How Ireland lost its craic
When did the Irish lose their sense of humour?
Just Stop Oil’s Chelsea Flower Show protest is a new low
You have to sink low, very low, to target the Chelsea Flower show for an environmental protest. But the boys…
The Georgian fashion revolution
Normally, when you look at portraits you feel obliged to focus on the sitter. But quite often you’re thinking, ‘Ooh,…
Danny Kruger is right: marriage is the bedrock of society
It didn’t take long for Danny Kruger to get jumped on for stating the obvious. His observation yesterday that ‘The…
The muddle of the King’s coronation oath
There’s been an interesting discussion about the Archbishop of Canterbury’s addition to the coronation service, but has anyone actually tried…
Why should gardeners learn to love weeds?
Dirt, is, as the anthropologist Mary Douglas famously put it, ‘matter out of place’. For her, ‘there is no such…
The trouble with censoring Jeeves and Wooster
It would take longer than I’ve got to comb through copies of Thank you, Jeeves and Right Ho, Jeeves, to…
The BBC has ruined Great Expectations
The insanely irritating advertisements for BBC Sounds – 30 seconds to make the spirits sink – have recently included one…
Euthanasia has become a backdoor to capital punishment in Belgium
Those who back assisted dying/euthanasia/assisted suicide – and no doubt Prue Leith on her nationwide tour will be returning to her…
Assisted dying is a slippery slope
What are your thoughts on assisted dying and assisted suicide? That’s the question asked by a Health and Social Care…
Pope Benedict: a theologian with a profound belief in reason
Pope Benedict is dead; now only Pope Francis remains in the Vatican. And the Catholic Church is diminished by his…
Life is hard for Bethlehem’s Christians
O Little Town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie: except the place is, in fact, buzzing in the…
Should it be a crime to pray outside an abortion clinic?
When MPs backed the enforcement of ‘buffer zones’ around abortion clinics, there were warnings that the measure might backfire. Two…
Quentin Blake’s long history with The Spectator
Quentin Blake’s long history with The Spectator
The year’s best children’s books, featuring animals real and imaginary
There are wolves, bats, 101 dogs and Maggie O’Farrell’s Nouka – an adorable black ball of fluff with big green eyes
Mesmerising and eye-opening: Courtauld Gallery’s Fuseli and the Modern Woman reviewed
It’s not until you see this exhibition of drawings by Henry Fuseli that you realise that most artists have really…
Imprisoned on the whim of Enver Hoxha
Nowhere in this extraordinary prison memoir do we find out why Fatos Lubonja was sentenced to imprisonment in Spaç, the…
Why Albanians come to Britain
A friend of mine works in a surgery in London where lots of asylum seekers go for treatment. The caseload…
How to make your candles last longer
Under the sink. That’s where most of us will be keeping a stash of candles in case the lights go…
Britain will be a lesser nation without the Queen
The loneliest thing about being as long-lived as the Queen, at 96, is that you have few or no contemporaries.…
The horrifying truth about Liz Truss
Was it just me or was Liz Truss actually smirking during her statement outside Downing Street, the one littered with…
Jeremy Clarkson should be the next host of University Challenge
The bad news of the week is that Jeremy Paxman is retiring from University Challenge. The worse is that most…
