Ornithology
‘The Wood Thrush can sing a duet by itself, using Two separate voices,’ as opposed To the whip-bird, one cry,…
How the MPs’ expenses scandal proves the wisdom of Alain de Botton
Whenever I’m tempted to pretend to be nicer so that fewer people hate me, I remember my old friend Alain…
Unravelling the mysteries of the printed heart
I have seen the future — your future if you’re rich enough or brave enough to embrace it — and…
Australian Notes
A footnote to the Dolce Affair in which the literary-political magazine Overland has banned the work of the songwriter and…
Portrait of the week
Home George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said that he was in favour of increasing the minimum wage by…
Barometer
Drink-driving campaigns have come a long way. Plus: unions' cash piles, and twentysomethings in their parents' homes
Letters
On Benefits Street Sir: Fraser Nelson asserts that people in charities do not want to talk about what life is…
Transparency is the Tories’ greatest legacy to the NHS
Jeremy Hunt's focus on 'never events' is in the tradition of Nye Bevan
If Lord Rennard looked more like Orlando Bloom, none of this would have happened
If you've ever thought of voting Lib Dem, this lot should change your mind
Is a new art form being born on Woman’s Hour?
Katherine Jakeways' quietly revolutionary North by Northamptonshire
The hapless stationmaster watches France’s future prosperity depart
Plus: Labour's Lloyds plot, and the case for fewer homeowners
Why aid fails
There just isn't the political will, in Britain or elsewhere, to really act on our analysis
Florence Notebook
Plus: The problem with Michelangelo's David; Florentine food is actually Cantonese food
Golf in the Algarve
My second tee shot soared high and straight, then hurtled down towards the lake; a repeat of my first. I…
Words, words, words
In Lives in Writing, David Lodge writes about Pico Iyer writing about Graham Greene, and about Martin Stannard writing about Muriel Spark, and so on...
