Lime light
In April 1501, about the time Michelangelo was returning from Rome to Florence to compete for the commission to carve…
Lime light
In April 1501, about the time Michelangelo was returning from Rome to Florence to compete for the commission to carve…
The actor-commentariat
I’ve never been terribly keen on actors. I prefer hairdressers and accountants. And teachers and builders and lawyers. I may…
The actor-commentariat
I’ve never been terribly keen on actors. I prefer hairdressers and accountants. And teachers and builders and lawyers. I may…
Ghost Hands
Sant’Apollinaire Nuovo, Ravenna Your hands brush marble, feel impelled To touch where crisp cold tesserae Compose a fine array Of…
A view from the departure lounge: why Heathrow expansion may never happen
Easter is a good time to talk about airports — or perhaps a bad time, if you bought your Spectator…
Why are so many men dieting? I blame feminism
According to Jenni Russell, my colleague at the Times, David Cameron has lost 13lb since Christmas, mainly by giving up…
South America’s silent apartheid
In The Spectator of 21 March a column by Toby Young caught my eye. Discussing the pros and cons of…
The election result that everyone expects – and no one wants
To form a coalition, David Cameron had to give up the Prime Ministerial prerogative to determine when the election was…
The Conversation
In Francis Ford Coppola’s 1974 cult movie The Conversation, Gene Hackman’s character Harry Caul becomes obsessed analyzing the precise meaning…
Australian notes
Where can the ALP turn? As the NSW election made plain, the Coalition occupies the reforming Centre and the Greens…
Indefensible
It’s never a good idea to define achievement purely in terms of spending – but it’s a worse one to guarantee aid spending while not doing the same for defence
Portrait of the week
Home David Cameron, who was cutting up lettuce in his kitchen, told James Landale of the BBC that he would not…
Better off out
From ‘President Wilson’s Mistake’, The Spectator, 27 March 1915: The Americans have a world of their own in which to take…
How to make a political party vanish
The establishment would just like Nigel Farage to go away — and they’re working on getting their wish
If you’re my age, the present is a foreign country
People of my generation and older are increasingly doomed to feel like strangers in a politically correct land
Why this long-awaited FTSE100 peak deserves only a small cheer
Plus: A ‘challenger bank’ arrives from Spain; and memories of Lee Kuan Yew’s Singapore
Return to the rose garden
A few months ago, the Tories were thinking of a minority government if they didn’t win outright. Now that’s changed
Salmond’s plan for Miliband
‘The alternative to doing a deal is not doing a deal’ – just prop him up and bleed him dry
A credit to the nation
Despite Labour’s attempts to have him fired, the welfare minister is a model public servant
The Wallström affair
Margot Wallström’s principled stand deserves wide support. Betrayal seems more likely
