Portrait of the week
Home David Cameron, standing in the middle of Downing Street with his wife Samantha alone near him, announced his resignation…
Holy visions and dustbins
Woolworth’s spectacles. Pudding-basin haircut, rather sparse. Norfolk jacket. Pyjama cuffs below trouser legs and sleeves. Paints and brushes in an…
Darkness visible
Perhaps you have sometimes wondered: how would you even begin to make a film about going blind and being blind…
Moor four
Paradoxically, some ballet masterworks absolutely depend on tiptop performing to demonstrate how great they are. If they don’t get it,…
Fringe benefits
‘How do we feel about leaving the EU today? Who doesn’t give a fook?’ yelled Oli Sykes of Sheffield’s Bring…
Fringe benefits
‘How do we feel about leaving the EU today? Who doesn’t give a fook?’ yelled Oli Sykes of Sheffield’s Bring…
Money for nothing
Tate Modern’s new Switch House extension in London has been greeted with acclaim. It is a building designed in the…
Money for nothing
Tate Modern’s new Switch House extension in London has been greeted with acclaim. It is a building designed in the…
Tangled web
Mike Bartlett’s curious blank-verse drama Charles III became an international hit. His new effort examines the cut-throat world of dark-web…
Tangled web
Mike Bartlett’s curious blank-verse drama Charles III became an international hit. His new effort examines the cut-throat world of dark-web…
Light and shade
Comedy and tragedy sit close beside one another in Mozart’s operas. Whether it’s the grinning horror of the Così finale…
Light and shade
Comedy and tragedy sit close beside one another in Mozart’s operas. Whether it’s the grinning horror of the Così finale…
Refuge from the referendum
A brief encounter with Radio 4’s Any Questions to gauge the measure of opinion in the shires after the referendum…
Refuge from the referendum
A brief encounter with Radio 4’s Any Questions to gauge the measure of opinion in the shires after the referendum…
Australian diary
I’m reminded annually when I’ve nothing to wear on St Patricks Day that green is not my colour. Also during…
Bridge
Congratulations — yet again — to the England women’s bridge team, who last week won gold at the European championships…
True Character
‘True character is revealed in the choices a human being makes under pressure – the greater the pressure, the deeper…
We are where we are, clinging to the life raft of cliché
My column calling Brexit campaigners ‘hooligans’ and ending ‘Reader, I voted Remain’, caused quite a stir — coinciding as it…
Don’t gloat – this is Brexiteers’ one big chance
‘Believe me, nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won.’ I think this is…
The Spectator’s Notes
It sounds logical that Vote Leave should now disband, since the people have obligingly voted Leave, but is it wise?…
The big chill
It’s sadly possible to imagine that The Living and the Dead was sold to BBC1’s commissioning editors as ‘Poldark meets…
Why I lie about voting Leave
There are lies, damned lies and pretending to back Remain. I lie because I am a coward. I hug friends…
Three great myths of the sulking Remainers
I think my favourite moment of the referendum campaign was John Major’s intervention, a couple of weeks before polling day.…
Labor: Putting Unions First
Fifty-five years ago, unionist turned Labor leader Arthur Calwell lost the second-closest election in Australian history running on the mantra…
The left’s pre-poll assault on faith and freedom
I’m often told that it was “for my sins” that I was elected to the board of directors of Shire Christian…
