Diary
Quarrelling about the date of Easter has been a Christian pastime for centuries. The chief bone of contention is whether…
Bad driving
From ‘The Conscription of Wealth’, The Spectator, 22 January 1916: At recent race meetings streams of motor-cars have proceeded from…
Portrait of the week
Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said that Muslim women must learn English, and that those who had entered on…
Wild at heart
At the Louvre the other day there was a small crowd permanently gathered in front of Delacroix’s ‘Liberty Leading the…
Pornographer-in-Chief
Like Black Rod and the Poet Laureate, screenwriter Andrew Davies occupies one of the most colourful and arcane offices in…
On the money
The Big Short is a drama about the American financial collapse of 2008. It talks you through sub-prime mortgages, tranches,…
Turkish delight
I’ve seen some people saying that English National Ballet’s Le Corsaire is so out-of-date it’s risible to see it staged…
Age concern
Daniel Barenboim back at the Festival Hall! Cue The Grand March of the Musical Luvvies Across Hungerford Bridge, a bustling…
Age concern
Daniel Barenboim back at the Festival Hall! Cue The Grand March of the Musical Luvvies Across Hungerford Bridge, a bustling…
Pride and prejudice
Paul Minx ventures boldly into Tennessee Williams country with The Long Road South. It’s 1965 and the Price family are…
Pride and prejudice
Paul Minx ventures boldly into Tennessee Williams country with The Long Road South. It’s 1965 and the Price family are…
All in the mind
You don’t expect to be brought close to tears by the Reith Lectures, which are after all at the most…
All in the mind
You don’t expect to be brought close to tears by the Reith Lectures, which are after all at the most…
Australian diary
‘We have really everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language.’ As ever, Oscar Wilde was right. Block…
A Day Off
Well, I’ll go window-shopping in Laroussefor seeds of words. Strangely, they’re not for sale — you help yourself to what…
Bridge
The New Year got off to a great start with TGR’s annual auction pairs, the best run tournament I have…
Come back Pesto, all is forgiven: and tell us who’s to blame this time
‘Who’s to blame for financial crisis’ is a poem I wrote in 2012, rhyming ‘speculators, spivs and traders’ with ‘rich,…
Corbynglish as a second language: a political dictionary of terms
Corbynterpretation [n]: The inevitable process of debate, after Jeremy Corbyn is interviewed, over what he actually meant. Does the Labour…
Rhodes’s statue should remain, on one condition
Lobengula was the second king of the Matabele people in what is now Zimbabwe. He was also the last. Cecil…
The centre-right is failing world-wide – so what’s the secret of Cameron’s success?
Listen http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/donaldtrumpsrise-racismattheoscarsandcameronscentre-rightsecret/media.mp3 There are times when Westminster’s obsession with US politics is embarrassing for even the strongest believer in the…
The Spectator’s Notes
Many have rightly attacked the police for their handling of the demented accusations against Field Marshal Lord Bramall, now at…
Class of ’83
No one remembers this now but there really was a period, not so long ago, when the Eighties were universally…
The Clare Valley
It is a century and a half since The Spectator noted the exceptional qualities of South Australia, a colony of…
The Oscars have a disgracefully racist record
Listen http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/donaldtrumpsrise-racismattheoscarsandcameronscentre-rightsecret/media.mp3 In 2017 it will be exactly 50 years since a dapper Sidney Poitier announced to Rod Steiger, in…
Pickets of privilege
Workers in Britain’s unreformed NHS are among the very few who can still hold the public to ransom
