Hope will rise out of the ashes of Notre Dame
‘Great edifices, like great mountains, are the work of centuries,’ wrote Victor Hugo in Notre-Dame de Paris. ‘The man, the…
Portrait of the week: Brexit party launches, Assange is arrested – and Notre Dame burns
Home Although the latest date for Brexit had been postponed by the European Council until Halloween, 31 October, the government…
Roger Scruton: Should I forgive the journalist who got me fired?
I travel back from London with the St Matthew Passion filling my head, after the moving performance from the Elysian…
Israel and the UN
From ‘Israel’s Candidature’, The Spectator, 22 April 1949: Israel’s application for UN membership received a chillier reception than had been…
Marriage is becoming more like it was before Christianity
The Christian church ordained that marriage, a sacrament imparting divine grace, was for life. In 1857, the state enacted its…
Who has hidden in an embassy for longer than Julian Assange?
Embassy endurance Julian Assange was thrown out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London, seven years after seeking sanctuary from extradition…
Letters: Britain needs HS2
Moaning minnie MPs Sir: I was recently quoted in the Sun newspaper in a story about how MPs were reacting…
What would happen if the Gospels were judged in a history contest?
This week, the Wolfson History Prize announced its shortlist. It is always worth drawing attention to, precisely because it is…
Brexit failure will cost the Tories – whoever their leader is
One of the oddities of this parliament has been that, despite everything, the government has remained ahead in the polls…
Why conservatives can’t survive in government
I had mixed feelings about the sacking of Roger Scruton from the government’s Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission, following comments…
My friend’s death taught me what Easter really means
The bravest thing I’ve ever seen was 93-year-old Albert’s decision to die and the days after in which he stuck…
Are you ‘culture compliant’?
Here’s a quick quiz to jolly up your Easter. 1. Lucy Noble, artistic director of the Royal Albert Hall, thinks…
Why passengers won’t mourn the passing of Virgin trains
‘Virgin trains could be gone from the UK in November,’ blogged Sir Richard Branson from his billionaire hideaway after the…
Thank God for western values
Declarations of hope that Notre Dame can be resurrected have been much in evidence this Holy Week. Such is the…
It’s not anti-Irish to criticise Leo Varadkar
The relationship between the UK and the Republic of Ireland has ‘reached a hunger-strike low’, says a new study by…
How Philip Larkin f****d me up
I first came across Philip Larkin’s poem ‘This Be the Verse’ when I was 18 in the late 1970s. You…
What made the Two Fat Ladies great
Mary Berry’s dependable The Aga Book — a book of the last century and part of my kitchen library —…
A Spectator debate: should euthanasia be legalised? Douglas Murray vs Sam Leith
Four years ago, the Assisted Dying Bill was overwhelmingly defeated in parliament. The euthanasia debate hasn’t disappeared, however. One recent…
Thank God for hymns!
Before embarking on this hymn to hymns, I’ll admit that hymn-enthusiasts feel a slight sense of anticlimax on Easter Sunday,…
The holy pedigree of cats
It is claimed that the prophet Muhammad loved cats. His favourite was called Muezza and he would do without his…
A new version of Saladin — as silver-tongued diplomat
I can only remember one page of any of the dozens of Ladybird histories that I read avidly as a…
Will the Pilgrims’ Way soon rival the Camino de Santiago?
There are more than 100 cathedrals in England, Scotland and Wales of many different denominations (although I for one had…
Vasily Grossman: eye-witness to the 20th century’s worst atrocities
Vasily Grossman’s novel Life and Fate (completed in 1960) has been hailed as a 20th-century War and Peace. It has…
A computer will never write the Brandenburg Concertos
What is creativity? Marcus du Sautoy, a mathematician and Oxford professor for the public understanding of science, offers this pert…
The invisible man behind Hollywood’s greatest films
What do the following filmmakers have in common: Victor Fleming, John Ford, Henry Hathaway, Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, Ernst Lubitsch,…
