Features
Can a church blessing tame my unruly dog?
The picture on the front of the Animal Blessing Service programme featured a dog, a cat, a rabbit, a goldfish,…
Right-wing comics are bringing variety back to the Fringe
I’ve been coming to the Edinburgh Fringe for five years, but this is the first time I’ve dipped my toe…
From Hong Kong to Kashmir, a new authoritarianism is on the rise
Frank Johnson, editor of The Spectator until cruelly sacked to make way for Boris Johnson, never wasted ideas. He liked…
Britain’s jazz scene is in full swing
Jazz died in 1959. At least, that’s what New Orleans trumpeter Nicholas Payton wrote in 2011 as part of a…
Frightful flights, a falling pound: why would you go anywhere but Britain for your summer holiday?
The epiphany came when I was standing in the oxymoron of a speedy boarding queue at Gatwick, waiting to have…
The secret ingredient of successful seaside towns
The real secret behind Margate’s revival isn’t so much the restored Dreamland amusement park, but the trains. A decade ago,…
The UK’s best beaches – according to Spectator writers
Tom HollandTrevone, Cornwall Pretty much every summer, my family and my cousins head for a farm in north Cornwall,…
How Boris can make the extra cash for the NHS really count
It would be daft for someone to offer you £1.8 billion and you turn it down. That sort of money…
Desert Island Discs has completely lost the plot
There’s a cultural problem at the BBC, isn’t there? The Corporation is trying to attract under-35s — the sort who…
The West cannot survive without a re-energised belief in Christianity
There is no faster way to get yourself classed as dim than by admitting that you hold religious belief, especially…
Nicky Haslam: How will Boris decorate No. 10?
‘Volcanic temper… suspicious of everyone… irritability, mood swings… terror stalking the shadows… devastating collapse of Europe’s economy… rampant insecurity, unbridled…
The spooky side of Savannah
Savannah GA is supposed to have lots of ghosts, but I’d forgotten that. It was an April morning and sunlight…
Who’ll blink first – Boris Johnson or the EU?
On Sunday, Boris Johnson’s cabinet ministers were summoned to a conference call for an update on his Brexit strategy. The…
Europeans have started to change their minds on Brexit
The conviction has been spreading among French people in recent days that les Britanniques have just elected Donald Trump. The…
Edible insects are not the future of food
I’ve lost track of the number of features I’ve seen joyfully hailing the edible insect revolution, entitled ‘Grub’s up!’ Barclays…
Labour can’t cope with Boris’s BAME cabinet
I’ve never voted Conservative and I never will. Having been raised in a working-class home, I can’t get past the…
There is a far better option than HS2 – and it already exists
Just 48 hours before the conclusion of the Conservative leadership contest, Allan Cook, chairman of HS2, wrote to the government…
Lebanon: the world’s best failed state
Look down from the mountains outside Beirut and, on most days, you’ll see a grey blanket of smog choking the…
Just do it: the advertising industry should embrace its right-wing roots
Am I allowed to mention Nigel Farage? Of course I am, this is The Spectator, and its readers enjoy analysing…
The grim magnificence of Gisborough Priory
Gisborough Priory was founded in 1119, although the gothic chunks which remain of it today — including the grimly magnificent…
The first 100 days will make or break Boris
Boris Johnson’s first 100 days will make or break him — which is what makes his premiership unlike any other.…
There’s another option beyond no deal or May’s deal – and Boris knows it
With Boris Johnson finally in No. 10 we now have a prime minister who says he is committed to Britain…
Johnson & Johnson: How Samuel shaped Boris
To understand Boris Johnson, you have to understand the figure who has inspired him, shaped his worldview and accompanied him…
Society cannot be run by Twitter mobs
Two considerable injustices were undone this week. The first was the reinstatement of Sir Roger Scruton to the government’s ‘Building…
How America’s Iran policy is shaped in Riyadh and Jerusalem
Iran’s seizure of a British-owned oil tanker transiting the Persian Gulf has let loose a fresh round of media war…
