Tony, Bibi, and the commentariat
As with Benjamin Netanyahu, the elites have mostly written off Tony Abbott. They’re in for a surprise
Out of step with the times
Malcolm Fraser was the last of the Keynesian Liberals - and the only one to lose an election on economic management
Culture Buff
We’re all keen on infrastructure at the moment so it’s worth remembering what an astounding impact the Suez Canal made…
Tony, Nigel, and the older voter
Could there be method in the madness of Tony Abbott’s list of politically incorrect ‘gaffes’?
The wrong trousers
In 1986, the year after he officially became an Eminent Person courtesy of both the United Nations and the Commonwealth,…
For the Time Being
Time slips away while we conjecture how to make best use of it. Waking late, the hours already sliding by,…
Studio Portrait
My uncle in his uniform, dog-collared, briar clutched at an angle, brilliantined hair with a central parting,très debonaire. This could…
Independents’ day
Sometimes a guy feels abstracted from the world. He visits Europe’s finest galleries, but the paintings seem to hang like…
The Vatican
The sun has only just risen in Rome and we are standing bleary-eyed in a short queue outside the Vatican.…
Caro can
The Caro-Kann Defence, 1 e4 c6, has always appealed to me. It has the advantage of staking a claim in…
No. 355
Black to play. This position is a variation from Ganguly-Vitiugov, Gibraltar 2014. The game started as a Caro-Kann and is…
End paper
In Competition No. 2890 you were invited to imagine that one of the major newspapers has ceased publication and provide…
Dear Mary
Q. When sending wedding invitations, does one put the full titles on the card, or can one just put, for…
A toast to Spain
Towards the chimes at midnight, a few of us left a — respectable — establishment near Leicester Square. Eight or…
Indefensible
With the exception of 1983, when Michael Foot promised unilateral nuclear disarmament, defence has played little role in modern election…
Poop
Danny Alexander recounted in the Diary last week his daughter’s efforts in making unicorn poop. This is something of a…
Why we lie to ourselves about opinion polls
A strange ritual takes place on Twitter most evenings at around 10.30 p.m. Hundreds of political anoraks start tweeting the…
Why we lie to ourselves about opinion polls
A strange ritual takes place on Twitter most evenings at around 10.30 p.m. Hundreds of political anoraks start tweeting the…
Looking for answers you can’t see
Driving from Dover on the M20 a year ago I missed the turning for the M25. A month later I…
Wild life
Laikipia With a shriek, the warrior arched his body, readying to sling his spear at my chest. The tear-dropped javelin…
Rome’s 99 per cent
In the UK the richest 1 per cent — 300,000 — of the working population control 23 per cent of…
Barometer
Service record The government is to form a design panel to improve motorway services stations. These have not always charmed…
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…
