Long life
The Cabinet Office has confirmed that Sir Philip Green’s knighthood is under investigation because of his part in the destruction…
Flawed genius
An inspired decision to stage Jesus Christ Superstar in a summer theatre in Regent’s Park. The action takes place outdoors,…
Super betrayal
When asked during the election campaign to give his thoughts on Scott Morrison’s and Malcolm Turnbull’s superannuation changes – to…
Hang the DJs
Electronic Dance Music is dying. You may not have noticed. It may not affect you directly. But it’s a really…
Learning when to catch blackfish
The NSW draft curriculum released last week glosses over thousands of years of western development and progress, in favour of…
French connection
It takes a particularly wilful wit to alight on Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict as the perfect operatic nod to a…
The lying game
JT LeRoy was a teenage hustler who emerged from a childhood of abuse, drug addiction and homelessness to write about…
The case for Isms and Phobias
In a world awash in cultural relativism there remains one absolute commandment: Thou shalt not be -ist. Thou shalt not…
Fever pitch
It cost just £4/10s for 19-year-old Alan Dryland to buy a season ticket that would take him inside the stadium…
Simon Collins
I may have been labouring under a misapprehension. In all my years in the advertising caper I’ve always believed that…
Bridge
The rise of Donald Trump in the US presidential race has had at least one very peculiar consequence: millions of…
Conservative Notes
Appalled that their party could choose for its leader a man without a conservative bone in his body, this group…
Low life
We returned to the house early the next morning, on the way pleading special permission to pass through the police…
Rudd and his referees
“Turnbull. Pathetic.” This brief, two-word tweet was not a summation of the recent federal election campaign by a Liberal-National member…
The case for real Senate reform — and what it could look like
The pundits and the Press Gallery tend to discuss election results as if the Australian electorate were a single sentient…
What Should We Call English Fizz?
On Friday 2 September we will be having a very special Spectator outing to Gravetye Manor in West Sussex. We will…
Ice cream
It was a mistake to tell us about the gelati-to-sightseeing ratio. This was the formula my father, his younger sister…
Bilbao
Magnus Carlsen, the world champion, has added yet another tournament to his extensive list of victories. Although he must have…
No. 419
White to play. This position is from So-Giri, Bilbao Masters 2016. How did White make the most of his active…
Heaven’s gate
In Competition No. 2958 you were invited to submit a conversation between St Peter and a well-known figure who is…
Dear Mary
Q. Every summer, just when England is at its loveliest, we have to pack everything up and make a stressy…
Felines and Figaro
I know little about human medicine: still less about the animal equivalent. So I had always assumed that vets were…
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…
High life
Rosa Monckton is married to my old editor Dominic Lawson and they have two girls. Rosa was a close friend…
