Live not by lies
Australian institutions are so hostile to freedom that telling the truth is an act of resistance
Albo’s Chinese takeaway
Labor’s misinformation bill is what you’d expect Beijing to ram through in Hong Kong
Held to account
When Nigel Farage said Coutts had closed his bank account and claimed political victimisation, many thought he was making it…
Portrait of the week
Home Ben Wallace said he would cease to be the Defence Secretary at the next cabinet reshuffle and would not…
Diary
When someone asks ‘How are you?’ you have to assume your interlocutor is only being polite. Anyone who returns a…
Labour’s reality check
Rishi Sunak goes into the summer holidays in the same position he began the year: 20 points behind in the…
The Spectator’s Notes
Jane Portal, as she was when she worked for Winston Churchill, died last week, aged 93. Lady Williams of Elvel,…
The BBC’s biggest problem
As I write this, the director-general of the BBC is being quizzed on the corporation’s future by people who were…
Barometer
Swing when you’re winning What are the biggest UK by-election swings? — The 1983 Bermondsey by-election saw a 11,756 Labour…
Rumour-mongers
The ancients were as fascinated by rumour as, to judge by recent events in Russia and the BBC, we are.…
Canada’s lovely, liberal solution
My favourite Martin Amis novel was his 1991 book Time’s Arrow. It is a pyrotechnically brilliant work in which all…
Letter from Thailand
Many of my friends, stranded by the Hollywood writers’ and actors’ strikes, have temporarily given up their film projects and…
‘There is no plan! You’re on your own!’
The first LNER train I booked on Sunday from Durham to London was cancelled due to ‘action short of a…
