Iron birds
From ‘News of the Week’, The Spectator, 19 August 1916: The Parliamentary Air Committee having recently inhaled much ozone at…
Real life
Whenever I try to use the NHS I end up feeling like Bruce Willis’s character in The Sixth Sense. No…
Bridge
Bridge players love going on about system. Some want every bid to have a conventional meaning and some want to…
It’s not the Trots you need to worry about
How strange it is that an obscure Tsarist prison warder in Odessa is commemorated forever in thousands of tiny, irritable…
Our (nearly) golden summer
It seems like a long time ago, but back in the day, when Sir John Major launched the National Lottery,…
The Spectator
When you vote in Britain, there is a relaxed feeling in the polling stations. This is a long-established part of…
Something must be done for Wales
On Monday 25 July we climbed Cader Idris. No particular reason except a free Monday and a memory of what…
Consider this…
Blasphemy is back The ACT government abolished the crime of blasphemy in 1996. Earlier this month, they brought it back.…
The best thing about Brexit? It’s not my fault
Brexit Britain fills me with calm. Six weeks on, there’s no point pretending otherwise. Losing is far better than winning.…
White trash
Hillbilly Elegy is an extended meditation on cultural and social capital. It asks seriously – and answers truthfully – this…
Why lining shareholders’ pockets is more productive than plugging black holes
The revelation by actuarial consultants Lane Clark & Peacock that 56 of the supposedly blue chip companies in the FTSE 100…
no. 422
White to play. This is a position from Adams-R. Pert, British Championship, Bournemouth 2016. What is White’s most direct route…
Our golden age
‘We have fallen upon evil times, politics is corrupt and the social fabric is fraying.’ Who said that? Donald Trump…
Hurrah for Cornish holidays!
After the misery of going abroad for the summer holidays for the past few years, I’m now happily back in…
Italy’s migrant purgatory
Ravenna At a car park a short walk from Dante’s tomb, one of the gang of illegal immigrants who tell…
Magic at St Michael’s Mount
The Sail Loft is under a castle on a mountain on an island in the sea; for that, I could…
The medal machine
Never forget Atlanta. Every time a British athlete wins a gold medal at the Olympic Games in Rio, remember the…
Portrait of the week
Home Theresa May, the Prime Minister, who was supposed to be on a walking holiday in Switzerland, wrote to Xi…
Highland sting
There is no party in Britain quite as fake as the Scottish National Party. The SNP, now entrenched in its…
Australian letters
Appreciating cartoonists Sir: Brendan O’Neill’s essay on Bill Leak’s (in)famous cartoon reminded me how much we should appreciate our cartoonists.…
Who should rule Syria?
The long civil war in Syria is still far from conclusion. Any real possibility of rebel victory ended with the…
Blessed be the humble
After 30 years in racing it is a little late in Rab Havlin’s career to suggest that he will suddenly…
The perfect holiday cottage
‘Farm cottage available, Dorset. Long or short let. £5 per week.’ I was looking for a writing bolthole, so I…
For Scott’s Eyes Only
Three cheers for the government for saving us from the Yellow Investment Peril. If it weren’t for Treasurer Scott Morrison,…
Peggy Guggenheim
She had come a very long way from the shtetl, but Marguerite ‘Peggy’ Guggenheim was still the poor relation of…
