Euro notes
Tories all at sea on boats On hearing France’s interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, on why so many would-be migrants cross…
Australian notes
The unbearable lightness of lying Ever since French President Emmanuel Macron told a credulous Australian media that he doesn’t think,…
Nitram
Nitram is the Martin Bryant film which sent shivers down everyone’s spine at the mere prospect. Justin Kurzel’s film about…
Aussie Life
I have reached an age where I have started to forget where I have put things, but so far they…
Aussie Language
In a recent piece in the Australian newspaper paper Terry McCrann (the doyen of economics writers — he of the…
Vale Christian Kerr
It is with profound sadness that I must inform the family of Spectator Australia writers, readers and fans of the…
Bridge
The 2020 European Championships were an early casualty of lockdown but hopefully 2022 will rectify the count! It’s going to…
A beady eye
At one time, Penelope Lively was routinely shortchanged by critics. Her protagonists are often middle-class professionals — historians, archeologists, scriptwriters…
Portrait of the week
Home In a nervous response to the entry into Britain of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 — B.1.1.529 — the…
Mnemonic
In Competition No. 3227, you were invited to provide verses to help children remember the sequence of the last eight…
Mar del Plata
Alireza Firouzja produced a momentous performance for France at the European Team Championships, held in Slovenia last month. The 18-year-old,…
Sleeker than its scrappy parts
The Barcelona-born choreographer Joan Clevillé has form for off-beat storytelling with a streak of sincerity. Before becoming artistic director of…
Life online is about to get even worse
No sooner had an inch or two of snow fallen on our upland areas last week than the climate-change Morlocks…
Real life
The streetlighting engineer walked up and down outside my house trying to work out who was right: me, or my…
The 900 numbers game
We’ve been living through a nostalgia for the 1990s that has lasted longer than the decade itself. That was back…
Anticolonialists have their myths too
Much is now being made of the evils of empire. As a child of empire I bridle. I acknowledge the…
Here we go again
Comparing Saturday’s Downing Street press conference to Groundhog Day would insult one of my favourite films. The hilarious, multifarious strategies…
