Life
Aussie life
The now universally acknowledged failure of vaccines and masks to reduce your chances of spreading, contracting or dying from Covid…
Language
The Church of England is considering scrapping centuries of Christian teaching to give God gender-neutral pronouns. The church has confirmed…
The restorative power of great claret
‘Come dance with me in Ireland.’ That has always struck me as an enchanting prospect, though a recent Hibernian venture…
How to dress for air travel
Even though I fly a lot, I retain the notion that air travel should be treated as a special occasion…
Crossword 2595: Three of a kind
The unclued lights display a common feature, different in each example. Elsewhere, ignore an apostrophe. Across 1 Tracks birds (5)…
Why I admire Isabel Oakeshott
I’ve been gripped by the Telegraph’s Lockdown Files. The 100,000 WhatsApp messages on Matt Hancock’s phone, handed to the paper…
Spectator competition winners: politically correct versions of works by unreconstructed male writers
In Competition No. 3289, you were invited to provide an extract from a politically correct version of a work by…
The case against a cashless society
‘We don’t take cash,’ said the boy behind the counter in Pret after I tried to hand him a £5…
My life in a lunatic asylum
I can see why rock stars and other impetuous celebrity types accidentally top themselves with drug cocktails. When you are…
Language
When US President Joe Biden addressed Congress and gave his ‘State of the Union’ address he was (at times) greeted…
Kiwi life
To be an award-winning commentator, the late Alexander Cockburn held, you really need to have a bit of a thing…
Spectator competition winners: sonnets on embarrassing ailments
In Competition No. 3288, you were invited to supply a sonnet on an embarrassing ailment. To make space for as…