Downing Street remains resolute that there will not be a recall of Parliament over the situation in Iraq. But Conor… Continue reading
The collapse of some of the Sykes-Picot states in 2014 will spur people to ask which way the world is… Continue reading
Mr S was saddened to hear of the death of Robin Williams — a man who contributed to the gaiety… Continue reading
It’s 50 years since the death of Ian Fleming and The Spectator has always taken James Bond seriously. The writer… Continue reading
Tristram Hunt announces today that he wants to put a stop to the policy of overhauling A-levels. That means that… Continue reading
Let us say once more what we said as emphatically as we could last week – that the first thing… Continue reading
Today we are witnessing the extraordinary – and long overdue – spectacle of an American president intervening in Iraq to… Continue reading
listen to ‘John Humphrys and the #RSPCA case of Claude the cat ’ on Audioboo The RSPCA have hit the… Continue reading
Owen Jones’s column in the Guardian is headlined ‘Anti-Jewish hatred is rising – we must see it for what it… Continue reading
What is the extent of British involvement in Iraq? Philip Hammond today said it was simply to provide humanitarian assistance,… Continue reading
It has not been a happy few days for supporters of Scottish independence. It remains too soon to say whether… Continue reading
The Shadow Environment Secretary Maria Eagle headed off to Woking today, where she addressed an audience of environmentalists at WWF’s… Continue reading
Neither Obama nor Cameron seem ready to return from their holidays to debate how best to respond to the events… Continue reading
It was news to me that there exists an All Party Commons Committee on Alcohol Misuse, but when you think… Continue reading
Number 10 has today announced that Mark Simmonds, the Conservative MP for Boston and Skegness, is stepping down as a Foreign… Continue reading
The most uplifting news of the weekend? Israeli tourists defied George Galloway’s decree that Bradford become an ‘Israeli-free zone’. Better… Continue reading
There was a revealing moment on the Today programme this morning when Lord Dannatt was asked whether he accepted that… Continue reading
From ‘News of the Week’, The Spectator, 15 August 1914: The war continues to be as amazing as ever. We… Continue reading
In this week’s magazine, Martin Gayford interviews the trumpeter and jazz legend Wynton Marsalis, who founded ‘Jazz’ at Lincoln Center in New… Continue reading
Under the heading ‘How can I help?’, The Spectator of 8 August 1914 advised young men on the process of… Continue reading
Alex Salmond’s suggestion that Scotland is more predisposed towards ‘social justice’ than other parts of Britain is absurd, repellent, and… Continue reading
And they’re off. The mighty caravan of romantic desperadoes, radical egoists, stadium wannabes, struggling superstars and vanity crackheads is on… Continue reading
The recent call for off-putting party political broadcasts on behalf of the Tories, Labour, the Lib Dems, the Greens or… Continue reading
‘Keep your temper’, from The Spectator, 8 August 1914: ‘When a nation goes to war the policy of the Government… Continue reading
STV were left red faced after the live streaming of the independence debate between Alex Salmond and Alistair Darling broke… Continue reading
The next Tory leadership battle has just begun
The success of the campaign to save the Union can be heard in the increasingly hysterical tone of independence supporters
Women are increasingly enjoined not to be ‘nice’. They seem to be listening
Owen Paterson shouldn’t hold green activists responsible for his sacking. The culprit was David Cameron
The heat was still sweltering as we headed off at dusk towards the hide to watch wildlife with our enthusiastic guide, Leonie. My wife and I were on our first… Read more
Is your life saturated with racial meaning? The most common answer to this question, when I ask friends and acquaintances,… Read more
There’s a little bit of a fascist in all of us. For some, the tragedy of human want may provoke… Read more
Iain Conn, who will succeed Sam Laidlaw as chief executive of Centrica, would have been a dead cert for the… Read more
Martin Gayford talks to Wynton Marsalis about the rigours of playing jazz
One of the many delightful aspects of having children is that you can get them to do things you are… Read more
Rather than brave the boos and the first reprise of Frank Castorf’s half-hearted Ring at Bayreuth, I decided to pay… Read more
Wakolda is not a sunny film for a sunny day, just so you’re aware, but as there is so little… Read more
According to some textbooks, one thing the fathers of Soviet choreography hastened to remove from ballet was that awkward-looking language… Read more
Streetcar. One word is enough to conjure an icon. Tennessee Williams’s finest play, written in the 1940s, is about a… Read more
Gomorrah (Sky Atlantic, Monday), the new, must-see Mafioso series, started promisingly. We met two hoods — one young, shaven-headed, good-looking;… Read more
Our hearing is the first of our senses to develop while we are in the womb. It’s the first connection… Read more
And they’re off. The mighty caravan of romantic desperadoes, radical egoists, stadium wannabes, struggling superstars and vanity crackheads is on… Read more
Porto Cheli I have been thinking about my children and my own strange boyhood as I gaze up at the clear blue skies of summer. Summers lasted an eternity back… Read more
A parcel has arrived addressed to ‘Cydney Kite’. The spaniel is ecstatic. She has never received her own mail before, let alone an express delivery package. She wags her entire… Read more
It’s much more stressful to live in the country than in a town. There are always threats of one kind or another — wind farms, housing developments, road ‘improvements’, and… Read more
If I get to choose where to spend my last day on earth it will probably be at Glorious Goodwood. Goodwood is Ascot without the added vulgarity, Aintree without the… Read more
Lewis Jones on Ian Fleming’s Jamaican retreat and the inspiration it provided for the Bond novels
The best books by good writers — and Philip Ball is a very good writer indeed — are sometimes the… Read more
Is it the feathers that do the trick? The severely truculent expressions on their faces? Or is it their ancient… Read more
When the American poet Elizabeth Bishop arrived in Brazil in 1951, she expected to spend two weeks there and ended… Read more
On Monday 21 April 1760 Joshua Reynolds had a busy day. Through the morning and the afternoon he had a… Read more
Right at the outset of this autobiographical novel — in fact it reads more like a memoir — Ismail Kadare… Read more
The TV chat show, if not actually dead, has been in intensive care for a while now, hooked up to… Read more
You’ll mock me, but I have to ask: why don’t any of my friends have holiday homes?
This is to be one of those columns that makes the writer faintly wish there wasn’t an internet. It would… Read more