Remembering the Forgotten People
Three-quarters of a century ago, with the Second World War raging in the jungles and high seas of the Pacific,…
Trump’s broken promises
BOSTON, UNITED STATES — It wasn’t even a year ago the American people were assured Saudi Arabia would finally be…
The new religion
Let us progress through a number of concepts. The institution described in the following lines should quickly become apparent. Apostasy…
The first casualty of euthanasia
The Victorian Ministerial Advisory Panel charged by Premier Daniel Andrews with the task of developing a safe way to kill…
We warn the Tsar
If there’s been a hot topic of late in media, it’s been the future of Fairfax. Sackings, strikes, Senate hearing…
Diary
On the heels of the Today programme’s invitation to discuss ‘cultural appropriation’ (again), the New York Times reported the disheartening…
A brave new world
From ‘The New Reform Bill’, The Spectator, 19 May 1917: Though we used to be opposed to the suffrage for women,…
Trump on the edge
Donald Trump has often wrong-footed the media. In last year’s election his campaign seemed to be always on the verge…
Letters
Libyan solution Sir: Boris Johnson correctly reports glimmers of hope in Libya, but to say its problems can be solved…
Taryn Fiebig for Pinchgut Opera
Baroque opera is increasingly popular in Australia, particularly in recent years through the work of Pinchgut Opera. This administratively tiny…
Libertarian notes
Latham’s lure Those pundits who have questioned whether it would be good for us to have Mark Latham join the…
PC notes
On May 3 Tony Abbott urged his audience at the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research in Perth to place…
77
Ronald Reagan was 77 years old in his final year in office running the free world. And he made a…
Here’s who should be Mrs May’s cabinet supremo to tackle the housing shortage
Who should be housing supremo in what we all assume will be Mrs May’s new administration? Brandon Lewis and Gavin…
Big money, big data and the dead cat strategy
In his new book Move Fast and Break Things, the American academic Jonathan Taplin makes a decent case that, democratically…
We owe it to hunt staff to repeal the ban
Though I don’t think much of Theresa May’s paternalistic soft-left politics, I do like her no-nonsense style. That Q&A she…
Corbyn is the real heir to Blair
Alastair Campbell once famously punched the Guardian’s Michael White in the face. A commendable thing to do, undoubtedly, as Mr…
The Spectator’s Notes
‘Exclusive invitation: I want to hear from you, Charles’, it said in my inbox. Theresa May wanted me to take…
Bridge
Long after my own team had been knocked out of this year’s Spring Fours in Stratford-on-Avon (the most prestigious and…
Trumpeting success
Regular readers will recall my column of 15 April in which I speculated on the future of the eccentric Fidé…
no. 457
White to play. This is from Euwe-Fischer, New York 1957. How did Euwe capitalise on the threatening position of his…
The play’s the thing
Donald Winnicott once told a colleague that Tolstoy had been perversely wrong to write that happy families were all alike…
Swiss trains
When Theresa May went off to Switzerland on a walking holiday last August, she said it was the ‘peace and…
No laughing matter
We love Amy Schumer. Fact. And we love Goldie Hawn. Fact. But can we love Snatched? Not so much, if…
League of nations
‘Are you enjoying the Biennale?’ is a question one is often asked while patrolling the winding paths of the Giardini…
