Religious sceptics deserve better enemies
I wish I were a religious conservative: the field’s wide open. It must be dispiriting for believers to encounter so…
Australian notes
The cheers of 180 celebrants (at $290 a head) echoed across the moonlit harbour from Pinchgut Island to the Opera…
Blowing bubbles
In opposition, George Osborne said that you cannot borrow your way out of a debt crisis. In government, he has…
Portrait of the week
Home An issue of shares in Royal Mail was oversubscribed, pushing valuation well above initial forecasts of £3.3 billion. The…
Livy on Ed Miliband
What should we make of Ed’s support for his father Ralph against the Daily Mail? Livy’s life of Torquatus suggests…
Letters
Nursing standards Sir: I share Mary Dejevsky’s concern regarding the impact of tired, overworked nurses on the quality of patient…
What the reshuffles showed us: none of these parties are ready to win
Reshuffles are meant to demonstrate the power of a leader, to show that they are in command of their party.…
The Spectator’s Notes
Friends of mine called Georgiana and Mouse Campbell recently bought a new house. In the period between completion and moving…
Hugh Grant’s censorious friends may be about to win the day
It is a peculiar alliance, when you think of it, which wishes to bring to an end 300 years of…
Feminists, you are betraying yourselves
I’ve been racking my brains to think what I might have in common with Kim Jong Un and Piers Morgan.…
For the time being, I am choosing to believe this far-right conversion story
I’ve often thought it might be interesting to meet Tommy Robinson, or Stephen Lennon, or whatever one is supposed to…
Dickensian misery at the pawnbrokers’ — but now it’s on the other side of the counter
While attention has focused on the sudden ubiquity and alleged iniquity of payday lenders, boom and impending bust has infected…
Spies spy – get over it
Why do we whinge about surveillance, then moan about intelligence failure after a terror attack?
Obamacareless
The president has squandered political capital on healthcare reform and brought America to the brink
A POINT OF VIEW
Politicians wouldn't recognise a good view if it hit them. Everyone else, however, cares too much
Breaking omertà
According to the medical historian Professor Sonu Shamdasani, Sigmund Freud was not the best, nor actually the most interesting, psychoanalyst…
From underdog to top dog
Malcolm Gladwell's new book tells us we're all little Davids who can trounce giants
Salad days
The early 1990s in Russia were hungry years. At the time, I was a student, too idle to barter and…
