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The Spectator

10 June 2023 Aus

Divide and rue

The Voice will split many of our nation’s families by race

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Australia

Leading article Australia

In the dark

Three things can be safely said about the entire Brittany Higgins affair. Firstly, the average punter has no idea where…

Australian Columnists

Australian Notes

Australian notes

An alliance of philanthropic foundations has declared their support for the Voice: a combined $17-million pledge from the philanthropic sector…

Australian Features

Features Australia

How long has Dan got?

The Victorian budget: A for politics, F for economics

Features Australia

‘I’m baaaack!’

How government intervention has returned to cripple the West

Features Australia

Business/Robbery, etc

The Voice’s fatal flaw the campaigners don’t mention

Features Australia

Albo’s arrogance is sinking the Voice

We should have had a convention like we did in 1998

Features Australia

Twitter, trans and videotape

Doing time for hate speech crimes in the Sunshine State?

Features Australia

Divide and rue

The Voice will split many of our nation’s families by race

Features Australia

Is McGowan tired or fleeing from scrutiny?

History will not be kind to the WA Covid approach

The Week

Leading article

Don’t stifle AI

In his meeting with Joe Biden this week, Rishi Sunak proposed a research centre and regulatory body for artificial intelligence…

Diary

My hope for Ukraine

  Kyiv   When Winston Churchill visited bomb sites during the Blitz, the most common sentiment he heard was, ‘We…

Columnists

Columns

Why Rishi Sunak fears the Covid inquiry

A former Labour spin doctor recently offered some advice for governments considering a public inquiry. Rule No. 1: Don’t. But…

Columns

What terfs get wrong

The recreational use of psychedelic drugs, such as LSD or peyote, declined with some rapidity from the 1980s onwards as…

Columns

The inversion of history

It is 18 years since the last Colditz drama on British television, which apparently means we need a new one.…

Columns

The kids aren’t ‘trans’ – they just don’t want to grow up

If we rule out the notion that people have ‘gendered souls’ at odds with their biological sex – and we…

Books

More from Books

Secrets of the couch

When a sex therapist arranges for his clients’ sessions to be secretly recorded, there are life-changing consequences for two women involved

More from Books

The heyday of Parisian erotica

In the mid-20th century, titles such as Whip Angels, White Thighs, School for Sin and The Wisdom of the Lash joined Lolita and The Naked Lunch on Olympia Press’s list

More from Books

Horsing around

Tiffany Francis-Baker explores the many ways in which our countryside has been shaped by the horse over the centuries

More from Books

A last-minute escape from the Holocaust

In a profoundly moving family memoir, Daniel Finkelstein describes the miracle by which his mother, as a child, was rescued from the hell of Belsen

More from Books

The twists keep coming

Murray’s immersive, beautifully written mega-tome about a family in a small town in Ireland is as funny as it is deeply disturbing

More from Books

The holy fool

The beleaguered monarch cuts a sad figure at the opening of David Carpenter’s second volume of biography – in contrast to his brilliant arch-enemy Simon de Montfort

More from Books

Chris Mullin’s eye for the absurd remains as keen as ever

Having retired from parliament in 2010, Mullin has less insider knowledge than before, but the political one-liners in his latest diaries are still highly entertaining

More from Books

Between woods and water

Patrick Barkham pays tribute to the much-missed nature writer, whose core response to the call of the wild animated everything he did

More from Books

Purpose built

Hugh Pearman examines a wide range of building types apart from houses, including museums, theatres, schools, shopping malls, palaces and places of worship

Lead book review

The problems of being a Bee Gee

Calling themselves the Bee Gees spelt trouble from the start for the very disparate Gibb brothers, says Craig Brown

Arts

Australian Arts

A staggering performance

It would be wrong to belittle the Rembrandt exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria because the emphasis is on…

Theatre

Hamlet fans will love this: Re-Member Me, at Hampstead Theatre, reviewed

A puzzle at Hampstead Theatre. Literally, a brain teaser. Its new production, Re-member Me, is a one-man show written and…

Classical

The greatest female composer you’ve never heard of

One of the most intriguing piano concertos of the late 19th century is unknown to the public – and no…

Television

Gratuitously twisty, turny nonsense: Sky Max’s Poker Face reviewed

Imagine if you had the power always to tell whether or not someone was lying. You’d have it made, wouldn’t…

Pop

Let’s hear it for the lesser-spotted nepo daddy

Rob Grant releases his debut album, Lost at Sea, this week. A 69-year-old millionaire and former ad man, furniture exec…

Opera

The final scenes are a knockout: Glyndebourne’s Don Giovanni reviewed

Are you supposed to laugh at the end of Don Giovanni? Audiences often do, and they did at the end…

Cinema

Wikipedia does more justice to this fascinating story than this film: Chevalier reviewed

Chevalier is a biopic of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, whom you’ve probably never heard of, as I hadn’t. He…

Radio

Perfect radio for a nation of grumblers: Radio 4’s Room 101 with Paul Merton reviewed

Welcome back to Room 101, which has returned to the radio – after nearly 30 years on TV – and…

Exhibitions

The 19th century Chinese craze for all things European

By the 1800s, the mechanical clock had become a status symbol for wealthy Chinese. The first arrived with Jesuit missionaries…

Arts feature

We must save this Tudor masterpiece for the nation

Jonathan Ruffer calls for the return to Britain of the Tudor tapestry that proclaims the birth of the Church of England

Life

Aussie Life

Aussie life

Recently, a demonstration was held outside Perth Library, which is noteworthy because libraries are one of the few spaces that…

Aussie Life

Language

It is an exciting moment when I discover a new word – and this time it’s a word that focuses…

Competition

Spectator competition winners: Henry James and other well-known writers look for love online

In Competition No. 3302, you were invited to compose a dating app profile for a writer of your choice. To…

Food

Home cooking, but idealised: 2 Fore Street reviewed

The restaurant 2 Fore Street lives on Mousehole harbour, near gift shops: the post office and general store have closed,…

Spectator sport

Football bosses must carry the can for players’ bad behaviour

If you couldn’t watch the Europa League final between Sevilla and Roma, then you should count yourself fortunate. It was…

More from life

Yoghurt pot cake: the perfect sugary blank canvas

I’m pretty easygoing when it comes to most aspects of cooking. I don’t think there’s much to be gained from…

No sacred cows

I’ve been radicalised by Just Stop Oil

Last month I went to Lord Frost’s superb lecture for the Global Warming Policy Foundation about the harm net zero…

Wild life

Progress is coming to our remote corner of Kenya

Laikipia The principal of the local polytechnic was waiting for me in the kitchen. Frequently in the kitchen there is…

Real life

My rodent house guest has a Benadryl habit

The mouse has been eating his way through the medicine cabinet to the extent that I am really quite frightened…