How to be content
The Covid-19 pandemic is apparently causing a large number of mental health problems. On that subject, one could do a…
Election notebook
Americans are, in my experience, the warmest, most kind-hearted and open-minded people in the world. I have found this to…
The Blackburn brothers who are bringing Asda home
What a triumph of entrepreneurial empire-building — if that’s still an acceptable phrase — is the £6.8 billion acquisition of…
My pick for BBC chairman
There are two striking things about the new book, 100 Great Black Britons, which was compiled to celebrate the achievements…
Rich pickings
Pity the gilded restaurants of Mayfair, if you can: they are dying. Some have reopened; they ache on like men…
Dear Mary
Q. I am running out of suitable responses to a friend who now has the slightest possible connection to one…
Letters
Misplaced Trust Sir: Charles Moore is as ever bang on target (The Spectator’s Notes, 26 September). National Trust members have…
Bonk
I take it personally that a word I practically saw being born is now unrecognised by people almost old enough…
Will the Abbey ring for Remembrance Day?
It took me several weeks, after returning to the Spectator office, to work out what was missing. It wasn’t the…
Football without the crowds is a winner
The Liverpool defence might have decided in a rare show of togetherness to demonstrate what the word ‘appalling’ means, and…
Local lockdowns have failed the north
The announcement of the ‘Rule of Six’ policy last month was met with much furore – in the south of…
Fish and fire
Anyone who invited the Russian composer Mily Balakirev to dinner had to be jolly careful about the fish they served.…
Retire the Commission on Presidential Debates
Two-hundred-and-thirty-three. That is the combined age of the three co-chairs of the Commission on Presidential Debates, an organization which has…
The Democratic art of magical thinking
I should clear up one thing straight away. I do not believe that Joe Biden is guilty of magical thinking.…
Rishi lays the groundwork for tougher Covid restrictions
There was a time when the announcement of new Treasury spending tended to spell good news. However, these days it…
Duty of care: the trouble with America’s nursing homes
We can debate the value of sacrificing normal life to COVID-19. Personally I think the measures are increasingly destructive —…
Germany’s second wave puts an end to the party
Berlin’s partygoers are being told to stay at home by health experts and politicians amid rising new coronavirus cases. Researchers say that clubs and restaurants have…
The Covid testing trap
We are in a time where money has lost meaning and value, so perhaps the £10 billion plus spent on…
It’s time to ban puberty blockers for children
A ground-breaking case in the High Court will decide this week whether the UK’s only gender identity development service (GIDS)…
COVID-positive president won’t debate online
The droplets had barely settled after Wednesday’s vice presidential debate when next week’s head-to-head between Donald Trump and Joe Biden…
She’s made a career from her terrible choices in men – so of course Taylor Swift is backing Biden
Taylor Swift — who has made a career of writing songs about her terrible choices in men — has officially…
How lockdown left 1.25 million school students behind
New Centre for Independent Stuides research confirms the breadth of educational damage of school closures — especially troubling for Victorian…
Critical theory 101 with Clementine Ford
What a Friday treat. There is nothing quite as satisfying as watching the left eat its own. Latest in…
Budget 2020: Is anyone brave enough to mention immigration?
Even before the Wuhan coronavirus spread into Australia and derailed almost 30 years of “uninterrupted economic growth”, there was a growing sense…
