The bitter taste of victory
The Parliament Hill Café is a drab glass box at the bottom of Hampstead Heath, near the farmers’ market and…
Fit to print
For weeks, Westminster has been full of rumours about the private life of a certain cabinet member. It was said…
High life
New York Harvey Keitel, the actor, rang up to invite me to a Marine shindig where General Petraeus would be…
Long life
The Royal College of Nursing (founded in 1916 with 34 members, but now with 440,000) is busy celebrating its centenary;…
Long life
The Royal College of Nursing (founded in 1916 with 34 members, but now with 440,000) is busy celebrating its centenary;…
Low life
On Monday morning I was in a blind panic. The deadline for posted manuscript entries to the Daily Mail First…
Low life
On Monday morning I was in a blind panic. The deadline for posted manuscript entries to the Daily Mail First…
Illegitimate
‘The Archbishop of Canterbury has discovered he is the illegitimate son of Sir Winston Churchill’s last private secretary,’ Charles Moore…
Real life
I am becoming the Basil Fawlty of Airbnb. Almost everything that tormented Basil has tormented me since I started taking…
Well done Danny, but Jordan will come back
Well here’s a thing: we’ve just had the first English bloke to win the Masters. Sure, an Englishman has won…
My confession: I began dodging tax aged eight
As someone who still entertains hope of becoming a member of Parliament one day, I’d better come clean about my…
My confession: I began dodging tax aged eight
As someone who still entertains hope of becoming a member of Parliament one day, I’d better come clean about my…
National review
With great victories in Flat racing you witness hats-in-the-air exultation. You see the pride of trainers who nurtured the winner…
National review
With great victories in Flat racing you witness hats-in-the-air exultation. You see the pride of trainers who nurtured the winner…
Tax returns to boast about
As Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell whinge away about how rich David Cameron’s family is, they might consider that in…
Barometer
Boss cuts The chief executive of the Co-operative Group, Richard Pennycock, asked for a pay cut, saying his job had…
Diary
With hindsight maybe it was silly for me to bleat, ‘As everyone knows, the Johnsons are neither posh nor rich’…
All quiet on the Western Front
From ‘Observing: an average day’, The Spectator, 15 April 1916: 5.10 a.m. The signaller on duty at the telephone has just said…
Letters
In defence of Charles Sir: As a former full-time member of the Prince of Wales’s office, and a part-time equerry…
Australian letters
Burger kings Sir: It’s a truth universally acknowledged that no two countries with Macca’s outlets have ever declared war on…
Portrait of the week
Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, after spending a week parrying questions about his late father’s investment fund Blairmore, suddenly…
‘Do black movies really not sell?’
The musical biopic is a staple of the Hollywood economy. Like an Airfix model kit it comes with the necessary…
Fresh and wild
This Jungle Book is Disney’s remake of its animated classic of 1967, as beloved by all generations thereafter. Warner Bros…
In defence of conceptual art
At the tail end of last year, an artist called Peter Goodfellow mounted an exhibition of paintings titled Treason of…
A trip down Mammary Lane
The V&A is selling £35 Agent Provocateur pants. This is, of course, a business deal because Agent Provocateur — along…
