The MBA idiocies that ruin everything
I rang a company’s call centre the other day, and the experience was exemplary: helpful, knowledgeable, charming. The firm was…
Wild life
Laikipia, Kenya On my way home to the ranch, I stopped for a beer with my neighbour Martin. It was…
Barometer
Spend, spend, spend London mayor Sadiq Khan ended support for the Garden Bridge, probably killing it off. How are other…
Diary
The Prosperity UK conference over a week ago kicked off with a dinner at Hatfield House that brought together Leavers…
The art of the deal
If elections were decided on voter enthusiasm rather than on plain numbers, Marine Le Pen would win this weekend’s battle…
Australian letters
Attacking Sophie Sir: Your contributor, Michael Danby (Sophie’s bad choices, The Spectator, 15 April 2017) has used your pages to…
Australian notes
The ABC of ESPN I confess to being something of a sports addict. I like playing and watching competitive sports,…
Alexander Campbell
Inheriting abilities from one’s parents is one of the happy accidents of birth. A remarkable example of inheritance of exceptional…
Art notes
Prompted by Neil Brown’s perceptive analysis of the role of arts administrator (‘Brown Study’, 22/4) as among the more useless…
Immigration notes
Anzac Day was the day I fell in love with Australia. There’s no greater testament – none at all –…
Up Badgerys Creek
It would probably be wrong to predict that the Turnbull government’s decision to build an airport at Badgerys Creek will…
Why binding shareholder votes on pay should be a manifesto promise
Will executive pay pop up in Theresa May’s manifesto? An objective of her snap election is to secure a larger…
Labour’s election strategy – vote for us and watch us lose
The crapness of Corbyn’s Labour is a phenomenon. It fascinates me. Frankly, it does my head in. For there is…
Thanks, Jamie Oliver – you’ve stolen my childhood
Whenever I want to travel back in time to my 1970s childhood, all I need is a glass of Lucozade.…
Never mind the election – Corbynism isn’t going away
General elections are meant to produce a government and an opposition — ideally, a decent version of both. It is…
Diane’s grey matter and Labour’s sticky votes
I awoke the other morning to hear Diane Abbott’s brains leaking out of her ears and all over the carpet…
The Spectator’s Notes
Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament’s main Brexit negotiator, tweeted on Monday: ‘Any #Brexit deal requires a strong & stable understanding…
Bridge
Janet likes to tease me that whenever it’s my turn to write this column, it ought to be renamed The…
Catalan
The Catalan opening looks as if it should be relatively harmless, combining as it does the Queen’s Gambit with the…
no. 455
White to play. This position is from So–Kramnik, Gashimov Memorial 2017. So retreated with 1 Ne3 and eventually won. How could…
The unhappy Prince
A tragic flaw is one thing — every hero should have one — but Mayerling’s Rudolf, a syphilitic drug addict…
Scafell Pike
Within a couple of miles of England’s deepest point is its highest. Towering a kilometre above the hidden depths of…
Dome truths
It was 50 years ago today, Sergeant Pepper taught the band to play. The result was a popular masterpiece. Thirty…
Thatcher’s Britain with her knickers down
Two 16-year-old schoolgirls from a sink estate in Bradford find fun and happiness by shacking up with a middle-aged married…
Put a spell on you
Many of the mediums from which art is made have been around for a long time. People have been painting…
