Features
Why I fear for my daughter
To listen to many disability pressure groups, adult social care for people with learning disabilities is being slashed by a heartless government. What few of them want to tell you,… Read more
The Russian desecration of London
Now that his old arch-enemy, Boris Berezovsky, has bitten the dust, Roman Abramovich can devote his full attention to another bête noire — London’s terraced houses. In his £10 million… Read more
Celebrity fun vs scared joy
Easter is the season of rebirth and renewal. It is hard to renew ourselves, not because we are weak and tempted only, but because our pleasure-seeking culture pours scorn on… Read more
The boat race protester’s prison notebook
If the weather had been this foul at the time of the last Oxford-Cambridge boat race, I might not have found myself in the middle of the River Thames, or… Read more
Why do people talk nonsense in public
There’s something about the word located that makes me want to slit throats. Not that I’m a naturally furious chap, not a bit of it. But located makes me want… Read more
Beauty, philanthropy and Auckland Castle
Three years ago, on an Ignatian retreat in Wales, two of the staff were taken ill — a priest and a kitchen maid, Maria. At Eucharist, we were given regular… Read more
Why The Spectator won’t sign the Royal Charter
Whatever else is said about David Cameron’s hand-ling of press regulation, there can be no doubt that the deal he struck on Monday demonstrated masterful sleight of hand. Just days… Read more
Wingless Words
Let us praise poets who are not afraid of Therefore – or of other wingless words that do what they are told, and nothing more. The shiny words fly in… Read more
Gary Kemp on David Bowie, Margaret Thatcher, and joining the establishment
There was a funny gaffe on Radio 4 the other day, when the newsreader announced that Hitler’s favourite architect Albert Speer had been banged up in ‘Spandau Ballet’. Cue a… Read more
Satan is back
It used to be said by Catholic priests back in the 1950s that the Devil was delighted when human beings decided that he did not exist. In those days it… Read more
From Cockney to Jafaican
My mother always had a keen ear for slang and lazy pronunciation when I was growing up. Because my siblings and I were working class and attended an absolutely dreadful… Read more
‘I was detained as a potential suicide bomber’
To the Lahore Literary Festival. As I cross the border from India, Pakistan is experiencing an unprecedented wave of sectarian violence: 400 Shias have been killed in bomb attacks this… Read more
Travel: Ireland’s wild west
The problem with writing about the Burren is that there’s no consensus about where it is. Different people have different ideas. On my first trip there, I plaintively asked a… Read more
Travel: Dublin, comeback city
The boom and bust have left their mark on Dublin. Cruising through the outskirts past the (industrial) estate of Sandyford — flimsy-looking buildings, each as nastily designed as the last… Read more
Bribe, Cut and Run: Britain's retreat from Afghanistan
Retreating from Afghanistan has never been a task at which the British military has excelled. Our first incursion in 1839 resulted in the wholesale massacre of an entire division, save… Read more
Afghanistan withdrawal: Sherard Cowper-Coles on what the Soviets did right
History doesn’t show us only mistakes to avoid. It also gives us examples of success to be emulated. We would do well to study the way in which the Soviet… Read more
Christopher Hitchens’s lefty publisher begged from him – and then betrayed him
Before the crash of 2007, as aid agencies were asking the governments of what we once called ‘the rich world’ to wipe out poor countries’ debts, Christopher Hitchens received a… Read more
Can animals really be gay?
Last week, at the select committee on the same-sex marriage bill, a lawyer for the Christian Institute revealed that a teacher had been disciplined for refusing to read to her… Read more
The Queen, the Commonwealth and the electric heater
Since many people are barely aware of its existence, I was pleased to see Commonwealth Day enjoying a splash of media attention this week. It was, of course, because the… Read more
Kenya election: bullets and the economic boom
The bandit opened fire at me from a distance of about six feet. He rose out of darkness and pumped three bullets into my car as I drove slowly through… Read more
Latest blogs
- Will Nigel Farage and UKIP help ditch Alex Salmond? Alex Massie
- Cameron’s tax tightrope Isabel Hardman
- Dangerous romance – Clever Girl by Tessa Hadley Aime Williams
- MPs defeat ‘wrecking amendment’ as Cameron tries to patch things up with grassroots Isabel Hardman
- David Cameron should be out there making the case for gay marriage James Forsyth
- A point of order, Your Royal Highness Steerpike
- William Hague: Case for changing arms embargo on Syria ‘compelling’ Isabel Hardman
