Yet again, the world looks to Australia’s Coalition government, and in particular to Tony Abbott, for guidance on a problem…

I have to concede that I was one of those who long years ago fell for a time under the…

Joe Hockey’s ore-inspiring budget

If I thought there was free speech in Australia since the Andrew Bolt case, I would tell you what I…

Veteran Canberra hand Laurie Oakes’ prediction of an early federal election was so qualified as to be the political equivalent…

‘Manchester first, or Glasgow?’ I ask Steph. She shrugs. ‘As long as we get to the Doctor Who exhibition in…

A binding vote on gay marriage looms as the next big Labor party split

They survived the departure of Bob Brown. But will anybody care that Christine Milne has gone?

Nicola Sturgeon dominated in a way Alex Salmond could not have. But where now for the Union?

The White House Correspondents’ Dinner and the needs of traumatised veterans

Julie Burchill rediscovers an eternal truth in Barbados

Home The country went to the polls. David Cameron, the Conservative leader, prepared by going around with his sleeves rolled…

Plus: Book-tour fashion; the language of the election; and a coffee with J.K. Rowling

Plus: How many Charlottes to expect this year; and who’ll win the election if legwork decides it

British democracy isn’t worthy of the name. Time for reform

From ‘War by Poison’, The Spectator, 8 May 1915: By the consent of all men who are not savages, the use…

Plus: coal mines vs fracking; whether vicars need bigger houses; and where Taki should have his 80th

It’s the most egregiously stupid thing I’ve ever seen in any general election

Plus: the hounding of the Hound of Hounslow; and one party leader’s Waterloo

Divorced from other people and the real world, we are all becoming increasingly dehumanising, according to Matthew Crawford’s The World Beyond Your Head

Anne Enright’s The Green Road, a novel about escaping, returning and death, is beautifully executed says Ruth Scurr

Another gloomy rendering of his life (and death) might disappoint Alan Turing’s shade, says Sinclair McKay

Elusive in life, the capricious Moura Budberg has eluded her latest biographers too, says Clare Mulley

Oscar Wilde had a fixation with Thomas Chatterton’s early promise and lonely death — which eerily mirrored his own, says Richard Davenport-Hines

On the centenary of his birth, we celebrate the all-embracing genius of the great director, actor, theatre maker and story-teller

Somewhere in this narcissistic faux-fairytale is a romcom, bound and gagged and locked in the trunk

Plus more boys on the march: Christopher Wheeldon’s Mesmerics makes BalletBoyz’ latest worth catching

What's the ideal size for a boyband, wonders Marcus Berkmann

Plus: BBC1’s The C-Word worked mostly beautifully but the ending felt pat

Plus: a naughty piece of audio artwork involving graphic sex and Portland stone and a truly innovative piece of radio from Lemn Sissay on Radio 4

By any measure it was a glamorous auction. The auctioneer was Mark Politmore, aka 7th Baron Poltimore, Deputy Chairman of…

But because of health & safety we weren’t allowed to run

I couldn’t help snorting when I came across an article in the Guardian last week (about the ongoing legal battle…

This week I continue with my analysis of Nigel Short’s recent animadversions upon the differences between the male and female…

White to play. This is from Polgar-Short, -Buenos Aires 2000. Here we return to the theme of Judit Polgar’s massive…

In Competition No. 2896 you were invited to take Kipling’s ‘If’ and recast it on behalf of a politician on…

Four unclued lights can be arranged to form an eight-word excerpt from a quotation (in ODQ). One of these lights…

PERCH (13A), SCAR (21A and 10D), SHAD (40A), EEL (5D) AND CARP (19D) were ignored in wordplay in their clues.…

When you have a higher status than the people you mock, something goes wrong

Plus: Is it ever all right to wear a short-sleeved shirt with a tie?