No tips please, we’re British
I hate tipping, not because I am intrinsically mean but because of the anxiety it induces. You pitch up at…
Why is it so hard to be a Christian in public life?
Is it any longer acceptable to be a Christian? News reaches me of a strange case involving the Liberal Democrat…
When was the last genuine royal tour of Nigeria?
Royal welcomes The Duke and Duchess of Sussex visited Nigeria last week. When was the last genuine royal tour of…
Spectator competition: Marking time
Competition 3349 invited you to write a poem riffing on the line ‘I have measured out my life with coffee spoons’,…
Ahmad Massoud: ‘I’m 100% sure I can topple the Taliban’
It’s fighting season in Afghanistan again. When the Americans were in charge, after the poppy fields had been harvested in…
‘Terribly chic’: how to make chouquettes
I have become obsessed with the French idea of goûter, the time in the afternoon when French schoolchildren have a…
The power of restorative justice
In a week when the Chief Inspector of Prisons published an Urgent Notification detailing the horrors of HMP Wandsworth, I…
The asexual revolution
Who could have foreseen that half a century after the sexual revolution we’d be facing its exact opposite: an asexual…
How a hitchhiker gave me a glimpse into my past
On the mantel shelf of the cave there’s an invitation to my middle daughter’s wedding in August. This happy event…
Be more tiger mum!
‘What’s it to do with me if your boyfriend wants to break up with you? Or if you cried, or…
