Wild life
On the flight into Kinshasa, I sat next to an elderly Englishman who was pallid with fear. He revealed that…
Mobile phones with a touch of tweed
I wouldn’t worry much about the future of the British economy. Because I have a simple plan to make the…
Dress to impress
People will go to extraordinary lengths to get into a nightclub. Nowadays you must wear something tight, and look slinky.…
Collecting compulsion
About 30 years ago, not long before he died, my father bought an LP of Sir Clifford Curzon playing Schubert’s…
Collecting compulsion
About 30 years ago, not long before he died, my father bought an LP of Sir Clifford Curzon playing Schubert’s…
At Kew
To Occupation Road again, a whole year nearer my own retirement now. The track slopes down past the Record Office…
When scaremongering stops being funny
My grandmother, Nanny Nancy, is 99 and going strong. But it can’t be denied that while she’s all there mentally,…
Father Paolo’s personal peace process
As Syria’s second peace conference looms, and we prepare ourselves for a lot of hot air drifting over from Geneva,…
By the book – The perils of snooping
The continuing drip-feed of stories about governments and friendly-seeming internet giants sifting through our data has left some citizens feeling…
Australian Notes
To start with a story: long years ago in 1978 Mary Lady Fairfax hosted a dinner in her Point Piper…
By the book – The perils of snooping
The continuing drip-feed of stories about governments and friendly-seeming internet giants sifting through our data has left some citizens feeling…
Welfare wars
The Chancellor's fight with Ed Balls over welfare is a great thing for the Tories. His fight with Iain Duncan Smith may not be
Portrait of the week
Home George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, made it clear in a speech that he intended to cut £25 billion…
Ovid on selfies
A ‘meme’ is ‘an idea, behaviour, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture, often by mimicry’.…
Labour’s immigration nightmares
The Labour leader has to argue against his own intellectual position – and do it convincingly
The Spectator’s Notes
Plus: A bishop deprived of his palace, and a former Tory MP buried in a Palestinian flag
Once more, the spectre of Enoch Powell is raised to stop debate about immigration
The Murnaghan Show's ambush of the Ukip leader continues a dishonourable tradition
It’s gay men who contribute most to society
The claim that gays think only of themselves and the present is, in my experience, the opposite of the truth
The only way to end the war on drugs is to stop fighting it
Legalising cannabis isn’t as exciting as you’d expect. But it may be much more important than you think
Brand loyalty, or lack of it: why I’d rather run Marks & Spencer than Tesco
Plus: The boss to watch for 2014, and the acronym that Jim ‘Bric’ O’Neill should have chosen
Time to Go
Feeling my age, too soon too tired, Whatever gifts I had no more required, I am a hireling called in…
