Progressive
I was interested by the widespread annoyance at the use of progressive by the lefty parties before the election. Irritation…
Real life
The ‘I’m Voting For Chuka’ posters in my rich neighbours’ front windows pushed me over the edge. There is nothing…
A few tips for Straussie
If you watched England’s three-day Test defeat by the West Indies in Barbados the other day to the bitter end…
Why I still have a deep attachment to the BBC
After I failed my O-levels and decided to leave school, my father suggested I go to Israel to work on…
Why I still have a deep attachment to the BBC
After I failed my O-levels and decided to leave school, my father suggested I go to Israel to work on…
Ones to watch
Back on political duty with CNN in election week, I came across a dead rat in Downing Street. It had…
Cicero’s advice for election-losers
The great Robert Harris has defended the pollsters who got the elections so wrong by quoting Cicero on the electorate’s…
Barometer
Plagued by stigma The World Health Organisation told doctors to stop naming diseases after people, places and animals so as…
A war crime – and a president’s dilemma
From ‘Germany and the United States’, The Spectator, 15 May 1915: The text of President Wilson’s Note to Germany on the…
Portrait of the week
Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, soon got used to the surprise of the Conservatives being returned in the general…
To the maddest max
No one goes slack-jawed in wonder at the movies any more. In our cyber-enabled times, kid designers can mega-pixelate any…
Shakespeare’s duds
I love Shakespeare. But when he pulls on his wellies and hikes into the forest I yearn for the exit.…
Shakespeare’s duds
I love Shakespeare. But when he pulls on his wellies and hikes into the forest I yearn for the exit.…
Lacan Appeals to the Patient
Since you remain reluctant, let us imagine that one’s selfhood is a work of art — a maquette in clay,…
The Best View in England
that’s what she said. Of course, I begin to find fault: a shrub partly obscures the view, there’s a glint…
Full employment, Prime Minister? What exactly do you mean by that?
‘Two million jobs have been created since 2010 — but there will not be a moment of rest until we…
Why won’t the lefties show London a little more love?
London is a bad thing. Everybody knows this now. Britain has had enough of London. Ed Miliband failed in part…
We columnists have never been more useless
It takes some agility to shoot yourself in the foot and saw off the branch you’re sitting on, while hoisting…
Cameron’s great secret: he’s not a very good politician
This was a vital election. A Tory failure would have been an act of political treason. Five years ago, the…
The Spectator’s notes
David Cameron is taking a bit of trouble to unite his parliamentary party. Having built a coalition outside it last…
The lying game
My favourite scene in the first episode of the new series of Benefits Street (Mondays, Channel 4) — now relocated…
Labour must estrange its awful voters
And so now we have to suffer the epic delusions, temper tantrums and hissy fits of the metro-left. They simply…
Budget diary
Just under two weeks until Budget. The office inbox is flooded with the first anti Budget campaign. Campaign tactics are…
Consider this…
Do not tick the box: stop the Aboriginal industry My father was born in 1903 at Tooan East in the…
Consider this…
Do not tick the box: stop the Aboriginal industry My father was born in 1903 at Tooan East in the…
