Voice of the psychic croc
Northern Territory sends Labor a message
How to exploit a crisis
The phrase ‘never let a good crisis go to waste’ is often attributed to Winston Churchill, but it’s something the…
Dear Mary: How do I avoid my neighbours on holiday?
Q. We have some neighbours who we don’t mind at all – they are perfectly nice, just not part of…
Lucy Letby and the problem with statistics
First Fred West, now Lucy Letby. At this rate, it won’t be long before Herefordshire has produced more serial killers…
When did monkeypox become ‘mpox’?
Writing about monkeypox in The Spectator in May 2022, Douglas Murray repeated a formula he had put forward in 2020,…
Labour’s age of miracles
I am not yet eligible for the winter fuel allowance. Nor am I especially in favour of it, regarding it…
Must-watch TV: Apple TV+’s Pachinko reviewed
Pachinko is like an extended version of the Monty Python ‘Four Yorkshiremen’ sketch (‘I used to have to get out…
Has the RHS forgotten its roots?
Chekhov had no illusions about horticulture (‘It’s a nice, healthy business to be in, but there are passions and wars…
The treasures of sherry
We were talking Spain and drinking Spanish. The UK and Spain are very different societies, but we did find points…
The unstoppable rise of stage amplification
Recent acquisition of some insanely expensive hearing aids aimed at helping me out in cacophonous restaurants has set me thinking…
Artistically embarrassing but a hit: Shifters, at Duke of York’s Theatre, reviewed
Shifters has transferred to the West End from the Bush Theatre. It opens at a granny’s funeral attended by the…
In praise of one of the great avant-garde trolls of cinema
The most important thing to know about the filmmaker and writer Marguerite Duras is that she was a total drunk.…
How I lost my faith
God used to exist. He doesn’t any more, but back in the early 1970s he was a major presence in…
How hot is too hot to work?
Gold standard The Paralympics were instigated in 1948 and first held alongside the Olympics in Rome in 1960. But disabled…
Who will protect me?
Police are hunting a ‘hooded figure’ who sprayed ‘no whites’ on the wall of a primary school in Birmingham. The…
Starmer’s specs appeal
No doubt Lord Alli should not have been given a 10 Downing Street pass, but that is true of most…
Is Germany’s far right about to go mainstream?
‘We need to deport, deport, deport!’ Björn Höcke, leader of the Alternative für Deutschland in Thuringia, emphasises each word with…
