The trouble with diversity training
Is diversity training snake oil? According to its proponents, women and minorities are not competing with white men on a…
The turf
Having spent three quarters of my life covering politics and the other quarter following racing, I am often asked what…
Diary
A trip to the supermarché at the beginning of our French month yielded many of the necessary things one also…
Russia’s revolutionary soul
From ‘The Russian awakening’, 6 July 1917: M. Kerensky, the Russian Minister of War, has kept his word. He promised…
The beginning is nigh
Just a few weeks ago, the Conservatives triumphed in the local government elections and Theresa May was hailed as an…
Australian letters
Hot stuff Sir: If Dr Williamson of East Anglia wishes to be taken seriously then he should refrain from using…
Australian notes
Malleable expectations Gary Johns is a fellow Speccie contributor. He’s also a friend. In fact, next month my wife and…
Brown study
Despite what certain scurrilous publications have said about him, no doubt to foment discord in an otherwise harmonious party, I…
Alan Moorehead
He left Melbourne in 1936 to become a famous writer, and he did. Not just a famous writer but a…
Recognising murder
The flags will unfurl, the crowds will cheer, the bands will play, an explosion of red, green, black and white…
Let’s make sure our fishermen are protected against Brexit tit-for-tat
I voted Remain last year for two reasons. First, however irritating I found some aspects of the EU, I could…
The strange case of my first love and the stolen Stradivarius
Because I’d been reading about Stradivarius on the bus home, my helpful iPhone suggested a related story: the Totenberg Ames…
How not to handle an independence referendum
If David Cameron seeks any testament to his handling of Britain’s difficulties with Scottish separatism, the mess that Spain is…
Corbyn can be beaten – here’s how
The Tory party is suffering from an intellectual crisis of confidence. Before 8 June, its collective view was that Jeremy…
Being anti-smoking damages your mental health
I lit a cigarette in an open-air car park a couple of years ago as I was walking to the…
The Spectator’s notes
Having worked flat-out to defend judges over the Article 50 case in the Supreme Court, the BBC has gone the…
Bridge
The European Open Pairs, the final event in Montecatini, was a long and arduous five-day slog, three of those days…
Cathar country
I once spent three months living in the Languedoc, writing my first novel. The highlight was the few days I…
Grain of truth
We routinely feel emotional about materials — often subliminally. Which is why new substances and techniques for manufacturing have provoked…
Do not be afraid
It Comes at Night is a horror film and I can’t say horror is my favourite genre. In fact, as…
In praise of braindead filth
Melvyn Bragg on TV: The Box That Changed The World (BBC2, Saturday) was just what you would have expected of…
Beth Ditto: Fake Sugar
Boy is she fat, and getting fatter. I realise this is something we’re not meant to mention when talking about…
Gustav Mahler
When I began listening to music seriously, in about 1950, I had read about Mahler but wasn’t able to hear…
Media culpa
A thread runs through several of the stories that have defined this turbulent summer: reporters have been shocked by the…
Survival of the sneakiest
Could there be a better metaphor for the corruption that now pervades all top-level sport than the use of motors…
