Hong Kong
Hong Kong protesters are making things easy for China
The world is watching Beijing as it watches Hong Kong. There are nervous expectations that troops will be deployed in…
Portrait of the week: A resignation in Washington, Labour departures and a plague of toxic caterpillars
Home Sir Kim Darroch resigned as British ambassador to Washington after the Mail on Sunday published disobliging emails he had…
Will the next prime minister betray Hong Kong again?
For many years, a framed cover of The Spectator looked down, like a silent reproach, on the drinkers in the…
Portrait of the week: Gove confesses, Brexit party falters and the BBC makes pensioners pay
Home Michael Gove, the Environment Secretary, a candidate for the Conservative leadership, admitted he had used cocaine several times 20…
The Hong Kong protests have echoes of Tiananmen
Whatever the authorities in Beijing say, the anger on the streets of Hong Kong isn’t synthetic, nor is it stirred…
Britain’s liberals have fallen out of love with democracy
Every now and then there is a political moment, some event or comment, that reveals just how much society has…
Letters
Let’s talk about guns Sir: I was surprised that the cover stories on the recent shootings in Las Vegas (‘Say…
Letters
Bugs bite back Sir: Matthew Parris is quite right to say that we Leavers would prefer independence in reduced circumstances…
Stitches in time
When Martha Ann Ricks was 76 she travelled from her home in Liberia to London to meet Queen Victoria. The…
Let’s make sure our fishermen are protected against Brexit tit-for-tat
I voted Remain last year for two reasons. First, however irritating I found some aspects of the EU, I could…
From diplomacy to disillusion with the Dalai Lama’s big brother
Can there ever have been another book in which one of the authors (Anne Thurston in this case) so effectively…
Why Switzerland should have listened to Hong Kong on currency pegs
The Swiss National Bank usually ticks away as quietly as one of its nation’s more expensive timepieces, but when the…
Portrait of the week
Home The government spent days announcing how the Autumn Statement would allocate funds. ‘Frontline’ parts of the National Health Service…
Portrait of the week
Home Alan Henning, 47, a British volunteer aid worker taken captive in Syria by Islamic State, was murdered, and footage…
Why the real winner from George Osborne’s ‘Google tax’ could be Nigel Farage
George Osborne’s promise to crack down on multinational companies’ avoidance of UK taxes by the use of impenetrable devices such…
What really scares Beijing about the Hong Kong protests
Hong Kong’s protests reflect not just tension with the mainland, but a great Chinese tradition. That’s what really scares Beijing
Am I wrong to fear another Tiananmen?
Looking at these protests, I fear another Tiananmen
Portrait of the week: Cameron visits UN HQ, Scotland checks its bruises, and a Swede sells his submarine
Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, visited New York for talks at the United Nations; he said Britain supported the…
A Labour MP defends the Empire – and only quotes Lenin twice
In a grand history of the British empire — because that is what this book really is — you might…
