The turf
The drumbeats are quickening ahead of the Cheltenham Festival and at this stage there really is no substitute for going…
From Tacitus to Justin Welby
Many are still questioning the enthusiasm with which newspapers have implicated Archbishop Justin Welby, as a young man, in the…
Barometer
Special forces Cathedral constables at York Minister got back their powers of arrest, which they had held from the 13th…
Diary
I’m boning up on conversational Spanish for a trip to the Primera Persona festival in Barcelona with Alexei Sayle. We’re…
War and law
From ‘The confiscation of enemy property’, The Spectator, 17 February 1917: It is perfectly possible to remove German influences without…
Letters
Living room Sir: Sajid Javid is quoted as saying that the biggest constraint on building more houses is the ‘lack…
Portrait of the week
Home The Queen opened a new National Cyber Security Centre in London. Britain’s contribution to Nato has fallen below the…
Book lover’s notes
The hot days of summer inspire two impulses, a good clean up, curiously called a spring clean, and the desire…
Hawke’s myopia
Bob Hawke is a respected former Labor PM, but in a recent article in the AFR he incorrectly elevated Israeli…
Tony, Pauline and Cory
The best chance of sound and honest government returning to Australia will be the emergence of, if not a grand…
Lapping it up
Last time around they managed to put her in gaol. Now they are rolling out the red carpet. Pauline Hanson…
Thoroughly modern Monteverdi
‘Eppur si muove’ — And yet it moves. Galileo’s defiant insistence that the Earth revolves round the Sun, his refusal…
Three ages of man
Moonlight is, in fact, a traditional story about identity, and finding out who you are, but it has rarely been…
The good, the bad and the ugly
Vladimir Putin notoriously declared the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 to be one of the greatest disasters of…
Stuffed but dissatisfied
Sandi Toksvig’s new play opens in a Gravesend care home where five grannies and a temporary nurse are threatened by…
Stuffed but dissatisfied
Sandi Toksvig’s new play opens in a Gravesend care home where five grannies and a temporary nurse are threatened by…
British sea power
The story so far: in 1986 English National Opera hired Jonathan Miller to direct Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado. The…
British sea power
The story so far: in 1986 English National Opera hired Jonathan Miller to direct Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado. The…
United nations
The Indian Prime Minister has twigged something that President Trump has yet to understand. On Monday, celebrated as World Radio…
United nations
The Indian Prime Minister has twigged something that President Trump has yet to understand. On Monday, celebrated as World Radio…
DC diary
The Trump presidency is less than 48 hours old as I wing my way from Los Angeles to Washington DC,…
Bridge
What can be more regrettable than picking up a huge hand and landing in the wrong contract? It happened…
Turnbull’s PPL lesson
One of the mistakes that plagued Tony Abbott during his period as Prime Minister was his stubborn commitment to the…
Turnbull’s PPL lesson
One of the mistakes that plagued Tony Abbott during his period as Prime Minister was his stubborn commitment to the…
My survey of bank closures suggests a new purpose for the tarnished Co-op
Many thanks to the stampede of readers who sent news of bank branch closures. There’s certainly a national pattern, and…
