Britain has its first punk-rock government
The most surprising thing about the letter from Guardian and Observer journalists moaning about Suzanne Moore’s supposed ‘transphobia’ is that…
Secrets and spies
Here’s the problem. Much communication is done online, especially by youngsters, and much drama focuses on communication. So how do…
The courage of their convictions
Historians argue endlessly and pointlessly about the extent to which the human factor rather than brute circumstance determines the course…
puzzle no. 595
Black to play. Tomashevsky–Lomasov, Nutcracker Battle of the Generations, Moscow 2020. A position with a surprising twist. Tomashevsky has just…
2448: Issues
Four pairs of unclued lights (17/5, 22/27, 29/31 and 8/26) form anagrams of the titles (one hyphened, three of three…
Solution to 2445: in other words II
41/1A/10 is MISQUOTATION. 1D/24/33, 15, 34, and 38/16D are examples of common misquotations. First prize Dianne Parker, Dover, KentRunners-up Vincent…
The Spectator’s Notes
Monday night’s Commons rebellion over Huawei was on a surprisingly serious scale for a new government with a big mandate.…
A story of low self-esteem
Short, fat and shy, the protagonist of Adam Mars-Jones’s latest novel doesn’t have much going for him; even his name…
Escape into music
Were this a less good book than it is, it would be called How Bach Can Help You Grieve. As…
High life
Gstaad Rumours about the virus are flying around this village. First there was talk of a hotel being temporarily…
Bridge
Just back from Monaco, the tiny principality famously dubbed ‘a sunny place for shady people’ by Somerset Maugham. Pierre Zimmermann,…
Low life
The greater the enervation, it is said, the greater the appreciation of a work of art. There was no place…
Grave thoughts
In Competition No. 3139 you were invited to submit a four-line verse epitaph for a well-known person, living or dead.…
The test of the Budget
British politics has not lost its flair for the dramatic. If it was not enough to have Sajid Javid resign…
Dry cake in a red-brick crab
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and it sits like a red-brick crab on the…
Chess borders
In the 1800s, several chess matches were conducted by telegraph. Modern technology ought to make long-distance matches easier than ever,…
Cartoonists have a right to free speech
I’m no fan of Steve Bell, the Guardiancartoonist. I can’t say I’ve ever laughed at one of his squibs, which…
Apple of discord
Forty-seven years ago, Virago paperbacks, with their stylish green spines and hint-of-the-transgressive colophons of a red apple with a bite…
dear mary your problems solved
Q. How can I stop a member of the household from glutting out on the chocolate supply I have stockpiled?…
The purity myth
In the award-winning musical Avenue Q, filthy-minded puppets sang about schadenfreude, internet porn, loud sex, the uselessness of an English…
A Rabbi’s Notebook
Last Monday night and Tuesday were our Jewish festival of Purim, when we recall the events described in the Book…
First novels: The children’s hour
Kiley Reid’s Philadelphia-set debut, Such a Fun Age (Bloomsbury, £12.99), is a satire on white saviour syndrome, woke culture and…
Crude tactics: Russia and Saudi Arabia are at war over oil prices
It all started at what everyone thought would be a routine meeting between Opec and non-Opec nations in Vienna. There…
