iapps
Kevin Pietersen needs a Graeme Smith
Having reached the summit of the Test cricket rankings by thoroughly outplaying England in three matches that flew largely under the radar due to events in east London, South Africa… Read more
25 August 2012
The Olympics may be over — but is another gold medal in the pipeline for Team GB? At the time of writing, the England Women are battling it out with… Read more
Grand prix
London’s newest and most flamboyant chess entrepreneur, Andy Paulson of Agon, which has acquired all World Championship rights from Fidé, is set to stage a spectacular Grand Prix tournament at… Read more
The worst result
This week, the GCSE results envelope landed on doormats across the country. The results ought, on any rational basis, to shame the nation. Never mind how well or badly pupils… Read more
Christopher Booker
When in 2009 I published a book called The Real Global Warming Disaster it provoked contrasting responses from two members of the royal family. Prince Charles, protesting that he was… Read more
25 August 2012
Home After being granted asylum by Ecuador, Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, addressed a crowd of supporters from a balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy, to which he had fled… Read more
Vitruvius on rail franchising
Ever since nationalisation was invented in the 19th century, private franchising (e.g. the West Coast Main Line) has raised the question: why should private business profit from a public service which the state ‘should’… Read more
25 August 2012
A place for sport Sir: Many of us in the education world are baffled by the political furore over school sports fields. Harris Federation runs 13 academies, largely in tight… Read more
No laughing matter
It’s a brave soul who buys a cinema ticket at this time of year, when all the studios try to bury their rubbish, and it’s a brave soul who buys… Read more
Lost in the smoke
Imagine, for a moment, you were in charge of cutting Australia’s already quite low smoking rate. Would you a) spend a vast amount of time and treasure attacking the packaging… Read more
Diary Australia 25 August 2012
I fly to China with Cathay Pacific, the largest shareholder of which is the British based Swire Group. The Swire Group and Jardine Matheson have survived for around 200 years… Read more
25 August 2012
One of the grave concerns of parents is bullying at school, that unbearable circumstance in which good, hard-working students are harassed and bashed by ferals in the playground. Instead of… Read more
Mr Bean goes to Ecuador
When they come to make the inevitable tele-movie about the Assange affair, may we recommend that Sacha Baron Cohen play the part of Ecuadorean despot, sorry, er, president Rafael Correa… Read more
25 August 2012
Broomstick, the reflections of Dame Leonie Kramer on her life and times, does not begin at the start of her brilliant career but at the end — or at least… Read more
25 August 2012
You may have been wondering what I have been doing over the past few months when I should have been writing in The Spectator Australia. Well, at long last I… Read more
How a centre-right politican wins
Bunting, banners, and balloons are now rolling into Tampa, Florida by the truckload in preparation for next week’s Republican National Convention. The convention marks the close of a bruising year-long… Read more
Bourne again
Seriously, what has Hollywood got against wolves at the moment? First there was last year’s The Grey, which saw a bearded Liam Neeson stalked across Alaska by a pack of… Read more
Glorious Grieg
Eternally fresh. That’s how Grieg’s Piano Concerto is described by programme notes, Classic FM, etc. Though, to be honest, eternally stale is nearer the mark. No 19th-century warhorse has been… Read more
Walk on the wild side
A good title works wonders at the Edinburgh Fringe. Oliver Reed: Wild Thing (Gilded Balloon) has a simple and succinct name that promises excitement, drama and celebrity gossip. And it… Read more
Double vision
If you were to condense everything that was most quintessentially English about quintessential Englishness — from the green man and morris dancing to Vaughan Williams and The Whitsun Weddings —… Read more
Latest blogs
- Why, once again, a fall in student immigration is good Andrew Green
- Sally Bercow libelled Lord McAlpine, High Court rules Steerpike
- The British paedophile who’s still on the run James Kirchick
- Revive the Snooper’s Charter? It’s already obsolete David Blackburn
- Jesse Norman interview: Edmund Burke, our chief of men JP O'Malley
- Lee Rigby named as victim of Woolwich attack Sebastian Payne
- The friendless Help-to-Buy scheme Isabel Hardman
