Tora! Tora! Bora!
I have just returned from Japan. The country represents a different model of development, its collective emphasis often chanelled towards…
The Ring Cycle
Although it was premiered in Bayreuth in 1876, it was another 122 years before The Ring Cycle by Richard Wagner…
Portrait of the week
Home The collapse of BHS after Sir Philip Green had extracted large sums and left the business on ‘life support’,…
1966 and all that
In the song ‘All the Young Dudes’, David Bowie gamely tried to reassure the youth of the Seventies that, despite…
Diary
When asked to write the Spectator diary, I diligently collated a list of topics to cover. But the problem is…
Battle for Britain
The post Battle for Britain appeared first on The Spectator. Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.
Barometer
Capitalist faces A report by the Business and Pensions select committees described Philip Green as the ‘unacceptable face of capitalism’.…
Shorten’s Leyland P76 reshuffle
Last week, Malcolm Turnbull missed his best opportunity to put a Coalition A-team on the ministerial paddock ahead of a…
Corbyn’s shadow puppets
Wrapped in his fantasy world of a Labour party ruling the country in accordance with the diktats of those of…
Heaven’s gate
In Competition No. 2958 you were invited to submit a conversation between St Peter and a well-known figure who is…
The new Secretary for War
From ‘The military situation’, The Spectator, 29 July 1916: We have a new Secretary for War. Mr Lloyd George, as we all…
What a shower
The fact that we get sun when we expect hail and hail when we expect sun provides those of us…
Letters
Better Europeans Sir: There are many reasons why a majority of people in the UK voted to leave the European…
Three key tests for any Brexit deal
‘Brexit means Brexit’ is one of the most brilliant political soundbites of recent times. It worked wonders for Theresa May…
Deconstructing the construction unions
The Coalition may have prised a slim majority from the jaws of electoral defeat, but the fate of Australia’s construction…
The Spectator’s Notes
At the beginning of his war memoirs, Charles de Gaulle famously wrote, ‘All my life I have had a certain…
Bilbao
Magnus Carlsen, the world champion, has added yet another tournament to his extensive list of victories. Although he must have…
The alt-right isn’t all wrong
I got told off this week by a presenter on BBC radio for using a four-letter word live on air.…
To 2268: In state
The unclued lights are US STATE CAPITALS. First prize Stewart Jones, Winchester, Hants Runners-up John M. Brown, Rolleston-on-Dove, Staffs; Gareth…
Pokémon Go? I wish it would
Monday morning: one hand trapped beneath the fat and guzzling midget, with the other I idly opened the gates of…
Felines and Figaro
I know little about human medicine: still less about the animal equivalent. So I had always assumed that vets were…
Europe’s summer of terror
How is your Merkelsommer going? For now, Britain seems to be missing the worst. True, a couple of men of…
Mass murder
On Tuesday morning, an 85-year-old man was forced to his knees while his throat was slit by Islamic fanatics. The…
Hope vs gloom
For all Gordon Brown’s economic mistakes, he at least tried to build confidence in the British economy. In the build-up…
Trump ♥ Putin
Spy novels and James Bond movies; post-war Vienna and East Berlin; Manchurian candidates and Third Men. The pop culture of…
