Head ache
Quite how one person is expected to oversee not just radio but also ‘arts, music, learning and children’s departments’ was…
Head ache
Quite how one person is expected to oversee not just radio but also ‘arts, music, learning and children’s departments’ was…
Diary
I arrive at Melbourne airport for my midnight flight with an unfortunately timed cold. My lack of sleep after Canberra’s…
Bridge
It often strikes me that learning to bid is just like mastering a language. As you take on new conventions…
Stormy Weatherill
State governments are sheltered workshops for mediocre politicians rarely good enough to make it in the Canberra big league. They…
Stormy Weatherill
State governments are sheltered workshops for mediocre politicians rarely good enough to make it in the Canberra big league. They…
Brexit spooks the markets, but the housing crisis will swing more votes
‘I rang and said can I have a council house, I’ve nowhere to go, an’ the bloke said no you…
I want my Brexit good and strong
What you really should have done if you were in Birmingham on Monday this week was skip the not notably…
Theresa’s Tory love-in
Theresa May doesn’t use an autocue for her speeches. She feels that reading off a screen at the back of…
The Spectator’s Notes
Birmingham Checking in to my hotel room on the 18th floor, for the Conservative party conference here, I opened the…
Question time
At my wife’s first 12-week scan, I was expecting — and duly got — that much-documented sense of thrilled wonder…
The parenting trap
Out of the fog of rumour and accusation surrounding the melancholy break-up of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, one source…
The new reality on immigration
The good people of Hungary went to the polls on Sunday and voted by more than 98 per cent against…
Good luck manning the polling booths, Mr Baird
You all know the lines from Brecht: After the uprising of the 17th June The Secretary of the Writers Union…
Budgie smugglers and the rise of the staffer brat
Once again politics and budgie smugglers have divided a nation and provided days of rather unusual commentary. The familiarity is…
Who’s your nanny?
There once was a time when we, Australians and Americans, used to have a good laugh at the countries of…
John Howard: no villain, no racist but instead one of our best
John Howard, for the very reason that he was one of our best and longest serving prime ministers, remains the bête noire of…
Trolling with Clementine Ford
Fairfax columnist and ABC Drum presenter Julia Baird is drawn to forceful, opinionated public women. Baird is writing a biography of Queen Victoria, and in a column this week…
Calumnies from the clickbait farm
“This is what would happen if Australian halted immigration”, the introduction to ditzy Fairfax economics correspondent Jessica Irvine’s latest bleatings…
David Van Gend and the Rainbow Jihadists
Traditional marriage campaigner David Van Gend recently did that most rare of things – he defended the freedom of his…
The sickness at the soul of Generation Ink
The presence of body art is more prominent today than it has ever been before. What explains this new desire…
Cover 1 October 2016 AU
The post Cover 1 October 2016 AU appeared first on The Spectator. Got something to add? Join the discussion and…
Portrait of the week
Home Sir Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary, said that Britain would oppose attempts to create an EU army, as it…
Low life
I stood in front of the mirror in the £61-a-night hotel room in Paddington, buttoned my polyester dinner jacket and…
Diary
Monday night’s US presidential debate should convince a majority of American voters that Hillary Clinton is their only credible choice…
