Why we never tire of tales of pointless polar hardship
Out in the middle of nowhere, our heroes and anti-heroes are stripped down to essentials and the quest for knowledge becomes a quest for self-knowledge and human improvement
Aren’t women wonderful?
The mole specialist was wearing a pink Chanel-looking suit and pink diamanté shoes. By mole specialist, I don’t mean someone…
No one wants American cars
The weekend’s Scunthorpe drama was a distraction from endless chatter about Donald Trump and his tariffs. Perhaps Downing Street’s spinners…
Sack the judges
The population of the United Kingdom was increased this week by the arrival of two Albanian lesbians who have been…
‘We’re going to a more radical place’: Wes Streeting on his plans for the NHS
A copy of a leading article from The Spectator is stuck to the wall of Wes Streeting’s office in the…
The assisted suicide bill should not survive
Until about six months ago, it would have been hard to find a more inoffensive politician than the Labour backbencher…
War games
A satellite picture shows six American B-2 Stealth bombers parked on the runway at Diego Garcia. The planes – each…
Reform vs Labour: who’ll win the battle for the north?
When MPs and peers were recalled to parliament for an emergency debate on renationalising British Steel, one man was the…
Spare us from performative piety
Lent did not, I confess, start well. Cheltenham fell in its first week, and the Gold Cup is hardly the…
Portrait of the week: British Steel seized, army sent to Birmingham and slim told to stay home in Beijing
Home Parliament was recalled from its Easter recess to sit on a Saturday for the first time since the Falklands…
How Roman emperors handled hair loss
Donald Trump’s obsessive ‘awhairness’ makes one wonder: why is it so important to him? The topic was of some interest…
I’m losing the will to hunt
Laikipia, Kenya When I was eight I used to go fishing in the Indian Ocean beyond Vasco da Gama’s pillar…
Where have all the rabbits gone?
It’s spring and in this corner of rural Sussex, the bluetits are at the window, newborn lambs are bleating in…
The Easter story reminds us of the importance of truth
Live not by lies, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn warned the West half a century ago, but we have hardly heeded him since.…
Why were the Abedis here in the first place?
In recent days parliament has been recalled on a Saturday to debate the renationalisation of the British steel industry. Then,…
The making of Van Gogh as an artist came at a terrible cost
In the manic years 1886-88 when he lived with his brother in Paris, Vincent worked at fever-pitch, exhausting himself and Theo and driving them both towards insanity
‘Jordan Peterson is a sad and angry man’: an interview with Rowan Williams
Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, has a new book out, a slim, thoughtful introduction to Christianity. But that’s not…
Christianity in England is dying – and our national identity with it
The self, not society, has begun to matter most to people, with the collective life threatened by ragged bands of individualists lacking a sense of history and burdened by the mere present
Devastating: WNO’s Peter Grimes reviewed
Britten’s Peter Grimes turns 80 this June, and it’s still hard to credit it. The whole phenomenon, that is –…
The pain of being a Bangle – despite sunshine through the rain
The more successful the female rock band became, the unhappier they seemed, with in-fighting and ‘suicidal thoughts’ leading to break up shortly after their greatest hit
The world reveres British music
I have just returned from the lovely Italian city of Rimini, where 300 local singers had gathered for a weekend…
