National mood
From ‘Depression and its Causes’, The Spectator, 6 June 1915: The British nation have still great possessions in the way of…
Portrait of the week
Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, toured Europe trying to gain support for reforms to favour Britain’s position in the…
Boring Boorman
Queen & County is John Boorman’s follow-up to his 1987 semi-autobiographical film Hope & Glory, although why a sequel now,…
The long goodbye
There’s been a clutch of middle-aged danseuses taking leave of life in one way or another recently. We’ve seen the…
Simply Macnificent
‘I can’t tell you what a thrill it is to get this chance in life,’ said Christine McVie, as the…
Simply Macnificent
‘I can’t tell you what a thrill it is to get this chance in life,’ said Christine McVie, as the…
Evolutionary road
As Sepp Blatter has so affectingly remarked, the organisation he formerly headed needs evolution, not revolution. There is a consensus…
Evolutionary road
As Sepp Blatter has so affectingly remarked, the organisation he formerly headed needs evolution, not revolution. There is a consensus…
Australian diary
I land six weeks after the Israeli elections and only a few days ahead of the British ones. Jerusalem’s political…
Road to Darlinghurst
Lo and behold the number of politicians enjoying a last minute Road to Damascus conversion – or should that be…
The Fifa case: American justice at work as the world’s CCTV system
‘In matters of criminal justice,’ said NatWest Three defendant David Bermingham after a London court extradited him and his co-defendants…
This is Leveson’s legacy: a great new way for bullies to muzzle the press
One of the fundamental principles of English common law is that you are innocent until proven guilty. And rightly so,…
Migrants face many dangers. Are we one of them?
A few weeks ago someone very dear to me passed on a question about The Spectator, asked them by a…
The march of the ‘yes’ men
Forty years ago this week, Britain voted to remain part of the European Community. That remains the only direct vote…
The Spectator’s Notes
We in the West all hate Sepp Blatter, so we pay too little attention to the manner in which the…
Are you being funny?
Monday saw the return of possibly the weirdest TV series in living memory. Imagine a parallel universe in which Are…
Australian notes
The Royal Commission into child abuse has already done enormous service in establishing, and making public, the vast range of…
Football’s elite deserve the foulness of Fifa
My favourite moment in the crisis engulfing football’s governing body, Fifa, came with the intervention of a man called Manuel…
Portrait of the week
Home A Bill to enable a referendum on whether voters wanted Britain to ‘remain’ in the European Union figured in…
Barometer
Plus: Expat voters; how same-sex marriage has worked in Holland; and parliament’s least populous constituencies
The northern powerhouses of ancient Turkey
If George Osborne and the northern cities want a model of how to interact, they should read inscriptions about Antiochus III
A new coalition
From ‘The National Government’, The Spectator, 29 May 1915: We do not suppose that the war, or the need for patriotic effort,…
