‘The United States does not want either side to win this war. Victory for either side would mean dreadful massacres…

They can’t help themselves. Despite the ancient warnings against counting chickens and the dreadful memory of the unlosable, but lost,…

As this period before an election is like the night before Christmas, it might be an appropriate time to draw…

Tony Abbott has long been a gift to journalists, particularly those writing for readers in Britain. At the start of…

Tony Abbott has emerged as a role model for right-thinking conservatives across the globe

The ALP needs adult supervision

The West does have a dog in the Syria fight. But it’s on the losing side of the losing side

The age of 'maximalist' foreign policy may be drawing to an end

The poet and Northern Ireland's great divide

The Circolo Culturale Margaret Thatcher, which wants to institute an Anglo-Saxon Tory party in Italy, has a plan

Today’s MPs are no longer scared of the whips. Instead, they are scared of their constituents. That’s a good thing

The list of options is ever longer. But good luck finding something you’d want to eat

It could be, in Sicily, there comes a time when you’ve had your fill of seaside calamari and cheap white…

By conventional wisdom, Tony Abbott should not become Prime Minister of Australia this weekend. He ought to be too conservative,…

Home Having recalled Parliament to debate British military action over Syria, David Cameron, the Prime Minister, found the government defeated,…

Days ago, I’d have bet that even the most bitterly partisan Congress in generations would jib at humiliating their commander-in-chief.…

So the USA must launch its onslaught against Syria without the Brits. Well, if Obama will make public announcements of…

Shining examples The ‘Walkie Talkie’, a new tower block in Fenchurch Street, was blamed for partially melting the interior of…

Syrian matters Sir: Though Syria (Leading article, 31 August) is certainly no laughing matter, the turmoil prevailing over a ‘punitive…

The political conference season may be lacking in party activists nowadays, but it has lost none of its importance to…

David Cameron says that he will not come back to the House of Commons again about the question of Syria…

It is a tragedy that some of us are born in the wrong times. According to that increasingly gobby conduit…

You can’t demand democracy in #Syria but ignore it at home, says @MatthewParris3

Vodafone, which has just collected an £84 billion windfall from the sale of its 45 per cent stake in Verizon…

The inbred Habsburg monarchs, who for centuries ruled without method over a vast, ramshackle empire, managed to leave an indelible mark on modern Europe, says Sam Leith

Novels about growing up have two great themes: loss of innocence and the forging of identity. With this sparky, sharp-eyed…

The term ‘419’ is drawn from the article in the Nigerian penal code that addresses fraud. However, it has transcended…

Philip Ziegler is best known for his biographies, often official, of politicians, royalty  and soldiers. They include Harold Wilson, Edward…

In Germany in 1923 money was losing its value so fast that the state printing works could not keep up.…

His publishers describe this ‘ground-breaking book on evolution’ by ‘the most celebrated living heir to Darwin’ as ‘the summa work…

This biography has somewhat more news value than most literary biographies. Its subject worked hard to ensure that. After 1965,…

Sound the trumpets. Let rip the Byzantine chorus of clattering bells and gongs, the thunder of cannons, drums and flashing…

Damian Thompson visits Brazil to hear Marin Alsop whip São Paulo’s orchestra into shape

With a tidal wave of Peter Grimeses about to engulf us — performances in London, Birmingham and Leeds in September…

The popular conception of Dame Laura Knight is of an energetic woman piling on the paint in the back of…

More un-Shakespearean drama at London’s leading Shakespeare venue. The Globe has pushed the Bard off stage to make way for…

The easiest thing would be to sneer at Richard Curtis’s new film About Time, and so I will a little,…

Gossip that an orchestral player fainted while performing in the Albert Hall during the recent heatwave points to a strange…

The most paranoid of presidents, Richard Nixon must have been feeling unwell when he allowed three of his closest aides…

‘He was a natural broadcaster,’ said Nick Higham, after the death last week of the rugby player and sports broadcaster…

You know you’re getting old when TV starts getting nostalgic about eras during which you were already feeling old and…

I used to see him in El Morocco, the most famous nightclub of its era during the late Fifties and…

We picked up the key to the caravan, let ourselves in, ascertained the phone signal situation (none) and went to…

Some call me paranoid, but I don’t think one can be suspicious enough when it comes to the activities of…

I am embarrassed not by people using ‘non-U’ expressions but by people who still care about such things

Holiday over – and I hopped on the plane home dribbling with excitement. I was going straight to Young Chelsea…

Nowadays it is standard, when publishing a chess game, to give the names of both players. This was not always…

White to play. This is from Johnson-Anon, internet game 2013. Black’s problem is that his king is marooned in the…

In Competition 2813 you were invited to submit an application in verse, from the poet of your choice, for the…

The unclued lights, individually (each of two words), or paired, are of a specific kind, verifiable in Brewer 17th Edition…

The chain of anagrams is as follows: 40, 8, 18, 25, 22, 23, 21D, 19, 1A   First prize Robert…

The Hammersmith Conservative Association will shortly be looking for a candidate to run against the sitting Labour MP in 2015…

Those of us who watched the last day of the final Ashes Test of the present series enjoyed a rare…

Q. In response to correspondence re. wedding gifts: there is no need for a couple to have a list at…

One Aldwych, an Edwardian grand hotel near Waterloo Bridge, is serving a Jimmy Savile tribute tea. It is not explicitly…

Isabel Hardman of this parish explained after last week’s government defeat that a deluded theory among the party leadership had…