Tigran, Tigran, burning bright
This year Tigran Petrosian would have celebrated his 90th birthday. The Armenian grandmaster and world champion was noted for the…
no. 561
White to play. This is from Reti-Bogolyubov, New York 1924. How did Reti conclude his attack with a fine blow? Answers…
Belles of the ball
In Competition No. 3105 you were invited to submit a fragment of commentary on the Women’s World Cup delivered by…
2415: The limit
1A (hyphened) suggests a word which, with changes to its 7D 33, becomes the four other words (including a name)…
to 2412: Transponders
On 15th June 1919 John ALCOCK (34) and Arthur BROWN (37) completed the first non-stop transatlantic flight when they crash-landed…
Scotland and Wales have much to learn from England’s education reforms
I’ve contributed a chapter to an education book published this week by the Institute of Economic Affairs. I was asked…
Why governments should spend big on tech
I was talking to a large Silicon Valley video-conferencing firm the other day. ‘Just for interest,’ I asked, ‘what would…
Dear Mary: How should I deal with a friend who leaves appalling comments on Facebook?
Q. Friends and I keep in touch and share our more memorable experiences on Facebook. One friend is an elderly…
A toast to the wisdom – and wit – of Norman Stone
We were in a club, discussing Norman Stone, recently departed, over a meal that he would have enjoyed. Norman divided…
Who really invented the word ‘posh’?
Two rules of grammar are certain: never split an infinitive and never end a sentence with a preposition. As for…
Media onslaught against Trump backfires
What? ABCTV, without sneering, covered Trump at the Osaka G20 last week and with Kim Jong-un the other day. So…
Our universities are dying
Examples of how universities have been captured by politically correct groupthink and cultural left ideology abound. Bettina Arndt being denied…
Margaret Olley Pomegranates in a basket 1967
It’s a barely forgivable cliche to call them ‘the odd couple’; but Margaret Olley (1923-2011) and Ben Quilty (b. 1973)…
Turnbull, the G-G, Porter and Dutton
Scott Morrison’s election win saved Australia from many perils: from much higher and even more wasteful government spending; much higher…
The noose around Australian businesses
In Greenwashed: the strange triumph of eco-Toryism, (The Spectator Australia, 15 June), Ross Clark describes how Conservative party leadership contenders…
Conscience rules, OK?
Two problems with Scott Morrison’s proposed Religious Discrimination Bill. First, what does it mean for those who make a stand…
Business/Robbery etc
Now that Adani’s Carmichael mine in remote central Queensland is, after nine tempestuous years, under way since at last getting…
Euronotes
The hybrid Boris Johnson How is it that the likeable Boris Johnson has become such a hate-figure? The British Left…
Another Sampson blinded in Gaza
Hooray for Pallywood, or rather Gazallywood, that wonderful melange of misleading footage, falsehoods, fakeries and frauds that makes up so…
Privilege points to prejudice
The other day I checked my points balance. I felt ashamed by how high it was, and wondered what I…
Still Laboring under delusions
Six weeks after the federal election, the resumption of parliament has forced Labor to accept the unpalatable truth that it…
Biden and Trump converge on the middle ground
Are both Donald Trump and Joe Biden going to run to the center? Yesterday Trump delivered a fairly anodyne speech…
Billy Connolly and the death of free speech
I hope readers will forgive me for returning to a subject I addressed here recently. It was a reflection on the…
