Of all the potent weapons we never expected to see draw blood from lifelong political battler Tony Abbott, ridicule was…

The Queen has conferred knighthoods on the Americans Bill Gates and Norman Schwarzkopf. She appointed South Africa’s Nelson Mandela to…

New hope or no hope?

It was Churchill’s stuff-ups, rather than his successes, that made Australians who we are today

An exclusive interview with Meidyatama Surodiningrat, the ‘blaspheming’ Editor in Chief of the Jakarta Post

Recent tragedies have led to a long-overdue Australian awakening to the threat posed by Islamist ideology

Those who seek to unearth overt racism will find it in even our most successful migrant stories

Here is a wee little guide for all of you people who work for the ABC, or Get-Up!, or the…

For the election campaign, and for the negotiations that might follow it, Syriza’s victory opens some promising vistas

The views of the Stammtisch (the pub regulars) are a growing force in Germany, but they have yet to find someone to articulate them in the public sphere

The Prince of Wales has shown himself too vain to accept the limits of constitutional monarchy

Despite all the spin from the left, the school reforms have made a huge, positive difference. It’s time someone in power said so

What makes snowdrop mania particularly strange is that, unlike gorgeous, colourful tulip flowers, the variations between snowdrops are almost too tiny to spot

Why I’m happy to have six children (and why I think the Pope’s on my side)

Deeply divided and full of potential, this country could be headed for a boom – or a coup

In a recent interview, the celebrity historian and Tudor expert David Starkey described Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall as a ‘deliberate…

The fire was only another chapter in a decades-long struggle

The Green manifesto is incoherent, dangerous and unfit for even a junior coalition partner

Home Party leaders mercilessly launched 100 days of campaigning before the general election on 7 May. David Cameron, the Conservative…

Plus: What’s next for Greece, and why I’m glad to see the back of Amjad Bashir

Plus: the death of cash, expensive schools and the price of potholes

Come on, Tsipras, remember your ancient birthright. Set an example for us all

From ‘Reprisals’, The Spectator, 30 January 1915: There has been a tendency among some newspapers, and perhaps still more among…

Non pas Charlie Sir: Like many people I too was shocked and horrified at the attack on the staff of…

Why is 'coloured' worse than 'people of colour'? And what's the logic of 'black'?

The sign of seriousness is seeing a crisis early – and following up after it's finished

Scientists seem to be adjusting the evidence. I’d still like to know why

Plus: How Leon Brittan changed the world, and the scandal of late payments

Reviewing Robert Crawford’s Young Eliot, Daniel Swift suspects that the poet’s genius has been over-explained and over-simplified

A review of Stranger than Fiction by Neil Clark explores the  turbulent life of King Kong’s creator

Tom Hodgkinson rediscovers August Klingemann’s dark classic

A review of The King’s Bed by Don Jordan and Michael Walsh finds the king’s concubines disappointingly greedy and self-seeking

A review of Patrick Cockburn’s The Rise of the Islamic State suggests that the rise of IS was plain for all to see, but we chose not to look

A review of If This is a Woman by Sarah Helm offers some shreds of hope in the heroic behaviour of many of the camp inmates

A review of The Match Girl and the Heiress explores the unlikely collaboration of a factory worker and a middle-class Lady Bountiful to spread social justice in a London slum

Virtually every childhood craze of the past 30 years has its beginnings in Japan. Today its influence is stronger than ever

It is claimed Spotify killed off the record industry. But might Spotify ultimately save the music scene?

And there are too few truly exceptional pieces from the Flemish master for this show to shine

Plus: a mass exodus from a new play at the Bush Theatre

Plus: a review of John Cranko’s three-hankie Onegin at the Royal Ballet and Young Men from the BalletBoyz

The film doesn’t know whether to be warm and fun like Slumdog Millionaire or social and hard-hitting like City of God and is instead plodding and preposterous

Plus: a so-so production of The Marriage of Figaro at Opera North is rescued by some masterly conducting

Plus: the joys and difficulties of being a female conductor and a stay-at-home mum

Plus: the truth behind Churchill’s funeral and how the dockers were bribed to lower their cranes

Possibly in the most beautiful setting of any theatre in the world, Sydney’s Wharf Theatre saw its first performances 30…

It’s time to overcome our prejudices: give me Trump Towers over the Parthenon and rap over ‘Ode to Joy’

Fortunately, everyone was so blootered it didn’t matter

My iPad is dead. It’s a stiff, bereft of life, it rests in peace (but try telling that to Vodafone)

My brother John was more difficult to fathom than most. All there is to say really is that we loved him

If you and your partner ever want to improve your bidding system, I can’t recommend Phil King highly enough as…

Plus: how to get past a pavement gang

Magnus Carlsen has won first prize in the elite Tata Steel tournament at Wijk aan Zee, Holland. Leading scores out…

White to play. This is a variation from Carlsen-Aronian, Wijk aan Zee 2015. Black has just played his bishop to…

In Competition No. 2882 you were invited to submit a blues song written by a well-known politician contemplating the impending…

Round the perimeter clockwise goes a place (6) followed by a description of it (10 words, one hyphened) by one…

The MUSICIAN (21), Rod Stewart CBE (25A), was born LXX (16) years ago on 10th January 1945. The associated works…

Why I’m praying for Labour to attack the Tories on education

The rise of the box-set binge and the decline of the weekly shop

The American character abounds in paradoxes. This is one of them

The history of a powerful but changing taboo