If, as the Australian newspaper implied this week, The Spectator Australia has played a minor role in the recent acknowledgment…

Malcolm the Fission Fiasco I don’t agree with all those many right-of-centre commentators who think the current Prime Minister, Mr…

Outdoors, Jakarta’s heat and humidity were oppressive. Inside the 6th World Peace Forum (WPF), most delegates were in heated agreement…

It’s impossible to ignore the story of Greig Tonkins, the Taronga Park zookeeper who punched a giant roo to save…

No president has ever been such a disaster for the Middle East

In the nearly four years since he was elected, Pope Francis I has achieved the singular distinction of bringing the…

In the next few weeks, thousands of young Australians, having just finished 12 years of schooling, will be preparing themselves…

 1. Slash Corporate Tax. The centrepiece of the Coalition’s re-election pitch was the ‘enterprise tax plan’ which will see Australia’s…

For much of last year, left wing media invoked ‘2016’ as a rod with which to chasten the insufficiently progressive.…

How to celebrate the centenary of the Russian revolutions of 1917? Modern Russians are deeply divided over the legacy of…

Katie Hopkins did something dreadful this week, which is not unusual, because she craves such things. She retweeted praise —…

Driving my son’s snake, Todd, a 3ft python wrapped in a pillowcase, to a Brighton vet in August was child’s…

Enough! Enough! For months, the so-called liberal elite has been writing articles, having radio and TV discussions, giving sermons (literally)…

Sport is a serious matter. If you have any doubts on that score, shed them now, because this is to…

For more than 20 years now, I have been trudging up the hill to the Prince of Wales in Highgate…

Every American president since Harry Truman has arrived in the White House committed to globalism — a belief that America…

Ex-chancellor George Osborne is planning a book to be titled The Age of Unreason. He says that ‘it will be…

Village people The government announced plans for 14 ‘garden villages’. The concept of a garden city or village is attributed…

On New Year’s Day I went for a swim off Broad Haven beach in Pembrokeshire. The water was 10.3ºC: pretty…

From ‘News of the Week’, The Spectator, 6 January 1917: The war has been crowded with romantic adventures by sea…

The wonder about Sir Ivan Rogers’s resignation as Britain’s ambassador to the EU is that he was still in the…

Meatloaf monarchy Sir: I realize that sending pro-republic letters to the Spectator Australia is akin to sending meatloaf recipes to…

Home Sir Ivan Rogers, Britain’s ambassador to the EU, resigned; he had been expected to play an important part in…

‘My deep concern is that because of changed ways that news is now gathered, collated, packaged, delivered and displayed, the…

A flash of the future, over the holidays, that felt like a flash of the past. It happened on Christmas…

The headline business story of the holiday season was the latest bailout of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena. This…

‘Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers,’ remarked the journalist and screenwriter Ben Hecht,…

It is the fate of all new prime ministers to be compared with their recent predecessors. Theresa May has already…

Now is the time of year to take down the Christmas decorations from your front window and put up, in…

One of the most interesting developments in modern publishing has surely been the revival of interest in women writers of…

A few years ago, I fell hopelessly in love with Harriet Walter. It only lasted an hour or two: she…

Frankie Howerd, the great, if troubled, comedian, was once asked whether he enjoyed performing. ‘I enjoy having performed,’ he replied.…

Jeremy Corbyn will probably enjoy this book — which doesn’t mean you won’t. Asked to name the historical figure he…

All biography is both an act of homage and a labour of dissection, and all biographers are jealous of their…

The recent furore over a freakshow ice rink in Japan, with hapless fishes embedded beneath the skaters’ feet, was inexplicable…

Michael Rosen, a poet, journalist and prolific author of novels for children, has written an account of Emile Zola’s year’s…

Arthur Rackham shouldn’t have lived in anything as conventional as a house. It should have been a gingerbread cottage, like…

Silence is Martin Scorsese’s film about Jesuit priests in 17th-century Japan whose faith is sorely tested, just as your patience…

‘Radical’ is like ‘creative’, a word that has been enfeebled to the point of meaninglessness. Everybody seems to want to…

In Joseph Roth’s The Radetzky March, the ageing Emperor Franz Joseph regrets the drab field-grey that has replaced his army’s…

A new website, radio.garden, lets us browse radio stations across the globe. Nothing new about that. That’s been a key…

One of the few intelligent responses from the liberal-left to our radically altered political landscape was an essay published last…

Hedda Gabler is one of the most influential plays ever written. It not merely illuminated an injustice, the enslavement of…

Two of the ABC’s most admired radio presenters have published books that are perfect holiday reading: Richard Fidler’s Ghost Empire…

Simon Gillis’s team has had a very successful year. They won the Gold Cup (for the second time), they joined…

Magnus Carlsen has retained the World Championship but only after Sergei Karjakin, the challenger, missed some glorious opportunities. In game…

White to play. This is from Carlsen–Karjakin, New York play-off (Game 4) 2016. What was Carlsen’s stunning move to retain…

In Competition No. 2979 you were invited to supply your contribution to a series of parodies of Enid Blyton’s Famous…

In ten clues, the wordplay omits one of the letters of the solution. These letters in the grid, read row…

The unclued lights are expressions meaning NEVER (3A, 4D+43A, 21D+14D, 37A+1D and 37A+15D).  First prize Hilary James, London W5Runners-up David…

Q. I have bought a second-floor flat which comes with a bow-shaped balcony which overlooks a communal garden. My problem…

Margot is an Italian restaurant on Great Queen Street in the still interesting part of Covent Garden. The uninteresting part…

Gstaad  New Year’s Eve was a Rhapsody in Blue, with a clarinet glissando that promised joys to come, and the…

The past year has been tumultuous, full of upheaval and tragedy, but my chickens have been spared it all. Indeed,…

On the Monday before Christmas, the black dog came around again and I couldn’t get out of bed. I lay…

Here are eight invasive Americanisms to continue annoying us in 2017. Running for office. Liz Kendall was ‘running for the…

The most annoying thing about starting a new year is how long it takes for everyone to crank themselves back…

Those who occupy them sometimes say that the only two jobs that matter in England are Chief of the Defence…

After Sir Stafford Northcote and Sir Charles Trevelyan completed their report on civil service reform in 1854, in which they…

The biggest oohs and aahs on the entertainment scene this winter were nothing to do with the ‘He’s behind you…