In-depth analysis of the day’s news, plus stories and gossip from Australian politics.
One country, two worlds
In October 1964, Charles de Gaulle visited Brazil. The country was six months into its military dictatorship. In April of…
Minus one
In Competition No. 2951 you were invited to remove a letter from a well-known book title and submit an extract…
A terrible beauty
It was only when I left Western Australia for university in England that I understood how vast and dangerous my…
To 2261: Long Jump
Clifton Fadiman wrote that cheese was ‘MILK’S LEAP TOWARDS IMMORTALITY’ (3/4/18). The remaining unclued lights (16, 21, 25, 35, 44…
Love for sale
The premise of Kat Banyard’s Pimp State is a familiar one: sex work — a phrase the author rejects as…
The Battle for Britain
The post The Battle for Britain appeared first on The Spectator. Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment…
That glowing feeling
On the morning of 15 October 1927, a dim, autumn day, a group of men foregathered at the Rosedale cemetery…
The pain of being second-best
The boys at Radio 5, bless ’em, are now including the EU referendum as part of their sports trailers. As…
Tales of Mr Tod
Have you ever considered tying a fox’s penis to your head? Well no, nor have I, but if you suffer…
Un-Italian job
I have been waiting, like a heroine in fiction, for the specialist lasagne restaurant. London has long been heading this…
She’s the top
This book is the latest in Yale’s series of Jewish Lives — though in this case Jewish Loves might be…
Lives of gay abandon
Somewhere I have a couple of neat letters from the artist Richard Chopping, politely declining my requests to interview him…
Books & arts
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These foolish things
No reliable statistics exist — it’s not the sort of thing you can audit — but England is surely the…
The lost world
Every now and then, with great infrequency (alas), a film comes along that is like no other and completely knocks…
Boxing
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Doing bird
A decade ago, the French pianist and poly-math Pierre-Laurent Aimard announced that he was ‘very bored to live in a…
Sourced
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No laughing matter
Rossini is the meat-and-two-inappropriately-shaped-veg of summer opera; he’s the wag in the novelty bow tie, the two satyrs shagging enthusiastically…
Rolypoly
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Profit and loss
Bertolt Brecht took The Threepenny Opera from an 18th-century script by John Gay and relocated it to Victorian London. This…
Prophet
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Let’s talk about sex
At one time, Damien Hirst was fond of remarking that art should deal with the Gauguin questions. Namely, ‘Where do…
Doctor
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Polluted by podcasts
Just to prove my esteemed colleague wrong I’ve been out there in podcast space looking for a wireless moment that…
Editor’s picks
Magazine
It’s the cost of government, stupid
Our economic crisis is due to a lack of creative destruction
