Low life
Showered and shaved and wearing a stiff new Paul Smith candy-stripe shirt, I took an Uber to the party. I…
Low life
Showered and shaved and wearing a stiff new Paul Smith candy-stripe shirt, I took an Uber to the party. I…
How’s your father
‘Very funny, I don’t think,’ said my husband when I mentioned Harry Tate, although Tate died in 1940 and even…
Real life
Would you like a Labour party manifesto with your breakfast?’ the tattooed, multi-pierced waitress might as well have asked as…
The pain of being second-best
The boys at Radio 5, bless ’em, are now including the EU referendum as part of their sports trailers. As…
Confessions of an England fan
Listen http://feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/268140526-the-spectator-podcast-brexit-strategy-what-would-the.mp3 If you’re a proper football supporter, getting excited about England on the eve of a major tournament is…
Confessions of an England fan
Listen http://feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/268140526-the-spectator-podcast-brexit-strategy-what-would-the.mp3 If you’re a proper football supporter, getting excited about England on the eve of a major tournament is…
Girl power
How much strength do you need to win a horse race? Do women have enough? And if they don’t should…
Girl power
How much strength do you need to win a horse race? Do women have enough? And if they don’t should…
Rome vs Brussels
The principle of countries working harmoniously together is wholly admirable. Why, then, has the European Union become such a disaster area?…
Barometer
Boxing brains Muhammad Ali died aged 74, after more than 30 years with Parkinson’s Disease. How many boxers suffer brain…
The Kitchener effect
From ‘Lord Kitchener’, The Spectator, 9 June 1916: The central fact in Kitchener’s administration of the War Office is that…
Australian letters
LGBT etc Sir: I was offended and humiliated by Simon Collins (4 June 2016) omission of my sexuality identification tag.…
Letters
War and Brexit Sir: Over the past few weeks every underemployed academic, hack or backbencher has come forward offering opinions…
Portrait of the week
Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, caused mild surprise by cancelling a cabinet meeting and hastily convening a press conference…
These foolish things
No reliable statistics exist — it’s not the sort of thing you can audit — but England is surely the…
The lost world
Every now and then, with great infrequency (alas), a film comes along that is like no other and completely knocks…
Let’s talk about sex
At one time, Damien Hirst was fond of remarking that art should deal with the Gauguin questions. Namely, ‘Where do…
Doing bird
A decade ago, the French pianist and poly-math Pierre-Laurent Aimard announced that he was ‘very bored to live in a…
Doing bird
A decade ago, the French pianist and poly-math Pierre-Laurent Aimard announced that he was ‘very bored to live in a…
Profit and loss
Bertolt Brecht took The Threepenny Opera from an 18th-century script by John Gay and relocated it to Victorian London. This…
Profit and loss
Bertolt Brecht took The Threepenny Opera from an 18th-century script by John Gay and relocated it to Victorian London. This…
No laughing matter
Rossini is the meat-and-two-inappropriately-shaped-veg of summer opera; he’s the wag in the novelty bow tie, the two satyrs shagging enthusiastically…
No laughing matter
Rossini is the meat-and-two-inappropriately-shaped-veg of summer opera; he’s the wag in the novelty bow tie, the two satyrs shagging enthusiastically…
Polluted by podcasts
Just to prove my esteemed colleague wrong I’ve been out there in podcast space looking for a wireless moment that…
