Ancient and modern

Will all roads soon lead to York?

25 July 2020 9:00 am

Should the PM move parliament to York? There is, of course, historical precedent for such a move, as he very…

Does classical Athens give us a clue to China’s next move?

18 July 2020 9:00 am

In 1984, China agreed a ‘one country, two systems’ treaty with the UK, designed to control the relationship between Hong…

Tiberius and the ‘phantoms of liberty’

4 July 2020 9:00 am

Word has it that ministers already do not bother to argue their corner with the government’s inner ring, while a…

What can Roman outbreaks of malaria teach us about Covid?

27 June 2020 9:00 am

When Covid-19 first appeared, its similarity to Sars made some assume it could not mount a pandemic; others that it…

Why stop at destroying statues?

20 June 2020 9:00 am

The actor John Cleese has been wondering if we should destroy Greek statues because Greeks believed ‘a cultured society was…

The ancient Greeks would not have spared Dominic Cummings

6 June 2020 9:00 am

When the PM’s chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, was discovered to have made his fateful journey to Durham during lockdown, there…

Plato knew that home-schooling can have benefits

23 May 2020 9:00 am

Education is cumulative. The idea that it will be lost on a generation because, for one out of 42 terms…

The Romans showed how quickly hospitals can be built

16 May 2020 9:00 am

The speed with which ‘model’ Nightingale hospitals have been designed and erected across the UK reminds one of the experts…

Cicero would have been quick to end the lockdown

9 May 2020 9:00 am

The Prime Minister recently quoted Cicero’s famous dictum salus populi suprema lex esto, translating it as ‘Let the health (salus)…

A happy hebdomaversary to The Spectator

25 April 2020 9:00 am

The Spectator’s 10,000th hebdomaversary (hebdomas, ‘a group of seven’: a weekly cannot have an anniversary) will surely be celebrated with…

Movie-makers should look to the Athenians before cashing in on this crisis

18 April 2020 9:00 am

Covid-19 has not yet reached its peak but already the moguls of the small screen are plotting how to monetise,…

How did the ancients cope in a crisis?

11 April 2020 9:00 am

When a major crisis strikes in the modern world, the state and international bodies such as the IMF and World…

Pericles would have approved of the PM’s response to the pandemic

4 April 2020 9:00 am

It must be infuriating for those who see the Prime Minister as a prisoner of a rigid elitist mindset that…

How to be self-sufficient

21 March 2020 9:00 am

Those with signs of Covid-19 are being asked to ‘self-isolate’ (Latin insula, ‘island’). But do they have the mindset for…

Coronavirus and the lessons of the Athenian plague

14 March 2020 9:00 am

Plagued by the past

Viral hysteria

7 March 2020 9:00 am

Last week Ross Clark expatiated on the hysteria and panic generated by Covid-19 that threatens to send the world into…

Boris is taking an emperor’s approach to briefings

29 February 2020 9:00 am

The PM is insisting that the briefings he finds in his red box every evening should be, well, brief, and…

What Boris has in common with Roman emperor Augustus

21 February 2020 10:00 pm

The PM was filmed introducing his new cabinet by getting them to answer in unison how many hospitals, how many…

Ancient Athens would have been horrified by Trump’s impeachment

15 February 2020 9:00 am

An impeachment trial is overseen by Congress and Senate, who both make the law and (in this case) sit in…

The ancients would have thought Boris was deluded

7 February 2020 10:00 pm

The gloom that envelopes the Labour party stands in strong contrast to the confidence and hope that the Prime Minister…

Lord Heseltine could launch a Farage-style fight-back

1 February 2020 9:00 am

Lord Heseltine’s electrifying hair once whipped the party faithful into paroxysms of euphoria. But since today he sees his hopes…

What would the ancient Greeks have made of Megxit?

24 January 2020 10:00 pm

There are as many explanations for Harry and Meghan’s problems with the royal family as there are commentators. May as…

Does ‘equality’ mean the same to Rebecca Long-Bailey as it did to Plato?

18 January 2020 9:00 am

The candidates battling for the leadership of the Labour party never stop banging on about ‘social justice’ and ‘equality’. But…

What difference will ‘weirdos and misfits’ make to the civil service?

11 January 2020 9:00 am

Dominic Cummings has written a modest blog inviting mathematicians, physicists, AI specialists and other experts to help him revolutionise the…

It’s science, not protest, that will save the planet

21 December 2019 9:00 am

One might expect that the challenge of climate change would encourage many young people to take up Stem (science, technology,…