If I forget thee, Oh Jerusalem…
The denial of a people’s heritage has a long and ignoble history. Dictators, from Biblical times to the most recent,…
It’s not racism, stupid
Those who accused Bill Leak of racism over his cartoon and see racism in Pauline Hanson’s policies on migration make…
Electoral ‘communities’
In the eyes of the bien-pensants, the election of Donald Trump and the vote on Brexit have brought democracy to…
Barometer
Bucks for Bucks Buckingham Palace is to be renovated at a cost of £369m, funded through an increase in the…
All’s well that ends well
The last ten minutes of any Don Giovanni tell you more about a director than the previous two hours. Mozart’s…
War and votes for women
From ‘News of the Week’, The Spectator, 25 November 1916: We admit that before the war we should have placed, and…
Just managing
From the moment she arrived in 10 Downing Street, Theresa May has been commendably clear about her economic priorities for…
Interest-free credit
When did you last experience a boring Sunday afternoon? If you’re over 16, probably not since you were last 16…
Faulty ignition
Apart from the next Game of Thrones, there’s nothing I’ve been looking forward to quite as much as The Grand…
Australian letters
Latham returns Sir: Wow; he’s back! And still giving it to the a…holes. A great column. Fantastic!Miles Hedge Kings Plains…
Precious metal
Who could resist School of Rock? For me it was a chance to see a heavy-metal musical written by the…
Soothing mood music from Hammond and May disguises challenges ahead
Theresa May likes to give a kitten-heeled kicking to conference audiences, even when they are police officers or her own…
Reds in our beds?
John Blaxland and Rhys Crawley’s The Secret Cold War is the third and – at least for the time being…
The kiss Auguste Rodin (1901-04)
Local writers have been repurposing Kenneth Clark’s 1958 differentiation of the nude from naked in discussing the current exhibition at…
Latham’s Law
President Dropkick & The US Confusion Centre When an obscure, unelected committee, rising up from the bottom of Canberra’s bureaucratic…
The pick-up artists who seduced a country
Many years ago, when I was a mere slip of a features journalist, I spent a weekend learning how to…
Portrait of the week
Home In his Autumn Statement, Philip Hammond, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, against an expectation of increased borrowing and slower…
We live in a golden age of swearing
Authors’ book tours are often fun but rarely easy. For me the long train journeys are a delight, but on…
Prisons should be nicer places? Nonsense
Now that post-Marxian vacuous liberalism is over, it is surely about time that we revived the vigorous writings of Thomas…
The Spectator’s Notes
It is not self-evidently ridiculous that Nigel Farage should be the next British ambassador to the United States. The wishes…
Willing to wound
But yet afraid to strike, as Alexander Pope would doubtless have described the first seven games of the World Championship…
Australian Diary
A warm muggy November evening in Canberra is threatening rain. At the National Library of Australia, a stone’s throw from…
Zurich’s wild side
On the green edge of Zurich, where this neat and tidy city melts into neat and tidy countryside, an icon…
Soft bigotry of the Left
Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson was partially correct the other day when, speaking at the launch of Troy Bramston’s new biography…
Diary
Washington DC Washington has been, for the past two weeks, indescribably depressed. When I walked into the deli down the…
