Juggling chainsaws
The Greens refuse a vote on gay marriage. The government refuses to vote on restoring the desperately-needed union watchdog, the…
Why Osborne’s Budget bolsters the case for leaving Europe
Give thanks for George Osborne — and I don’t say that because I happen to be writing this column on…
We’re swamped with nonsense gizmos and it’s all Steve Jobs’s fault
I keep being told that the big hot technological gizmo of the moment is a box that sits in the…
It’s the Labour moderates who need to get real
It has become commonplace to remark that there exists in Britain a mainstream political grouping that seems to be dwelling…
Budget brings the focus back to Britain
Listen http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/thespectatorpodcast-politicalcorrectness-budget2016andraves/media.mp3 George Osborne used to tell his aides to prepare every budget as if it were their last: to…
The Spectator’s notes
Do Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Bashar Assad support ‘leave’ or ‘remain’ in Britain’s EU referendum? I ask because they are…
Greedy greenies
‘We have a problem. Yes. At the wind farm.’ Any conspiracy thriller with lines like that has definitely got my…
Why Joan Bakewell must be right about anorexia
You can always tell when a public figure has said something with the ring of truth about it by the…
Turkey’s blackmail
And the EU is capitulating. That doesn't make David Cameron's referendum task any easier
Portrait of the week
Home The Bank of England arranged for banks to be able to borrow as much money as they needed around…
Diary
Susan Hill’s diary: on taking against a book, the death of dear friends, and writing by speaking out loud
Governor Cameron and the Brussels empire
…and David Cameron is responding like a loyal imperial governor
Against Churchill
From ‘Colonel Churchill’, The Spectator, 11 March 1916: Colonel Churchill is being found out. The charm, once universal, no longer…
Osborne can still see off Boris
If Britain votes against Brexit and the economy stays strong he may yet be the next Prime Minister
The smelly, snobbish death of the public loo
In England, people dislike talking about lavatories in public. So soon, they will have no public lavatories
Want to leave the EU? You must be an oik like me
Just as with Thatcherism, it’s the very posh who won’t stand firm
This great commodity rally doesn’t mean that spring has arrived
Also in Any Other Business: budget boredom; Bob Dudley; Brics nonsense
Bordering on insanity
We can’t get rid of jihadis, sex gang ringleaders and drug lords – so we try to deport old ladies like Myrtle Cothill
From Hitler to girls in pearls
‘The bible of the British aristocracy’ lived up to its eccentric reputation
American Notebook
Also in Max Hastings’s US notebook: Trump and the triumph of irrationality, and a lament for the washbasin plug
Trudeau family values
Canada’s new PM is a media darling. You can expect that to change when the bill arrives




