I’m making a cave disco in the south of France
I’ve swapped my carer’s tray in Devon for a barrow and spade halfway up a cliff in the south of…
You should train your man like you train your Labrador
‘This clean sock regime is really annoying,’ said the builder boyfriend, as he rummaged through his newly inaugurated top drawer.…
Will horse welfare become racing’s Brexit?
As jockeys, trainers, punters and media folk gathered at Newbury on Saturday to say farewell to Noel Fehily, the ultimate…
Bridge
Susanna and I don’t play on the same team very often, but once a year Fiona Hutchison puts together a…
Fischer favourite
A favoured line of the great Bobby Fischer was to meet both the French Defence (1 e4 e6) and the…
no. 547
White to play. This position is from Fischer–Myagmarsuren, Sousse Interzonal 1967. How did Fischer conclude his attack in fine style?…
Cringe benefits
In Competition No. 3091 you were invited to submit toe-curlingly bad analogies. This is an idea shamelessly pinched from the…
2401: Sign here please
The unclued lights are of a kind and all have to be ignored in the completed grid. Across 1 …
to 2398: All steamed up
The unclued lights are the names of FAMOUS STEAM TRAINS including the pairs at 14/15 and 17/30. First prize Jenny…
Jordan Peterson and mob rule at the University of Cambridge
On Monday, the vice-chancellor of Cambridge university, Stephen Toope, issued a statement defending the decision of the divinity faculty to…
The uncountable problems with innumerate Brits
Alevels, from the perspective of a ‘choice architect’, are a disaster. While pupils are free to pick and mix freely…
Dear Mary: how do I stop my minister giving sermons about Brexit?
Q. I belong to a religious congregation whose minister is politically minded. Every time I attend a service, I am…
Three Tories gather for a convivial, and consolatory, glass of wine
Three tribal Tories had gathered for a convivial glass, and also a consolatory one. One quoted Huskisson’s verdict after Goderich’s…
Coining a phrase does not mean stealing it
My husband has been doing something useful but criminal for the past two years. He reads the sports pages, mostly…
Gladys throws the Libs a lifeline
The return of the Berejiklian government demonstrates that good governments can win a third term, despite self-inflicted wounds. That will…
Unis? Must try harder
‘I’m a revolutionary Marxist, and if you’re not one by the end of semester I haven’t done my job properly,’…
Rhetorical Notes
In the somewhat distant days of my early manhood rhetorical language – that is language designed solely to persuade or…
Business/Robbery etc
It was utter bunkum; but typical self-delusion by those ideological crusaders determined to do whatever it takes ‘to save the…
Vale Edmund Capon
![[Photo: Gary Grealy]](https://www.spectator.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Edmund_HERO_PRINT.jpg?w=410&h=275&crop=1)
It is a chilly December evening in London, and on the floor of this hospital the windows are an opaque…
The propaganda is settled
Aussie school children are getting another barrage of third-party climate catastrophism, only a fortnight since the kids’ climate strike. March…
Christchurch – and saying goodbye to so much
Our saddest times are when those we love leave us. When there is not even time to say goodbye, the…
Running on empty
If anything happened to disrupt our imports of oil and fuel, such as a blockade of shipping through the South…
Selling out the voters
The famous American author Mark Twain is rumoured to have once said ‘If voting made a difference, they wouldn’t let…
Fernando Guimarães
The closing chapters of Homer’s Odyssey were the source for the opera regarded as the crowning achievement of composer Claudio…
