Freddy Gray 
Boris’s Paris match: an interview with Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet
It’s Monday lunchtime, downstairs in the Spectator office, and Boris Johnson is trying to flog a bus to a Frenchwoman. ‘What about the new Routemaster? It’s absolutely great, yup, fantastic,… Read more
Investment special: Confessions of a stock picker
My name’s Freddy and I’m an online gambling addict. The problem started a few years ago when I opened an account on Betfair.com. At first it was small bets on… Read more
Diarmaid MacCulloch: Am I anti-Catholic?
Does being gay make you a better historian? ‘Immensely, immensely,’ says Diarmaid MacCulloch. ‘From a young age, four or five onwards, I began to realise that the world was not… Read more
Sex, lies and the next Pope
In a corner of the Sistine Chapel, below Michelangelo’s hell, is a door to the little chamber they call ‘the room of tears’. Some painter-decorators are in there, frantically doing… Read more
Israel Notebook
Friday night in Jaffa, and it’s a party. Jaffa, to the south of Tel Aviv, is where the cool kids hang, apparently — think Dalston or the meatpacking district, and… Read more
The Pacific President
On Monday, as Barack Obama is sworn in again as President, his allies in the West will ask themselves the same nervous question they posed four years ago: how much… Read more
The professorial President
Is Barack Obama really as clever as he looks? Ever since he first appeared in the public eye, it’s been taken as read that he’s a major intellectual. Liberals say,… Read more
Mad Frogs and Englishmen
The English like nothing better than the idea that the French hate us. Bradley Wiggins, an Englishman, wins the Tour de France, and we are full of in-votre-face triumphalism. British… Read more
Windsors in a spin
The royal family’s PR operation is in danger of becoming too successful Is anyone else sick of the love-fest between the modern royal family and the press? That might sound… Read more
The people’s primate
Lord Carey of Clifton isn’t the retiring sort. He stood down as Archbishop of Canterbury ten years ago, but he wasn’t ready to end his days in quiet contemplation. At… Read more
Time for his close-up
What’s the matter with Ralph Nathaniel Twistleton-Wykeham Fiennes? In pictures, he looks so self-conscious and morose. Maybe it’s just his acting face. In the flesh, though, he’s different. He is… Read more
The audacity of Obama
Can the President really pose as the ‘fair shake’ candidate? Barack Obama knows that, after three unsuccessful years as president, he cannot again sell himself to the electorate as a… Read more
Life of Brian
The waspish art critic Brian Sewell on his duty to be frank about his personal life – even if it shocks other octogenarians ‘It must be so awfully boring being… Read more
What women want
To my relief, it’s not underwear I’m in the Knightsbridge branch of Agent Provocateur. It is exactly like a high-end brothel, only it sells underwear not sex. Two girls in… Read more
Totally Tom: class act
If you are feeling chippy — and I hope you are not — you might find Totally Tom annoying. If you are feeling chippy — and I hope you are… Read more
Thank God it’s Thursday
Whitehall’s four-day week ‘What you doing here?’ says a cheerful security guard as I walk through the Houses of Parliament at four o’clock on a Friday afternoon. ‘It’s early closing… Read more
The chattering classes
Louise Stern on what the deaf really think of ‘hearing people’ I’m at my desk in London chatting to a deaf woman in Mexico. We are communing through the internet.… Read more
Interview: Rachael Stirling – happy with her lot
It’s noisy here in the bar at the Old Vic; the air is teeming with thespy gossip and laughter and clinking glasses. It’s noisy here in the bar at the… Read more
Into the blue
I am 15 metres deep, trying to make Darth Vader noises through my underwater breathing apparatus, when I see the manta ray. My word, it’s big: at least four metres… Read more
Blogs
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Obama’s Berlin speech was a damp squib
Can Barack Obama still pretend
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Porn damages everyone — not just children
Porn, porn, porn. One way
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The Pope, Welby, and the new evangelical swagger
There’s excitement in Christian circles
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Eight Golden Rules for Tragedy Tweeting
We’ve had a lot of
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Goodbye Alex Ferguson, and good riddance
Over the next few days,
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The suspiciously sudden rehabilitation of George W. Bush
Are we hearing the opening chords of
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Move over, Dawkins. The atheist spring of the last decade is wilting.
I couldn’t get Richard Dawkins to reply to
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Football, Thatcher and political hooliganism
It was never going to
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The political class’s new phobia: big families
After almost a week of
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The People’s Assembly is sound and fury signifying nothing
Haven’t you heard? Today is
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Already, Pope Francis is the victim of cheap journalistic smears
So the new Pope was
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What can we expect from Pope Francis?
Some striking facts about Pope
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Breaking: Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio is the new Pope
Oh, my God. It’s Cardinal
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Papal Conclave: would a result today mean Angelo Scola is Pope?
White smoke from the Vatican
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Will be the next Pope will be an Angelo?
Some wag has gone around
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Italian elections: anti-politics on amphetamines
Rome Italians go to the
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An Almighty diary clash?
Will the arrival of a
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Take the Vatican ‘Gay Mafia’ talk with a pinch of holy salt – for now
A rather feverish mood around
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David Cameron should have read Hilary Mantel’s essay before criticising it
How stupid of David Cameron to
Latest blogs
- Obama’s Berlin speech was a damp squib Freddy Gray
- PMQs sketch: In which Labour join the coalition Lloyd Evans
- Michael Gove kindly warns Stephen Twigg: people think you’re weak Isabel Hardman
- ‘Jihad!’ Douglas Murray
- The Tories are still flummoxed by social media Isabel Hardman
- The Supreme Court Mothballs the British Army Alex Massie
- Ed Miliband’s negative approach at PMQs looks set to become the norm James Forsyth
