Last words
This, my 479th, is to be my last contribution as a regular columnist to The Spectator. I have written here…
Last words
This, my 479th, is to be my last contribution as a regular columnist to The Spectator. I have written here…
Paul McCartney
It’s slightly galling, after years of sticking up for Paul McCartney, to read a new biography of the bloke and…
Paul McCartney
It’s slightly galling, after years of sticking up for Paul McCartney, to read a new biography of the bloke and…
Literary lap dance
Great excitement for play-goers as a rare version of a theological masterpiece arrives in the West End. Doctor Faustus stars…
Literary lap dance
Great excitement for play-goers as a rare version of a theological masterpiece arrives in the West End. Doctor Faustus stars…
Bell canto
Cursed, or perhaps blessed, with almost no visual memory at all, I had almost completely forgotten what the Royal Opera’s…
Bell canto
Cursed, or perhaps blessed, with almost no visual memory at all, I had almost completely forgotten what the Royal Opera’s…
Service with a smile
He’s been billed as the new Pied Piper but it’s going to take a while for Tom Service to quite…
Service with a smile
He’s been billed as the new Pied Piper but it’s going to take a while for Tom Service to quite…
Diary (Part II)
On the day I left Australia after an enjoyable month at the Centre for Independent Studies, the Guardian newspaper (which…
Bridge
I’ve been practising bidding online with my friend Guy Hart in preparation for the Spring Fours in Stratford (we’ll know…
Labor-lite
Scott Morrison’s first budget, delivered last Tuesday, was the Turnbull government’s opportunity to grasp the nettle and finally lay out…
Scrapping RBS’s toxic brand should be a step towards a final break-up
Royal Bank of Scotland is at last about to dump the ‘RBS’ logotype promoted by its fallen chieftain Fred Goodwin,…
The slow death of environmentalism
Would you describe yourself as an ‘environmentalist’? I would, mainly to annoy greenies, but also because it’s true. If your…
In praise of doctors’ handwriting
My baby and I excel at blood tests. He (tiny, jaundiced) stretches out naked under the hospital’s hot cot-lamps like…
Enter Boris, eyes on the prize
Listen http://feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/262486539-the-spectator-podcast-erdogans-europe.mp3 After an eight-year detour into municipal government, Boris Johnson has now returned to national politics. The former mayor…
The Spectator’s notes
The comparison between the referendum questions — that asked in 1975 and the one which we shall be asked on 23…
That’s entertainment
The big returning show of the week began with servants laying out the silverware at a large country house in…
Let’s make assisted dying legal for Brightonians
I am having terrible trouble with my hair at the moment. It is lank, flat and lifeless. There are split…
Fear and loathing
The public would rather have something inspiring to vote for than an enemy to kick against
Portrait of the week
Plus: Hillsborough verdicts, deaths of Victoria Wood and Prince, BHS and Austin Reed go into administration
Barometer
Also in our Barometer column: academy performance, big employers, and casualties of Chernobyl
