The Spectator
9 September 2023 Aus
Flight risk
Australia
Flight risk
Seasoned air travellers are familiar with the sight of a swarm of masked and gloved cleaners waiting to rush on…
Australian Columnists
New HRC madness
In Canberra a parliamentary committee is considering whether to recommend a huge transfer of power from the elected executive government…
Australian Features
Don’t lose the peace, Mr Dutton
Labor is entirely to blame for the Voice fiasco but the Libs will have to clean up the mess
Incredible claims
Chalmers must have his eyes on the Lodge rather than on our economic future
Uluru itself needs some truth-telliing
First comes the ‘Voice’, then the ‘Invoice’
Are the Wokerati winning?
14 October is a pivotal moment for Western civilisation
Silencing the song
Woke cancel culture threatens some of our greatest works of art
Arise the Left’s latest bunyip aristocracy
Labor’s plans to enshrine a new, elite upper class
Features
TikTok is giving our children Tourette’s
The pandemic has hit our children even harder than we thought
‘We need to start the road to rejoin’: Gina Miller on Brexit, farmers and her ambitious plans for Epsom
Gina Miller on Brexit, farmers and her ambitious plans for Epsom
The Week
Will the collapse of councils be the next great scandal?
Last month India managed to land a spacecraft on the moon for a third of the price of refurbishing Hammersmith…
Columnists
Does the public want reheated Blairism?
To understand the political journey of Sir Keir Starmer, look to Liz Kendall. This week the Blairite and one-time leadership…
Right-on Kew
We must all hurry down to the Temperate House at Kew Gardens next month to enjoy Queer Nature After Hours,…
The delicious schadenfreude of Burning Man
If any readers are having those September, back-to-work blues perhaps I might offer them a sure-fire palliative? Just go online…
Children need protection from adult madness
The Texas Supreme Court just upheld a state law banning so-called gender-affirming care for minors, to explosive consternation from predictable…
Britain has an entitlement problem
An Institute for Fiscal Studies paper, published at the end of last month, makes grim reading. Through the prism of…
Books
A labour of love
A 2023 book about a 1987 film set in 1969, in which multiple characters mourn the end of an era, told through interviews, memorabilia and testimonials from besotted fans
Unfinished business in Berlin: The Secret Hours, by Mick Herron, reviewed
How it all began: Di Taverner, Service legend David Cartwright and the rest of the Slow Horses make themselves known to the reader in an origin story disguised as a follow-up
Feeding frenzy: memories of a gourmand in Paris
In 1927, A.J. Liebling sailed from America to study medieval literature at the Sorbonne. Instead, he taught himself how to eat French food
The woman who set our country in a roar
Such was the emotion Anne Boleyn inspired in Henry VIII. But before long that scalding love had turned to a brutalising hatred of his second wife, culminating in her bloody beheading
Fish out of water
As a one-nation Tory, Rory Stewart was not a good fit in the party’s new incarnation. We discover how his desire to make the world a better place was always going to work against him
Sinister science
Set in the near future, the novel examines what is necessary to make us human – while showcasing the base behaviour of those lucky enough to be born with the right genes
A born rebel
Four days after she last saw her, Natasha Walter’s mother Ruth took her own life. The loss throws Natasha into a desperate search for meaning by examining Ruth’s peace-activist past and beyond
The forgotten world of female espionage
Many thousands of women acted as messengers, radio operators and double agents behind enemy lines in both world wars. Here, these resilient and resolute pioneers are retrieved from the mists of history
The extraordinary life of 17th-century polymath Margaret Cavendish
Lucy Hughes-Hallett admires the brave and wayward Duchess of Newcastle, whose idiosyncratic writings astonished 17th-century English society
Arts
Poets don’t stink
The Australian Book Review poetry prize is upon us again and it’s worth mentioning that the ABR editor Peter Rose,…
Lyrical and dreamlike: A World of Private Mystery – British Neo-Romantics, at the Fry Art Gallery, reviewed
‘My daughter’s moving to Saffron Walden, away from all this,’ said the railway man at Stratford station, gesturing at the…
Lacks any air of mystery, foreboding or darkness: Macbeth, at the Globe, reviewed
Macbeth at the Globe wants to put us at our ease and make us feel comfortable with the play’s arcane…
The best new album I’ve heard this year: Being Dead’s When Horses Would Run reviewed
Grade: A– The point of a sudden, abrupt change in the time signature and instrumentation of a song is to…
Subtle, psychologically twisty drama: BBC3’s Bad Behaviour reviewed
Bad Behaviour is a decidedly solemn new Australian drama series with plenty to be solemn about. It was billed in…
The Strokes are always terrible – why do I keep going back to see them?
Quite when the concept of coolness became a thing is uncertain, even to etymologists. As early as 1884, an academic…
Every crumb of Kurtag’s music is a feast: Endgame, at the Proms, reviewed
The fun starts early in Beckett’s Endgame. Within minutes of opening his mouth, blind bully Hamm decides to starve his…
A euphoric meat-and-two-veg programme: Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich/Paavo Jarvi, at the Proms, reviewed
We used to call it a ‘meat and two veg’ programme, back in my concert planning days: the reliable set…
The best drama without any drama that you’ll see: Past Lives reviewed
Past Lives is an exquisite film made with great precision and care about what could have been, even if what…
‘People thought I was insane’: Graham Nash on the birth of Crosby, Stills and Nash
Adam Sweeting talks to Graham Nash about Joni Mitchell, the Hollies and the birth of Crosby, Stills and Nash in the Laurel Canyon idyll of the 1960s
Life
Aussie life
Presumably, you don’t get to become head of football’s governing body in a football-mad country like Spain without putting in…
Language
Here’s a brand new Australian political expression I’ve just coined: ‘cane toad politics’. I expect it to take its place…
A perfect slice of Calabria
The Romans wrote the history, or at least the myths. But long before Romulus murdered Remus, the Mediterranean – the…
What a full English breakfast can tell us about the state of the NHS
Among devotees of the full English breakfast, few things polarise more than the inclusion of baked beans. Some people are…
Could I be pregnant?
At the age of 59 I thought it was time to get my body thoroughly examined. So last week I…
The charm of Carmel races
Racing at Cartmel probably began in the 15th century when Brother John wagered a mug of ale with Brother Cain…
Concrete, marmite and jam: the fight against Ulez
‘We’re renegades now. We’re outlaws. Bandits.’ This was my assessment as the builder boyfriend pulled up outside the house in…