Decline and fall of the West
History tells us that civilisations and empires are ephemeral. Like the Egyptian civilisation, they may last for thousands of years…
Crunch time
It’s one thing for the Reserve Bank board to set monetary policy independent of government. It’s entirely something else when…
Hope I die – but not before I get really, really old
Rock dinosaurs still not knockin’ on heaven’s door
Life from both sides now
It’s a strange thing the way we keep interpreting and re-interpreting the different aspects of our culture that have become…
Aussie life
In The Australian Ugliness, published in 1960, the architect Robin Boyd remembered a meal in a hotel dining room in…
Language
Now a new and (I think) much needed expression: ‘disagreement consent’. It’s a play on a more familiar expression I…
All talk and no trousers
Attacks on British elitism usually talk about Oxbridge, but Simon Kuper argues that it is specifically Oxford that is the…
It’s the cost of living, stupid
As Boris Johnson faced the possibility of a no-confidence motion earlier this year, a large number of Tory MPs decided…
Barometer
The right to buy The Prime Minister floated the idea of granting housing association tenants a blanket right to buy.…
Diary
It has been wonderful to welcome seven refugees – and their four dogs – to my home in Suffolk. I’ve…
Dark side of the rune
In Rus, which we now call Ukraine, Amleth (Alexander Skarsgard) begins his pursuit of revenge. A sea captain who later…
The Spectator’s Notes
As we get back into Roe vs Wade, prompted by the leak of what is said to be the US…
The hecklers
Keith Burstein recalls a key moment in the battle for emancipation from the ivory tower of atonalism
Have we got news for you
In The Spectator office’s toilets there are framed front covers of the events that didn’t happen: Corbyn beats Boris; ‘Here’s…
Will Putin go nuclear?
A ghastly tragedy Ukraine may well be, but it is coming to the rescue of a number of British Conservative…
