Ancient and modern
MPs should be grateful not to be in ancient Athens
If the continuing rows over the expenses and lifestyles of certain MPs cast all of them in a bad light,…
Socrates on Maria Miller
Our former culture secretary, Maria Miller, is still apparently baffled at the fuss created by her fighting to the last…
Is David Cameron trying to imitate the Delphic Oracle?
Nigel Farage rather missed a trick in his debate over the EU with Nick Clegg. The Prime Minister has promised…
Epicurus on particle physics
According to a top TV scientist, in the beginning there was ‘empty space’ and ‘energy’. After a big bang, the…
On teaching, St Jerome is with Daisy Christodoulou
Last week in The Spectator, Daisy Christodoulou argued that, contrary to current educational theory, children learned best via direct instruction…
Cicero would have agreed with Putin
Last September Russian President Vladimir Putin warned against a ‘unipolar’ world, saying that the national revival of Russia was in…
What Socrates and Harriet Harman have in common
Since apologising has recently been all the rage, refusing to apologise, as Harriet Harman has done over the NCCL’s connection…
From Caligula to Yanukovych
Tyrants never learn, do they? From Caligula through Gadaffi to the ex-Ukrainian prime minister Viktor Yanukovych, they rule not to…
Hadrian on the Somerset levels
Since the Somerset Levels are a flood plain, nature will flood it. Romans had no problems with that. Much of…
Ancient Rome’s fraudulent foreign students
Foreign students getting on to courses under false pretences, overstaying their welcome and so on are nothing new. Ask the Romans.…
Democritus on the 50p rate
What a song and dance about a tax rise affecting a minuscule proportion of the richest in society! Greeks would…
Dieting with Hippocrates
There is, apparently, an ‘obesity epidemic’ in the UK, such that two million people could benefit from weight-loss surgery. Ancient Greeks…
Sorry, Rory Stewart, but you don't understand the Greeks
In last week’s Spectator, Rory Stewart, MP for Penrith, was reported to be proposing that we should create in Britain…
Ancient and modern: Ovid on selfies
A ‘meme’ is ‘an idea, behaviour, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture, often by mimicry’.…
Why does the year start in January?
The ancients were an inquisitive lot, a characteristic shown to best effect in works like Aristotle’s Problems (‘Why do sex-maniacs’…
While shepherds watched, civilisation was born
‘And lo, there were shepherds in the fields, watching over their flocks by night…’ Reading recently that it was…
Master charlatans at work
To watch the Revd Paul Flowers being grilled by the Treasury Select Committee on his role in the demise of…
Barometer: How the new 'third class' would be worse than the Victorian version
The grim tales of ‘modern slavery’ that are currently emerging across the UK make one wonder whether ancient Roman slavery…
The age of consent according to Aristotle
Prime Minister Cameron has rejected the proposal that the age of sexual consent be reduced from 16 to 15, arguing…
What are you doing for 'Live like a Stoic' week?
On 21 November The Spectator is hosting a discussion about addiction — disease or choice? — and how we should…
Grayson Perry thinks democracy has bad taste. Is that why he sells luxury goods to the rich?
‘Democracy has bad taste’, declared potter Grayson Perry in his Reith Lectures on the BBC about art. Tell that to…
Why did Athenians resort to arbitration by hedgehog?
Since trial by jury is so expensive, government is keen to cut costs on legal aid by ‘alternative dispute resolutions’…
Gaddafi and the greatest sex tyrants in classical history
A new book about Colonel Gaddafi goes into shocking detail about his monstrous sexual appetites. He used rape as a…
Livy on Ed Miliband
What should we make of Ed’s support for his father Ralph against the Daily Mail? Livy’s life of Torquatus suggests…
Aristotle on winning the centre ground
Party conferences always provide the most agreeable spectacle of politicians desperately trying to appeal to both the diehards among the…
