The Spectator

If, as seems to be reliably reported, the Morrison government has decided both to sign up next month to the…

Why don’t the Libs fight to win? Imagine that in getting your public affairs news you were restricted to the…

Exactly a year ago I was on my way home starting the final stage of recovery from prolonged surgery.  Indeed…

A working sub fleet and crew tomorrow, for 1/2 the price Now we have a new PM, he should look…

I’ve known health minister Greg Hunt for over twenty years. When he is convinced about something he doesn’t hold back…

Convicted of murder, Derek Bromley can teach us all a lesson about saying sorry when we are not guilty. And…

Beware of lawyers making recommendations about regulating the business community; they will inevitably lead to more business – for lawyers.…

Every era has its noble lies – the ideas that underpin a civilisation. The noble lie of contemporary culture is…

We live in interesting times. And, according to Taylor, a respected academic from the Australian National University specialising in geopolitics,…

There was something ritualistic about the latest terrorist outrage in Melbourne. True, it was hideous from the moment that Hassan…

By my count, the 2019 Season will be the 40th produced by the Sydney Theatre Company. The coming season is…

The bullet train from Beijing to Shanghai is the fastest in the world. It takes just over four hours to…

Chairman Mao talked of ‘three magic weapons’ for seizing power: the united front, the armed struggle and construction of the…

At 8.45 p.m. I was back in the toilets again feeling pure terror. In front of me was a narrow…

A few months ago, an aggressive US pressure group called the Campaign for Accountability declared that it had a new…

 New York There comes a point in a New York expat’s life when you suddenly realise that the liberal elites…

There was no reason for Edward Drummond to believe this January day was going to be different to any other…

All roads lead to Rome, the saying goes. Well, all roads except for the Roman road of Watling Street, which…

During last year’s general election campaign, Theresa May declared that ‘You can only deliver Brexit if you believe in Brexit’.…

Home Theresa May, the Prime Minister, defended a 500-page technical draft of the agreement on withdrawal from the European Union.…

Jacob Rees-Mogg observed that my resignation last week was ‘the “Emperor’s New Clothes” moment in the Brexit process’. If this…

Hard bitten A British tourist died after contracting rabies from a cat bite in Morocco. Whatever happened to the prominent…

From ‘The Kaiser’, 16 November 1918: What is to be done with the Kaiser? For the question must certainly be…

If Brussels is willing to offer the British Parliament only a dog’s Brexit, that should tell Parliament everything it needs…

Hearts as well as heads Sir: Simon Jenkins suggests we should stop remembering and start forgetting about the first world…

‘It’s time for Bond — Basildon Bond,’ is the joke among pro-Leave MPs as Theresa May serves up her mess…

The bad news for Theresa May is that Brexit isn’t over. She might have agreed terms with the European Commission…

Peasants’ Revolts tend not to work out too well in this country, for the peasants. I suppose that is why…

I didn’t get an audience with the Pope when I visited Rome last weekend. But given that he’s a borderline…

 Los Angeles/Seattle US stocks briefly rallied after the midterm results as markets looked favourably on a divided Congress and the…

Daniel Swift I feel as though I came late to the Sarah Moss party. Nobody told me she was this…

Boxing writers sometimes try to make comparisons across weight groups. They used to say, for example, that Floyd Mayweather was…

Orhan Pamuk, writing about Vladimir Nabokov’s masterful memoir Speak, Memory, noted that there was a particular ‘thrill’ for the writer…

‘I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion’, said Winston Churchill as prime minister in 1942,…

There are probably no more gifted professional gardeners in England than Jim Buckland and Sarah Wain, husband and wife and…

Today Munich is a prosperous and peaceful place — Germany’s most affluent, attractive city. Wandering its leafy avenues, lined with…

The age of Garrick, Norman Poser, a law professor, insists, gave us much of what we take for granted today…

When Japan hosts the Rugby Union World Cup next year, and still more so the summer Olympics in 2020, all…

Avast there, scurvy dogs! For a nation founded on piracy (the privateer Sir Francis Drake swelled the exchequer by raiding…

Fin-de-siècle Paris was not just the art capital of the world, it was also the fashion capital. In 1901, 300,000…

‘What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?’ We’ve heard a lot, lately, of the knell that tolls through the…

Amid all the remembrance, Radio 3 came up with a simple yet effective way of reflecting on war’s impact. Threaded…

You can, perhaps, glimpse Lorenzo Lotto himself in the National Gallery’s marvellous exhibition, Lorenzo Lotto: Portraits. At the base of…

‘The barbarians drive us to the sea, the sea drives us to the barbarians; between these two means of death…

The opening episode of BBC1’s Dynasties — the new Attenborough-fronted series from the Natural History Unit — introduced us to…

Grade: A+ Ooh, you can have some fun with this when the unwanted guests swing by this Christmastide. These are…

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is the sequel to the Harry Potter prequel Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find…

Pinter Three appeals to opposite poles of the play-going spectrum. The birdbrains like me will enjoy the music-hall sketches while…

New York A little Austrian count was born to my daughter last week in Salzburg, early in the morning of…

The monument to this French village’s war dead is a plain white stone block with the head of a grizzled…

Left at the Dementia Café, right at the Sleep Office, past the Spiritual Care Centre… This was my journey through…

It’s no surprise that so many bridge players are computer programmers or systems analysts; it’s an ideal game for those…

World champion Magnus Carlsen missed several chances to win with black in the first game of his title defence, currently…

Black to play. This is a variation from Carlsen–Caruana (Game 2), London 2018. White has forked the black bishop and…

In Competition No. 3074 you were invited to submit a scam letter ghostwritten by a well-known author, living or dead.…

The theme is two historic people who were contemporaries. Unclued lights give their forenames, places of birth and death and…

The quotation is 10/11/39. Remaining unclued lights are all daggers.  First prize G. Snailham, WindsorRunners-up Lynne Gilchrist, Willoughby, New South…

When I first read about plans for a new academic periodical called The Journal of Controversial Ideas, I got the…

Marvellous team, the All Blacks, of course. But they certainly know how to waste some time. Here are some things…

Q. A difficult couple of our acquaintance always object to other guests at dinner and can be very rude to…

Tish is a new grand café in Belsize Park, north London, but kosher. There are not really enough Jews to…

In the annual dictionary wars to nominate words of the year, in the hope of attracting publicity, Collins has made…