The Spectator
Australia
Coalition must U-turn on X
Kudos to Senator Ralph Babet and to One Nation for opposing this tyrannical abomination
Australian Features
The Cass review and gender woo
Feminists have no one to blame but themselves for the transgender craze
Immigration challenges in the era of Islam
Not all religions and cultures share the same values
Community safety or grubby politics?
Duty abandoned and priorities betrayed where censorship rules
Features
Why were Germany’s Covid files redacted?
There are two kinds of long Covid. One is a medical syndrome, the other manifests as a healthy obsession –…
How the Jilly Cooper Book Club turned toxic
The Jilly Cooper Book Club was set up about a decade ago by two friends who’d had enough of book…
Has the C of E got its reparations bill all wrong?
Reparations have a troubled history, and rightly. The word itself, in its familiar sense, seems to have been a euphemism…
The Xi files: how China spies
Most states spy. In principle there’s nothing to stop them. But China’s demand for intelligence on the rest of the…
Daniel Dennett’s last interview: ‘AI could signal the end of human civilisation’
Do we still need philosophers? Daniel Dennett, who died last week, believed strongly that we do. ‘Scientists have a tendency…
Hyper-history: why did politics go crazy?
On the day Theresa May signed her Brexit withdrawal agreement with Brussels, Dominic Raab, the Brexit secretary, resigned. She tried…
Forget Eton. This Mumbai team should play Harrow at Lord’s
The first thing I do is turn my watch upside down. India is five-and-a-half hours ahead of the UK, so…
Men, step away from the trainers
What is it with men and trainers? Or rather, men of a certain age and trainers. I’m still trying to…
The Week
Letters: the admirable strength of Ukrainians
The bravery of Ukraine Sir: Few articles could resonate as strongly as that of Svitlana Morenets (‘Scrambled logic’, 20 April).…
What does the Olympic torch have to do with Hitler?
The original Olympic Games established a basic canon of seven games unchanged over some 900 years: foot, horse and chariot…
Portrait of the Week: Huw Edwards resigns, Mark Menzies resigns and Frank Field dies
Home Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, said that within 12 weeks asylum-seekers could be flown to Rwanda. This followed the…
Wayne Rooney, the war buff
I blame Thierry Henry and I never blame Thierry for anything. He’s funny, charming and was a majestic footballer. But…
The cost of European peace
After six months of delay, the US Senate has finally passed a $60 billion foreign-aid package which will send urgently…
Columnists
How Pret ate itself
How bad would it be if Royal Mail’s parent company, International Distributions Services (IDS), were to be taken over by…
Following Napoleon: my exile in St Helena
St Helena In an attempt to escape from the world, I have come with friends to St Helena. It is quite…
Donating to charity is too easy
It’s been a torrid few weeks for anyone who knows anyone who was running in the London Marathon. In have…
Kemi and Gove’s Cabinet clash on Rwanda
When the Rwanda Bill had its second reading in the House of Commons just before Christmas, there was a revolt…
It rarely pays to be ahead of your time
Following the release of the Cass report deprecating NHS ‘gender-affirming care’ for minors as reliant on rubbish medical research, the…
A helpful suggestion for Taylor Swift’s boyfriends
Sir Mark Rowley should not resign. We must try to break our habit of getting rid of each Metropolitan Police…
Why the Cass report won’t change a thing
The Liberal Democrat candidate in the Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency recently released a video clip of herself sitting…
Books
The naming of cats
It took a long time for cats to gain the same serious status as dogs, but by the 18th century they were starting to have personalities, says Kathryn Hughes
The slave’s story: James, by Percival Everett, reviewed
A retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in the voice of Huck’s companion the runaway slave changes the nature of the pair’s relationship – not always for the better
The identical twins who captivated literary London
Intelligent and beautiful, Celia and Mamaine Paget were loved by some of the greatest writers of the interwar years, but remained uniquely devoted to each other
Alone and defenceless: the tragic death of Captain Cook
Striding ashore unarmed showed courage that bordered on recklessness. But it was a kind of theatre Cook relished on his travels - and, famously, it didn’t always work
What does Christian atheism mean?
