Little teams mean a lot
Graeme Swann arrived late for the last cricket World Cup. His wife had given birth before the tournament and he…
The Bradstock mystery
Some mysteries will never be solved, like why planes and boats disappear in the Bermuda Triangle, cats always land on…
Woke up late? Don’t blame your genes
‘Oh, I’m an owl,’ said my friend Nick. ‘You’re probably a lark.’ I raised an eyebrow. He explained. Apparently all…
The Lib Dems aren’t scared of this election. But they should be
Listen http://traffic.libsyn.com/spectator/Viewfrom22-19Feb2015.mp3 One of the most remarkable features of this parliament has been the sangfroid of the Liberal Democrats. Nothing…
Spitting Image
Hold the front page! Spitting Image is back! Well, sort of. A new six-part series, from (some of) the team…
Spitting Image
Hold the front page! Spitting Image is back! Well, sort of. A new six-part series, from (some of) the team…
It’s not Netanyahu’s fault that Jews in Europe are afraid
Have you seen the prices for houses in Israel? Astronomical, mate. You wouldn’t believe it. An arid and perpetually embattled…
Australian diary
I blame the BBQ ribs. Rowan Dean, Peter Van Onselen, Troy Bramston and I had just finished a great dinner…
Australian notes
There were no milling TV crews or reporters at Peter Costello’s launch last week in Melbourne of the new edition…
Portrait of the week
Home Philip Hammond, the foreign secretary, told Parliament that Britain reserved the right to supply arms to Ukraine, as ‘We…
From the archives
From ‘Prohibition in Scotland during the War’, The Spectator, 13 February 1915: At present the economic waste caused by drunkenness…
Why I may bail out the Guardian
It’s heaven to pour a fair-trade coffee and snigger at the letters page, with its epic self-regard and its outrage
A life-changing lunch with an old acquaintance
An old acquaintance who’s a millionaire investor has given me a few ideas
Green must answer for HSBC’s faults — but he’s another victim of big banking’s perils
Plus: The mysteries of deflation, and a £55 million pound shop deal
Click and flick
Smartphone romance is all swipes, clicks and sexts. And real life is going the same way
Bolivia
for Lucy Dallas Because they wanted to go home and some bit part, a rat in deep cover, raised the…
In praise of Ed Miliband
On Murdoch, big business, Syria and Palestine, the Labour leader has changed the game. Some will never forgive him
Gods and fairytales
Religion, as a special category of life, is a modern, Protestant invention and the most anachronistic feature of modern paganism is that it so eagerly claims to be a religion at all
Thatcher’s soap
In its efforts to reflect the real world, the BBC’s flagship soap has unconsciously embraced the Tory vision
