Numbers One to Nine plus a student exercise and the formidable rejected…
How some of the most derided bands of all time are making a comeback
The fate of the pop musician – at least the pop musician below the top tier of stardom – has…
Baffling and plainly nuts – but worth it: Megalopolis reviewed
Megalopolis, which draws parallels between the fall of the Roman empire and modern-day America, is a film by Francis Ford…
The ethics of posthumous pop albums
‘At the record company meeting/ On their hands – at last! – a dead star!’ Back when Morrissey was more…
The art inspired by the 1924 Paris Olympics was a very mixed bag
George Orwell took a dim view of competitive sport; he found the idea that ‘running, jumping and kicking a ball…
Committed performances – but who was the granny? Northern Ireland Opera’s Eugene Onegin reviewed
It’s a critic’s job to pick holes in the dafter aspects of opera productions, but in truth audiences are usually…
The show belongs to Jonathan Slinger and Ben Whishaw: Waiting for Godot reviewed
Waiting for Godot is a church service for suicidal unbelievers. Those who attend the rite on a regular basis find…
Life
Aussie life
The recent sci-fi movie Paradise Hills delivered one gem for this viewer; the choristers’ white ruffs setting off each young…
Language
Speccie reader Raymond has asked me to explain the meaning of the compound noun ‘common sense.’ It was Aristotle who…
The Mad Men theory of drunk decision-making
In electing this government, we seem to have picked the worst of both worlds: higher taxation combined with austerity in…
Why play the Saudi anthem before an all-British boxing match?
For only the second time in my life, I went to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia last weekend. At least,…
Nick Elliott and a life worth drinking to
The English language has immense resources, but the odd weakness. What, for instance, is the translation for ‘Auld lang syne’?…
Should I grow old gracefully – or disgracefully?
Now that I’m about to turn 70, I’m wondering: shall I grow old gracefully, or disgracefully? Everyone I know, young…
Life lessons from a 2,000-year-old plant
Iona, Angola East of the gulps of cormorants along the Skeleton Coast by the Ilha da Baia dos Tigres, Atlantic…
My B&B’s first celebrity guest
The TV talent show star was due to arrive at 5 p.m., and would be checking into our house long…
