Spectator Competition: Budding poets
Comp. 3441 invited you to use the opening of Philip Larkin’s poem ‘Trees’ as a starting point for your own.…
‘We’ll wake up on 8 May and realise that the Conservative party’s gone’: Inside Reform’s plan to devour the Tories
When Zia Yusuf first walked into the headquarters of Reform UK, he gestured at the empty room and asked: ‘Where’s…
The ancient Greeks are to blame for the Oscars
The Oscars mark the end of the awards season, with their annual rituals of self-applause to which actors are so…
The West should double down on the Iran war
Donald Trump may be the volatile leader of an unstable coalition. America’s numerous interventions in the Middle East may have…
How the army can rediscover its fighting spirit
The seemingly endless debate about the hollowness of our armed forces has concentrated on size, technical capability and sustainability –…
Portrait of the week: Growth slows to zero, Scotland rejects assisted dying and Trump sends Marines to the Gulf
Home Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, spoke to President Donald Trump of America about the importance of reopening the…
Trump should ditch the faux concern for the people of Iran
Live long enough and all your cherished memories of childhood will end up besmirched somehow. For many of us Boomers…
The only living being on our banknotes should be the monarch
This Middle East conflict ought to be much easier than the oil embargo which followed the Yom Kippur war of…
Keir Starmer has surrendered to Ed Miliband – and we are all paying the price
Labour MPs who want Wes Streeting to be their leader have, apparently, one great fear. If their man triggers a…
Is my book about Meghan and Harry a ‘deranged conspiracy’?
‘Deranged conspiracy’. That’s the Sussexes’ verdict of Betrayal, my second blast at Harry and Meghan, after the serialisation was in…
I love Cheltenham… but there’s only so much chaos I can take
Flipping heck! Thank goodness the Cheltenham Festival only happens once a year. There’s only so much chaos and controversy my…
Nothing beats a posh hospital room
The private hospital room in Chelsea was so relaxing I would have stayed for a week if it was affordable.…
The glaring flaw in Keir Starmer’s ‘cohesion plan’
On the way back home down Mile End Road, I stopped for a cup of tea in a nice-looking café.…
The Epstein Files, the naked communist, and me
Dante’s Beach, Ravenna I was parked up in the Land Rover Defender on the narrow road that runs alongside the…
In days of war, we need trifles: Mezzogiorno reviewed
Mezzogiorno is a very serious, golden Italian restaurant inside the Corinthia London Hotel on Northumberland Avenue. Restaurants are increasingly gold…
The perfect 15-minute chocolate mousse
There’s an inherent pleasure in having something by heart. Poetry at school. Lines in plays. Song lyrics. The things that…
