Portrait of the Week
Home David Davis, the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, made his first statement to the Commons and…
Bridge
There are three reasons why I never make ‘psychic’ bids. First, because I’m a wimp. Second, because I often play…
Tangled web
It was John Howard who famously declared that the government would decide who came to Australia to live and in…
Diary
At weekends in our summerhouse at Quogue on Long Island, we go out to buy the newspapers and paper-cup coffee…
Where there’s a will…
‘Clonakilty, God help us,’ my Irish mother would say automatically when we drove into the town, in pious remembrance of…
Barometer
In it together Caroline Lucas and Jonathan Bartley were elected co-leaders of the Green party. Has a political party had…
Fashion shoot
With documentary-makers these days, it can be hard to tell the difference between faux-naivety and the real thing. (Personally, I…
No idea
In Competition No. 2964 you were invited to suggest a really bad idea for one, or several, of the following:…
Aristotle on Brexit voters
It comes as no surprise to find that there has recently been much talk among Brexit supporters about ‘the wisdom…
Australian notes
On Quadrant I organised a small fund-raiser to help Quadrant after the Literature Board cut off its grant without explanation…
Brown study
Pollies’ dictionary The Australian National Dictionary has just published its second edition with lots of new words that have worked…
Fire in the sky
From ‘The burning of the Zeppelin’, The Spectator, 9 September 1916: Half London formed the vast proscenium for this tragedy…
Watch out for Chesterton’s fences
There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a…
Why the revolution went off the rails
Assignats are the bane of every student of the French revolution without an economics background. They were the bonds issued…
This charmless man
I was looking forward to going to Malcolm Williamson’s opera English Eccentrics set to a text by Edith Sitwell at…
The man who killed The Archers
Such a hoo-ha about The Archers this week as Helen faces trial by jury — and, much worse, has to…
After Brexit, who should Britain let in?
Why has ‘trust’ became such a dominant issue in British politics in the early 21st century? Is it the failure…
Back to Baku
The 42nd Chess Olympiad is now underway in Baku, Azerbaijan, and English grandmasters are making their best efforts to recapture…
to 2274: round and round
The unclued lights are stations of the London Underground CIRCLE Line. BAYSWATER is the paired theme-word. Solvers had to highlight…
Why Anjem Choudary should not be in prison
It was impossible not to feel rather sorry for the radical Muslim ‘cleric’ Anjem Choudary and his imbecilic henchman Mohammed…
Dear Mary
Q. We recently stayed for a Saturday night with an old friend and were warned before we arrived that my…
Business/Robbery etc
No wonder savers are getting stroppy. The Reserve Bank keeps cutting interest rates (and savers’ incomes) in line with the…
What you learn when you learn a poem by heart
I’ve just learned by heart another poem — my first in nearly 30 years. The one I chose was A.E.…
Australian letters
Gonski bureaucrats Sir: John Slater “I don’t Give a Gonski” reflects, unlike what the intellectual left preach, what most mature,…
Out but not down
No group of the population voted to remain in the EU more enthusiastically than students. According to the polling organisation…
