High life
Its buildings are beautiful and its residents beat the aggressive slobs that pass for New Yorkers
Lords of misrule
David Cameron is reluctant to create the hundreds of new Tory peers it would take overcome the Labour/Lib Dem majority in the House of Lords
The Australian example
For many years, Australia has been turning away boats filled with migrants. From a remove, this looks cold–hearted — a…
A hint of anarchy everywhere
John Gimlett’s travel memoir Elephant Complex celebrates the enigmatic island of palm-fringed beaches and suicide bombs
Hanging offence
The depressing thing is not that shows like the Scottish National Gallery’s ‘Modern Scottish Women’ exist. It’s that they need to exist
The Spectator’s notes
Also: on the rule of law; boarding-school bills; in memory of Norman Moore; and a better title for my Thatcher biography
Portrait of the week
Home After it was twice defeated in the Lords on its plans to reduce working tax credits, the government announced…
Bone Scanning
Perhaps like Superman I will see through walls now that I’ve tanked up on isotopes lighting bruise-blue veins and sparking…
A tale of cloaks and daggers
Scarpia, Piers Paul Read’s latest novel, skilfully transforms Tosca’s notorious scoundrel into handsome lover and gallant man of action
The hatred that Amis and Corbyn share
The novelist’s attack on the Labour leader reveals his disdain for a vast slice of the public, and may provoke sympathy votes
Intelligent design
Just as Jackson Pollock became the Great American Painter, the Eameses became the Great American Designer, and this Barbican exhibition shows how
Forty is a feminist issue
Emily Hill declared in The Spectator that the movement’s big battles are all won. Not for older women they’re not
Super man of legend
Richard Ingrams has always made fun of Frost’s naked ambition — but the ‘larger-than-life genius’ of Neil Hegarty’s authorised biography is too preposterous
Without a word of advice, Paul Methuen set me free
He made a great impression on me, aged 18, because of his deep internal honesty
France’s new reactionaries
‘Les nouveaux réactionnaires’ are causing furious discussion in a country that pays unique respect to public thinkers
Unreliable evidence
Photography was once considered an impartial device to investigate crime. Now it’s being used to commit it, as this deliciously macabre Photographers’ Gallery exhibition shows
Who was then the gentleman?
But at least Melvyn Bragg captures some of the drama — of noble peasant versus ignoble king —in his latest novel Now is the Time
Are we all potential cyberterrorists now?
The TalkTalk hack suggests we might be. So will the spies have to snoop on us all?
