Once more we are being asked to believe the unbelievable. Once again the usual suspects in the media and politics…

Here at the Spectator Australia Electoral Reform Unit we are pressing on with our major project to improve the electoral…

‘Oooo, Jer-emy Cor-byn. Oooo, Jer-emy Cor-byn,’ the cult-esque chant goes as we walk past. I’m marching with the LGBTories in…

Australian universities appear to have completely capitulated to the virulently anti-male propaganda of radical feminists. Feminists increasingly control what is…

Politics has always been a notoriously unstable activity but over recent years this has been accentuated by several long-accepted rules…

One thing the same-sex marriage debate has done, for better or worse, is to highlight the deep differences within Australia’s…

Confidence in our political system has collapsed, as the internationally respected 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer records. Politicians usually justify our…

The only thing that can be said with any certainty about the next New Zealand government is that it will…

I’m currently dwelling on past times. I have a film coming out based on the crazy events that took place…

Prague. Prague. It helps to say the name at least twice as a countermeasure to the ridiculous ease of modern…

Many assume that if an election were held soon, Jeremy Corbyn would win. But what if, say, the government fell…

Paralysed by Brexit divisions, the Tories risk handing Britain to the hard left

Is his rival Yuriko Koike behind the Japanese PM’s decision to call a snap election?

May’s right-hand man Damian Green on her survival plan

It’s time to fix our broken asylum system

Why do I have to do everything myself?

From ‘The progress in Flanders’, 29 September 1917: The fighting has reached a degree of intensity never before known. There…

Thirty years ago, the Conservatives would have had no problem countering what Jeremy Corbyn had to offer in Brighton. But…

More please Sir: What a great pleasure it was for me as a hybrid New Zealand / Australian to read…

I don’t know why party conferences no longer take place in Scarborough. As a child, I saw many an important…

Home Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, told the party conference that Labour was ‘on the threshold of power’. The party…

The late afternoon sun fell on the anomalous pine trees of Gillett Square, London N16, and on the wooden decking…

An Uber insider tells me not to write off the ride-hailing giant too soon, because it’s a very smart company…

The Brexit crowd are right to smell a rat. In any great national debate a columnist may feel tempted to…

My own fault, I suppose, for turning on the television. Not an action I undertake very regularly these days, because…

You can see why Theresa May said in Florence that the British wished the European Union well in its plans…

For those in the know, Jimmy Webb is one of the great pop songwriters of the 1960s and 70s, up…

John Calvin believed that human nature was a ‘permanent factory of idols’; the mind conceived them, and the hand gave…

Few people turn to Henning Mankell’s work in search of a good laugh. He’s best known as the author of…

Planning for the ‘war of the future’ is something generals and politicians have been doing for the past 150 years.…

Stations, according to Simon Jenkins, are the forgotten part of the railway experience. People love the trains, the journey, the…

By his own admission, Isambard Wilkinson’s memoir of his experiences in Pakistan a decade ago as a foreign correspondent has…

Jane Harris’s novels often focus on the disenfranchised: a maid in The Observations, a woman reduced by spinsterhood in the…

Though Alice Waters is not a household name here, that is precisely what she is in America — the best-known…

Great novelists come in all shapes and sizes, but one thing they all share is a status of half-belonging. If…

Exhibit A. It is 1958 and you are barrelling down a dual carriageway; the 70 mph limit is still eight…

I was going to start with a little moan. About the shouty marketing, the digital diarrhoea, the sycophantic drivel, which,…

To get a reminder of how strange the 1970s were, there’s no need to plough through lengthy social and political…

Although they are not especially grand, these houses are arguably the most significant in the country. The four official residences…

The best episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm are the ones that make you want to hide behind the sofa, cover…

Scriptwriters love to feast on the lives of children’s authors. The themes tend not to vary: they may have brought…

Where was Degas standing as he sketched his ‘Laundresses’ (c.1882–4)? Did he watch the two women from behind sheets hanging…

‘On air, I could be the most glamorous, gorgeous, tall, black-haired female… Whatever I wanted to be, I could be……

Tristan Bernays loves Hollywood blockbusters. His new play, Boudica, is an attempt to put the blood-and-guts vibe of the action…

Veneta is a Venetian restaurant inside the St James’s Market development south of Piccadilly Circus. I do not like this…

In Competition No. 3017 you were invited to submit a sonnet containing household tips.   You were on sparkling form…

Q. How can I avoid becoming seen as an ‘Instagram creeper’? My well-meaning niece tells me that I’m in danger…

I think this week marks my 40th anniversary as a Spectator columnist, but I’m not 100 per cent certain. All…

As is traditional in this village, the Chapel congregation had walked the 100 yards up the hill to unite with…

In 1872, the 27-stone figure of the Tichborne Claimant was insisting he was Sir Roger Tichborne Bt, an heir thought…

Assuming someone had moved house before, and put a new boiler in their new house, while remaining a customer of…

The history of sport and political protest in this country would be a slim old volume. It would feature quite…

Are British teenagers suffering from an epidemic of mental illness? Yes, according to a ‘government-funded study’ which found that 24…

Racing is an expensive sport to stage. Courses and grandstands have to be maintained, health and safety regulations have to…

The youngest player on the great Allfrey team, Mike Bell, is forming a very strong partnership with David Gold. They…

The triskelion, or three-legged emblem, has been on the coat of arms of the Isle of Man since the late…

White to play. This position is from Paul-Jonsson, Isle of Man 2017. How did White make a decisive material gain?…

The unclued lights, when paired, are of a kind, the first word in each pair being thematic. Two of the…

The unclued lights are part of a SUIT of armour.  First prize Clive Rose, Henley on Thames, OxonRunners-up Virginia Porter,…