Drugs
Look beyond the Sewel video: the House of Lords still works
The shaming of Lord Sewel was a classic tabloid exposé. The fact that a peer of the realm (albeit one…
Just how hard is it to sack a lord?
Safe house Lord Sewel is unique in leaving the House of Lords in disgrace. Until the House of Lords Reform…
You can do anything (but you shouldn’t): the brave new world of internet morality
Going online does not make you invisible – as the adulterers who used the hacked site Ashley Madison are discovering
Drugs, whipping, decomposing bodies and fighting in toilets: so that’s what Spectator readers get up to
Ninety-two readers (thank you!) sent accounts of their worst debacles on drink or drugs. I printed out each one and…
Steve Hilton's model for policy reform: Glastonbury (yes, really)
Glastonbury is a model for radical policy reform, says Steve Hilton
Benefits Street reviewed: if anyone’s being exploited, it’s the taxpayers, says James Delingpole
My favourite scene in the first episode of the new series of Benefits Street (Mondays, Channel 4) — now relocated…
Skunk has changed me. But art has changed me, too
Two recent preoccupations have led me to the same reflection. The first is a Channel 4 programme on the effects…
How ‘data’ became like ‘butter’
Someone on Radio 4 said she had heard about the sexism of Grand Theft Auto on ‘Women’s Hour’. It is…
The recruitment company to go to if you've got no arms or legs
When to launch? For impresarios, this is the eternal dilemma. Autumn is so crowded with press nights that producers are…
A visit to a drugs den above a fishmongers with Miss South America
‘Stand outside the fishmongers in 20 minutes and call this number,’ she said, ‘and I can arrange it.’ On Saturday…
Fear and libertarianism in Las Vegas
Great God, Vegas is an awful place. I realised this the moment I arrived. My cab driver — who’d been…
I may not know much about khat, but I know banning it is crazy
Khat is a leafy stimulant chewed mainly, I gather, by Somalis. This week the government banned its possession and sale.…
The breasts that launched Les Fleurs du Mal
This novel is based on the life of Charles Baudelaire and the relationship he enjoyed — or endured — with…
My drug-addict friend needs medical help, not a prison sentence
Gstaad ‘On ne touche pas une femme, même avec une fleur,’ says an old French dictum, one not always adhered…
William S. Burroughs was a writer – not a painter, prophet, philosopher
William S. Burroughs lived his life in the grand transgressive tradition of Lord Byron and Oscar Wilde and, like all…
Can Lance Armstrong squirm? We don't know because The Armstrong Lie doesn't make him
Alex Gibney’s The Armstrong Lies is fascinating as far as it goes but it may not go as far as…
Fists of cash, hookers and a candle in your bum palls after a while
Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street will set the cat among the pigeons as a number of films do.…
Letters: Jeff Jarvis defends internet companies, Royal Society fellows defend Lord Lawson
A net gain Sir: Jamie Bartlett tries to balance plus and minus, and ends with zero (‘Little Brothers are watching…
The Revd Paul Flowers ticked all the right 'progressive' boxes — that's why he could get away with anything
The Paul Flowers scandal says much about social and political priorities of modern Britain
