Restraining Kevin
If a diplomat, as Winston Churchill once said, is a person who can tell you to go to hell in…
Cabinet is not ‘fit for purpose’
The new cabinet confirmed at its very first meeting that it is not ‘fit for purpose’. With 23 ministers, it…
Barometer
Knight falls There were calls for Sir Philip Green to be stripped of his knighthood. Who is stripped of such…
How Olympia beat the cheats
What to do about today’s Olympic drug cheats? Since ancient Greeks did not do chemistry, drugs were not a problem.…
Brexit means sovereignty
We know what people voted against,’ say half-clever pundits, ‘but it’s far from clear what they voted for.’ Actually, it’s…
Entrenched wisdom
From ‘Armour of offence’, The Spectator, 5 August 1916: The soldier must never forget that it is his business to…
A gold standard of cheating
With the Olympics almost upon us our thoughts turn inexorably to the art of cheating. And while we should deplore…
Letters
Remain calm Sir: I am sorry that the redoubtable Martha Lane Fox is still angry at the exaggerations made by…
Dear Mary
Q. David and Samantha Cameron, their family and two armed policemen have moved to the house opposite us. Do you…
We are not a hateful nation
Britain is in the grip of an epidemic, apparently. An epidemic of hate. Barely a day passes without some policeman…
May day
In Competition No. 2959 you were invited to submit a poem on a political theme entitled ‘May day’. There was…
Zero tolerance, zero sanity
THE REAL HATE CRIME SCANDAL For 20 months, I stood accused of a hate crime: homophobically motivated common assault. The…
The Spectator’s notes
The Daily Telegraph revealed on Tuesday that Michael Spencer, the chief executive of Icap, has been blocked for a peerage…
Clueless in Syria
The other day I was speaking to a Kurdish journalist who was held in Isis captivity for ten months. He…
A hero recalled
In these times it seems that heroes are acclaimed readily and easily. A single television appearance coupled with a politically…
Blood and soil
A declaration of nationality is a profound statement. To say ‘I am British’ suggests that somehow I am composed of…
Slippery slope
Australia is heading further and further down a slippery slope. And the danger of an ugly pile-up at the end…
My wild success
I’ve just tripped over the damned hedgehog for the second time in as many days. He has retreated into the…
Dustcart
Are we seeing the end of dustcarts? I don’t mean that those noisy, noisome vehicles will cease roaring at the…
Munich notebook
It has been a strange week in Munich; a week of deceptively cool mornings, afternoons hot enough to fry eggs…
Top tips for UK-China trade: grab the cheque and sup with a long spoon
There are reasons why Theresa May might harbour doubts about the Hinkley Point nuclear project — chiefly its unproven French…
Skye
Glamour. It’s Marcello Mastroianni drinking negronis on the Via Veneto; it’s Audrey Hepburn, George Clooney, Sinatra on the Vegas Strip…
Cover 6 August 2016 AU
The post Cover 6 August 2016 AU appeared first on The Spectator. Got something to add? Join the discussion and…
A gentleman among players
I once played in something called the Writers’ World Cup. A lot of people in publishing (novelists, journalists, editors, agents)…
