Military action against Isis needs a coherent strategy. . . . here it is
Russia and Nato should work in cooperation, not competition. But bombing alone will not be enough
Portrait of the week
Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, announced, as part of the Strategic Defence and Security Review, plans for two 5,000-strong…
Everything you always wanted to know about Sixties pop —and more
LSD, Vietnam, civil rights and the Cold War are all linked to pop music in Jon Savage’s solemn tome about the explosive decade
Has there ever been a better time to be a lover of Baroque opera?
In this early music round-up, the Wanamaker Playhouse, Solomon's Knot, Francesca Caccini, WNO and Christian Curnyn's Rameau come out on top
The French might as well bomb Belgium
As a Muslim cleric has to deny saying it’s OK to eat your wife, the BBC and the liberal establishment just cringe with appalling liberal bias
The sabs hate us because we’re patriotic, top-rate tax-paying, law-abiding scum
They dream of the day Jeremy Corbyn becomes prime minister and puts an end to wealth creation and good management of the countryside
‘They pull a gun, you pull a hashtag’ – the ridiculous debate over what to call Isil
By arguing about rhetoric in response to the Paris attacks, we make the western navel the centre of the action
From cave painting to Maggi Hambling: the best Christmas art books
Andrew Lambirth’s choice includes Berger, Bacon, Bown, and Bawden among many others
I wanted to beat it with a stick and cry, ‘Get on with it!’: Carol reviewed
Previously I had thought you can’t have too much of Cate Blanchett, but there is a heck of a lot of her here - and she’s mostly stagey and mannered
Is the Archbishop of Canterbury forsaking God?
The horrible events seem to have prompted Dr Welby to question his faith
The many fights over the Lord’s Prayer
Plus: energy use in the age of climate change; home ownership under the Tories; the world’s rarest creatures
How do you explain events that even adults can’t understand to a child?
Maybe ‘we’ve got flowers’ is as good a response as any to the Paris atrocities
K2’s fatal attraction
Mick Conefry describes the occultist Aleister Crowley as being among many sent mad by the treacherous mountain
Why is there no one at the National Theatre preventing these duds getting staged?
Evening at the Talk House is like witnessing a drunk trying to set fire to an ice cube, while Waste is three hours of moral tribulation performed inside a giant Hovis loaf
Get ready: these climate change talks might actually do something
My hope is that the conference in Paris next week will focus less on tub-thumping, more on practical solutions
True dedication
The true meaning of dedication requires a kind of self-sacrifice not normally found at awards ceremonies
Essential racing books for Christmas
Horses’ souls, betting coups and SOE heroes: Robin Oakley’s selection of anecdotal treasure troves
The best children’s authors of 2015 — after David Walliams
Melanie McDonagh’s recommended picture books feature (outside Noah’s Ark) a greedy pig, an Ancient Egyptian crocodile and some practical cats
We must play the blame game over HBOS. How else will bankers learn?
Plus: the Viagra-Botox merger, and memories of Jim Slater
I’m a Celebrity is like The Simpsons: good if you’re thick; even better if you’re not
The interplay between celebrities in extremis offers such endless dramatic variety and tension you could almost be watching Shakespeare
Capitalism for all
From ‘Public loans and private savings’, The Spectator, 27 November 1915: In the nature of things there is no reason for…
‘I was tossed out of the tribe’: climate scientist Judith Curry interviewed
For engaging with sceptics, and discussing uncertainties in projections frankly, this Georgia professor is branded a heretic
