A reminder for my Westminster colleagues: Scotland is bigger than David Cameron
‘It is never difficult to distinguish between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine.’ So wrote P.G.…
Should Gary Barlow give back his gong?
‘Strip him of his knighthood!’ Or life peerage, or CBE, OBE — or whatever. The cry goes up with a kind…
Australian Notes
At going to press The Spectator Australia learnt of the death of David Armstrong, the greatest philosopher Australia has produced.…
The radical centre
Ed Miliband isn’t afraid to articulate his ideas. David Cameron’s have the advantage of being right. So why won’t he talk about them?
Portrait of the week
Home AstraZeneca’s board rejected an increased takeover bid of £63 billion by Pfizer. Commenting on the bid in Parliament, Vince…
Diary
Plus: The terror of my grandchildren’s history exams, and the greatest artistic loss of the second world war
Letters
Why girls do better Sir: Isabel Hardman notes that girls now outperform boys at every level in education (‘The descent…
With Paxman gone, there are even fewer reasons to like the BBC
I suppose he’ll be replaced with someone who is nicer to politicians. It’s a shame
Power really does corrupt: here’s scientific proof
The real problem isn't inequality of wealth, it's inequality of behaviour
Pfizer’s boss is winning the spin game while Miliband is losing all credibility
Plus: Our state-owned railways, and the great Chinese cheese war
The wisdom of clouds
The guru of self-guided learning on teaching in prisons and the future of exams
Women against the vote
Perhaps not – it was the suffragettes’ female opponents who asked for a referendum to check. But it’s easier for us to forget that
The triumph of the bores
Being boring was once the worst of all social sins. Now it’s practically compulsory
The Himalayas
As the aircraft descends into the high altitude military airport at Leh, the first glimpse of the Himalayan Kingdom of…
God save England
A review of Some Desperate Glory: The First World War the Poets Knew, by Max Egremont. This chronological anthology puts the spotlight on the poets' patriotism
How to read well
A review of How to be Well Read, by John Sutherland. The occasional drift from accuracy shows that Sutherland is both well read and reads well, argues Christopher Howse
