Terrorism
Losing the plot
Enter Rufus Norris. The new National Theatre boss is perfectly on-message with this debut effort by Caryl Churchill. Her 1976…
Julius Caesar vs Isis
Isis disseminates videos of beheaded captives to spread simple terror. Julius Caesar knew all about it. In his diaries of…
Diary
As weather bombs brew in the north Atlantic, I’m roughing it by heading off to Rajasthan, and the literary festival…
Cameron vs Charlie
Last Sunday, David Cameron marched through Paris in solidarity, so it seemed, with those who stand up for free speech.…
Let there be light
It’s time to reclaim Islam from the Islamists
The dangerous lie
Despite what our leaders tell us, Islamic extremism is all about Islam
The war tourists
Why young men turn to terror – and how to stop them
An attack on freedom
The French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo lambasts, attacks and lampoons absolutely everybody. Its targets include all religions, all identity groups,…
Barometer
A fatal shot The sad death of Australian batsman Philip Hughes was a reminder that a cricket ball can kill.…
Nerds, spies and terrorists
Freedom of the press still matters when the presses are virtual
Technology without responsibility
We know they can be good citizens when they want to be. So why are the technology giants acting in ways that could endanger us all?
Home again
One of the more welcome and surprising things about television at the moment is that Homeland (Channel 4, Sunday) is…
Portrait of the week
Home Checks began at British airports for passengers who might have come from west Africa with Ebola fever (even though…
The terror whisperer
Jonathan Powell’s stance on negotiating with violent extremists is consistently inconsistent and slippery
Think again, Mrs May
If the Labour party conference in Manchester felt like a funeral, the Conservatives’ gathering in Birmingham had the air of…
Murder in the mall
So you’ve just popped down to the supermarket for the weekly shop, toddlers in tow, when the grenades start to…
Shaping divinity to our ends
It slips so easily off the tongue. In fact, it’s a modern mantra. ‘Religion causes all the wars.’ Karen Armstrong…
Who knows what evil lurks?
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the world wide web, and I wonder whether its inventor, Tim Berners-Lee, would…
The Spectator’s notes
Peter Clarke’s powerful report on the Trojan Horse affair in Birmingham schools is confirmation of the weakness of David Cameron…
Flying scared
Added security flummery at airports does nothing to make us safer. In fact, it may do the opposite
Wild life
Rift Valley Many of my British tribe fled Kenya around independence in 1963 because they believed there was no future.…
Good luck finding goodies and baddies in Iraq
If there’s a bright spot in the murky mess of Iraq, it’s that finally we have a war that it…
‘Are you my death?’
What it was like at the Westgate mall, from two of those who survived
An African Khmer Rouge
If Al-Shabaab was behind the terrorist attack in Nairobi, then the group has come a long way since its foundation…
