The NHS is teaching me how to stand properly
If you are wondering, any more than usual, how your tax is being spent, you should know that I have…
Why racing will miss Luca Cumani
Fairy tales can happen. On Sunday the filly God Given won Italy’s only Group One race of the season, the…
Bridge
This autumn has been the busiest (bridge-wise) I can remember. It started with the Crockfords final at the beginning of…
Nos morituri
Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana, those two gladiators of the mind, will duel in London during the remainder of this…
no. 531
White to play. This is from Carlsen-Caruana, Bilbao 2012. Black has blundered right out of the opening. How did Carlsen…
Neo-gothic
In Competition No. 3073 you were invited to submit a short story in the Gothic style with a topical twist.…
2384: Bang!
Unclued lights, singly or correctly paired, are of a kind, as given in Chambers. Ignore one apostrophe. Across 5 …
to 2381: Step changes
The word ladder connecting UNITED and STATES goes: UNITES (1D), URITES (18), WRITES (7D), WHITES (34), WHILES (30A), WHALES (7A),…
Roger Scruton becomes the latest victim of the Twitchfork mob
‘Once identified as right-wing you are beyond the pale of argument,’ wrote Sir Roger Scruton. ‘Your views are irrelevant, your…
Sending more people to uni isn’t the answer
Imagine a world where employers judged applicants solely on their dress. Anyone in frayed clothes or scuffed shoes would never…
Dear Mary: What can I do about loud train snorers?
Q. At every drinks party one will be in mid-conversation with another guest and someone will walk over and loiter…
How violence in France led to the creation of London’s Courtauld Gallery
Darkness, but not the blanket of the dark. This was a sinister darkness, beset by smoke and flames, by the…
At sixes and sevens about seven and six
Someone on the wireless was talking about marrying in the Liberty of Newgate before the Marriage Act of 1753, and…
Labor’s quagmire of incompetence
A standard political tactic (of all sides) is to paint your opponents as inhumane or wreckers and wilful destroyers of…
And then there was one…
Exit, stage right, Ross Cameron. Sky TV has fired its second Outsiders host. This time the charge was racism and…
Simon Collins
I don’t know if media coverage of the Geoffrey Rush defamation trial boosted Australian cinema attendances for last week’s simulcast…
Australians do support recognising Jerusalem
The brouhaha that followed the federal government’s announcement that Australia will consider moving Australia’s Israeli embassy to Jerusalem continues to…
Prince Harry, G-G?
Leadership beyond politics, a quality well demonstrated by Prince Harry, is one of the greatest virtues of our constitutional system.…
Hollow man of the Left
There are two types of people in political parties. One type joins a party because he or she thinks that…
But does it pass the breath, er, pub test?
Anne Summers in 2011 was named by Vogue magazine as ‘one of the world’s wisest women’. After reading her memoir…
Milo’s hope and the Latin pope
There’s a long tradition in this country of washed-up troupers from overseas turning up on our shores for a gig,…
Hail to The Chief
The US mid-term elections are the most important in recent history and not just for Americans. Since 1788, Australia has…
Trump, guns and Gab
When Robert Bowers entered the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh and gunned down eleven Jewish victims, his purpose was…
Brown study
There was an undesirable intervention this week into the debate about African gangs in Melbourne, namely that a judge thought…