Slavoj Žižek claims to value Christianity’s ‘dissident’ credentials, but his atheist vision of reality rests on assumptions repeatedly challenged by Jesus
Four female writers at the court of Elizabeth I
Of Ramie Targoff’s gifted quartet, Mary Sidney was particularly admired by her contemporaries for her translation of the Psalms into English verse
The circus provides perfect cover for espionage
As he flew his plane between circus acts across Germany in the 1930s, Cyril Bertram Mills gained vital aerial intelligence about the Nazis’ rearmament programme
Hero and villain: The Two Loves of Sophie Strom, by Sam Taylor, reviewed
A Jewish teenager is the victim of a Nazi arson attack in 1933. Alternative scenarios see him joining the French Resistance, and being recruited by the SS
Emily Dickinson was not such a recluse after all
Far from being closeted in her bedroom, her letters show that she was still travelling in her mid-thirties, and taking pleasure in gardening and the glories of nature
The awkwardness of love in middle age: You Are Here, by David Nicholls, reviewed
A man and woman, both casualties of failed marriages, are attracted to one another on a walking holiday, but are strangely overcome by shyness
Must Paris reinvent itself?
The beautifully preserved, elitist metropolis now looks increasingly out of step with neighbouring capitals and may be forced to become more multicultural
Arts
The barbarity of this man
It’s a spectacle a lot of people would kill to see: Hugo Weaving in a Sydney Theatre Company co-production of…
Sordid, ugly and threadbare: Jimmy Carr – Natural Born Killer reviewed
Here’s an offensive joke: ‘Jimmy Carr gets paid to do a Netflix special.’ All right, it’s not original – I…
Tennis romance that doesn’t contain much tennis: Challengers reviewed
It sounds straightforward enough: a tennis romance starring Zendaya, idol of the mid-teen demographic and last seen riding a sandworm…
Cheesy remake of Our Mutual Friend: London Tide, at the Lyttelton Theatre, reviewed
Our Mutual Friend has been turned into a musical with a new title, London Tide, which sounds duller and more…
Taylor Swift’s new album is exhausting
How to explain the supercharged star power of Taylor Swift? An undeniably gifted artist, Swift’s albums 1989, Folklore and Evermore,…
How to live off the land for a year
Could you live off the land for a year without buying a single thing to eat? This was the challenge…
You could have built a tent city from all the red chinos: Aci by the River reviewed
The Thames cruise for which Handel composed his Water Music in 1717 famously went on until around 4 a.m. The…
The latest Venice Biennale is ideologically and aesthetically bankrupt
Last week’s opening of the 60th edition of the Venice Biennale marks a watershed for the art world. In much…
‘I couldn’t afford loo roll’: Bruce Robinson on being skint, Zeffirelli’s advances and Withnail’s return
Bruce Robinson is ramming a huge log into the grate of his ancient fireplace in mud-clogged Herefordshire. He’s 77 and…
Life
Aussie Life
Almost exactly 50 years before James Cook’s first encounter with the Gweagal and Gameygal peoples on the shores of what…
Language
Writing in the current issue of Quadrant magazine, Paul Prociv says, ‘The field of Aboriginal affairs is awash with sloppy…
Where does ‘stuff’ come from?
Pelham, the hero of the novel of the same name (which came out in 1828, the first year of The…
Louis XIV would envy your life
Some things in life acquire an outsize popularity which defies all common sense. The outlandish appeal of such things cannot…
The case for Churchillian drinking
Churchill. No disrespect to Andrew Roberts’s more recent work, but I set out to look up a point about drink…
The struggle to book my wedding in Ireland
‘How does anyone young and stupid manage to get married?’ I kept shouting at the builder boyfriend as I pummelled…
Why won’t Chris Packham have a real debate on climate?
On Sunday, the BBC did something unusual. It invited Luke Johnson, a climate contrarian, to join a panel with Laura…
Dear Mary: how can I get restaurants to turn off loud music?
Q. My husband never wants to go out to lunch on a day when he could be gardening but he…
My Negroni-soaked lunch with Laurence Olivier
Breakfast is my preferred meal, in case you’re interested. I broke my fast this week with my walking laser-light of…
The Candidates
Dommaraju Gukesh triumphed in a thrilling final round at the Candidates Tournament in Toronto. The Indian talent, who is still…
