The Spectator’s Notes
‘Interior silence’ is not a phrase I associate with Sarah Sands, until recently the editor of the BBC Today programme…
Diary
When I finally head back to church this weekend, after a year of Covid-avoidance, it is going to feel a…
Split decisions
Divorcing couples are being given vouchers worth £500 to settle their problems by mediation rather than going to court. It…
Cycle of pain
Suffering from post-traumatic stress and the effects of government austerity measures, Paul Jones resigned as the head of an inner-city…
Adders
In early April, when the chiffchaff sings its drab little song in the leafless hawthorns, something is stirring in the…
Please Twitter, stop playing ‘Guess the Killer’s Race’
Another day, another killing in America, another depressingly instant social-media argument over the perpetrator’s skin color. This time a man…
Everyone is a libertarian at the end of a pandemic
There are lots of libertarians at the end of a pandemic — and for good reason. For more than a…
Do critics of the race report have any actual arguments?
I guess the authors of the Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparities didn’t agree to the job for a quiet…
Talking down vaccines is a short-sighted tactic
How strange to have spent a year in a world where to hug someone outside of your household is not…
London’s mayoral race is a warning to Tories nationwide
The London Mayoral election is more of a procession than a race. The only real question is whether Sadiq Khan…
Backlash builds over vaccine passports
As Boris Johnson prepares to deliver an update on Monday on government plans for immunity passports and international travel, the Prime Minister…
The joke’s on the Peter Dutton haters. Again
To anyone sane, Peter Dutton is the Minister for Defence. To the loony left, he is Satan with a shaved…
Why Muslims like me are worried about the Batley protests
To some, the persecution of a schoolteacher who showed his pupils a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed may seem like…
The economic case for the Union isn’t enough
There is a certain kind of critic of independence who hears the news that public funding for Scotland is 30…
A handy guide to flags
The Union Jack is back. No TV interview with a government minister is complete without a flag and their departments have…
Isis’s weakness is now its strength
As coronavirus swept the globe a year ago, Isis began issuing pronouncements. ‘God, by his will, sent a punishment to…
Could the Sputnik vaccine end Russia’s rift with the West?
Accounts differ. But it would appear that during a wide-ranging conference call earlier this week, the leaders of France and…
Boris has a trump card in denying Sturgeon an ‘illegal’ referendum
Amidst all the dry economic arguments, one of the more emotive fronts on which the 2016 referendum was fought was…
Britain’s Covid baby bust is bleak news
These are lean times for hospitality and retail. But at least pubs and shops have their champions, popping up on…
Biden’s bait-and-switch presidency
Joe Biden was elected as a moderate-left Democrat, but he is not governing as one. He pledged repeatedly to work…
Ben Smith gifts Harper’s best subs week ever
Say what you want about the sickness of cancel culture, it can be great for business. Nothing rallies paying readers…
Labor loses the Palestinian plot
The Australian Labor Party has now adopted former UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s ‘unconditional recognition’ of Palestine as well as…
