The Battle for Britain
The post The Battle for Britain appeared first on The Spectator. Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment…
Bridge
The last three weekends have not been relaxing for those of us playing the Premier League, with all its attendant…
Magnus vs Sergei
The World Championship in New York begins this week. In the run-up, the defending champion, Magnus Carlsen of Norway, has…
no. 434
White to play. This is a position from Carlsen-Shirov, Biel 2011. Can you spot Carlsen’s crushing blow? Answers to me…
Trump’s triumph
Washington DC Donald J. Trump’s long, triumphant march to the White House didn’t start on 16 June 2015, when he…
China’s quiet Christians
Beijing A strong coffee always perks me up on a smoggy day, especially when I can drink it somewhere clandestine…
An opportunity for Britain
When Britain voted to leave the European Union, the government was at pains to insist this was not a vote…
The new first lady
It was a race between the first dude — Bill — and the first nude — Melania. And in the…
In defence of post-truth politics
Donald Trump’s shock US election victory has provoked a transatlantic howl of disbelief from a cosmopolitan elite aghast that American…
Like Uber, but for hippies
On the same day I put my spare room on Airbnb I also had my first cabshare experience, courtesy of…
The Marx Memorial Library
There’s a small corner of Clerkenwell where the communist dream never died. The Marx Memorial Library has been in its…
Missing person report
In Competition No. 2973 you were invited to give your thoughts, in verse or prose, on who the Person from…
2286: B
The unclued lights are of a kind. Ignore one grave accent. Across 1 Hails a picador, awfully exciting…
to 2283: be damned
The unclued lights are PUBLISHING FIRMS. Our apologies for the omission of clue 42 Across. It went missing during the…
The cheesecake of the apocalypse
Harry Morgan is a Jewish delicatessen and restaurant in the style of New York City on St John’s Wood High…
High life
New York Americans have been to the polls. Everything is over but the shouting — by the loser, that is:…
Long life
At the beginning of November 1980, one week before Ronald Reagan won a landslide victory in the presidential election, Henry…
Hygge
‘If there’s one thing I can’t stand,’ said my husband, ‘it’s scented candles.’ Now, we have never knowingly harboured a…
Real life
A wonderful email has arrived from Airbnb entitled ‘Discrimination and Belonging — What It Means For You’. Having tried to…
Football’s new Special One
Jurgen or José: compare and contrast (and please write on as many sides of the paper as possible). Is there…
Oh, the shame of not being Pointless
I give an after-dinner speech occasionally called ‘Media Training for Dummies’. That may sound condescending, but the dummy in question…
Twelve to follow
When Theresa May came to power the Turf community was full of hope. Had she not been, if only briefly…
Mob law
Frenzied outrage from Leavers and comical paeans of praise from Remainers greeted the High Court’s decision to instruct government that Parliament…
Conditions for surrender
From ‘How to Shorten the War. I. Prisoners’, The Spectator, 11 November 1916: Unless we altogether mistake the mental character of…
