Bach to basics
The churning, rheumatic mechanism of a harpsichord — notes needling your ears like drops of acid rain — doesn’t necessarily…
There’s something about Mary
Music likes to tell the same story over and over again. This is part of its tradition but even individual…
There’s something about Mary
Music likes to tell the same story over and over again. This is part of its tradition but even individual…
Hilarious, puzzling, boring
No Man’s Land isn’t quite as great as its classic status suggests. At first sight the script is a bit…
Hilarious, puzzling, boring
No Man’s Land isn’t quite as great as its classic status suggests. At first sight the script is a bit…
Losing heart
The subtitle for Mozart’s Così fan tutte may be ‘The School For Lovers’, but it’s as a school for directors…
Losing heart
The subtitle for Mozart’s Così fan tutte may be ‘The School For Lovers’, but it’s as a school for directors…
One day in November
The weather was ‘treacherous’ on Saturday, 23 November 2013, the day chosen randomly by Gary Younge as the focus for…
One day in November
The weather was ‘treacherous’ on Saturday, 23 November 2013, the day chosen randomly by Gary Younge as the focus for…
Diary of a parliamentary nobody
Upon debut as a columnist some explanatory notes are surely in order. Like the American columnist George F. Will I…
Consider This
The WHO is a closed shop ‘I for my part am convinced that the day will come when international health…
Consider This
The WHO is a closed shop ‘I for my part am convinced that the day will come when international health…
Bridge
TGR’s rubber bridge club is a bit like the set of your favourite soap. You have the regulars, of varying…
Malcolm (never to be released)
Malcolm Turnbull should surrender his passport and never again be allowed to leave these shores, at least while he is…
Malcolm (never to be released)
Malcolm Turnbull should surrender his passport and never again be allowed to leave these shores, at least while he is…
If Deutsche Bank goes down without a bailout, I really will eat my hat
‘Can anyone seriously imagine the German state and corporate establishment allowing the bank that bears their country’s name to go…
We know who Theresa May is against. But who is she for?
One of the professional drawbacks of coming from Scotland and then moving to London is that I don’t really know…
Let the metropolitan elite lead the way
How does one join the Liberal Metro-politan Elite? What should be the qualifications? I must be an LME member because…
The Spectator’s Notes
Mathias Döpfner, the extremely tall, extremely intelligent head of Axel Springer, is unusual in the generally conformist German business elite…
Close encounters of the Eighties kind
Stranger Things is the most delightful, gripping, charming, nostalgic, compulsive, edge-of-seat entertainment I’ve had in ages. Like a lot of…
Russia’s puritan revolution
Last weekend a group of young activists turned out on a Moscow street to protest against western decadence. They were…
Big boxes are the next growth story
Some time ago my eye was caught by the story of a boy who had taken his father’s credit card…
In search of Mayism
What does Theresa May believe? The new Prime Minister has had the summer to settle into her job and has…
Let’s bring the wolves back into Britain
A year ago there was a confirmed sighting, and even film, of a wild wolf in the Netherlands for the…
Israel and the slippery slope of anti-Semitism
In a screening interview for a government job I was once asked about my religion. I said I was Jewish but not very religious;…
