Scotland
The 15 Scottish seats that could decide the general election
For at least a generation — something we define loosely up here — Scottish hacks have been trying to interest…
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If we do get a good Anglo-American trade deal, we should thank Trump’s mother
In an uncharacteristic fit of almost-robustness, Culture Secretary Nicky Morgan has said she is ‘open-minded’ about scrapping the BBC licence…
Brace yourself for no deal
I AM up on the far north-west coast of Scotland, where the weather is changing every five minutes under vast skies…
Forget Greenland, Donald Trump should buy Scotland
Donald Trump’s attempted purchase of Greenland may have fallen through but if he’s still in the market, there’s some prime…
It’s not just Scotland’s drugs shame – it’s Britain’s
Twenty years ago, the Scottish parliament was reconvened after a lapse of almost three centuries. The logic for devolution was…
Will Boris Johnson break up the Union?
I spent the early part of last week in London, filming what are known in the television trade as PTCs…
Wicked, humorous and high-spirited: Dorothea Tanning at Tate Modern reviewed
Art movements come and go but surrealism, in one form or another, has always been with us. Centuries before Freud’s…
Love is blind, but lust is not; William Boyd’s 15th novel reviewed
William Boyd’s 15th novel begins well enough. In 1894 Edinburgh, a 24-year-old piano tuner is promoted to the Paris branch…
No whisky for breakfast? But this is Scotland!
I begin my 87-day reading tour of the US, UK and Canada on a BA flight that will take me…
The myth of the ‘trustworthy’ Scottish accent
There was once a belief that for TV and radio commercials, a Scottish voice was more ‘trustworthy’. This was particularly…
Give me Shakespeare’s Macbeth over Jo Nesbo’s any day
It must have seemed a good idea to someone: commissioning a range of well-known novelists to ‘reimagine Shakespeare’s plays for…
Kilchoman isn’t a good whisky; it’s a great one
‘What seas what shore what grey rocks what water lapping the bow’. So evocative, which seems strange: one would have…
As a trainee teacher, I saw the damage the SNP is inflicting on Scottish education
Once one of the best in the world, Scotland’s education system has been steadily marching backwards for the past ten…
Notebook
To Skibo Castle for a four-day wedding, a dream of super-luxury and great good fun. I was struck by how…
Diary
Diana Spencer has been dead for 20 years. I was a journalist on the Evening Standard in those days and…
Brodie Castle
Is there a more forlornly romantic spot in Britain than the moors east of Inverness where the Jacobite dream died?…
Fear and loathing
Strange as it may seem, there are still people around David Cameron who regard the Scottish referendum campaign as a…
Cameron and Mugabe: spot the difference
It is not what Robert Mugabe would do. Calm down. These are ‘spiv Robert Mugabe antics’, said the Tory backbencher…
The iceberg cometh
Every second novel is fated to be measured against its predecessor; and that comparison is particularly hard when the debut…
Referendum rage
Scots know all too well how it feels. The rest of Britain is about to learn
Why Trump prevailed
The political climate that brought about his rise is in fact a worldwide phenomenon
The Amber express
Energy Secretary Amber Rudd on ending green rackets, supporting Scottish oil and staying in the EU
Dying of the light
Finding St Peter’s is not straightforward. I approach the wrong way, driving up a pot-holed farm track between a golf…
The Spectator’s Notes
At the end of next week, a judge will decide whether the ‘trial of the facts’ can proceed now that…
State of the Union
Last year, the United Kingdom came within 384,000 votes of destruction. A referendum designed to crush the Scottish nationalists instead…
