All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Watching the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh at the weekend — that Land Rover, that lack of eulogy — I felt an alien emotion steal over me. Shortly after the last blast of the bagpipes faded away, I realised what it was: I’d like to be like that. Amusingly, the only person this working-class
But Twitter activists and Democrats insist it’s another George Floyd incident
Just outside of city centers the pandemic is hardly visible
Richard Dawkins – the biologist, humanist, and author – is a well-known critic of religious faith. As he once put it, ‘Religion is capable of driving people to such dangerous folly that faith seems to me to qualify as a kind of mental illness.’ Traditional religion may have loosened its grip on society, certainly in
The prosecution introduced a substantial case against Chauvin. The defense case was thin and weak
The jury returned guilty verdicts on all three counts
Is our system only just if a jury returns a verdict the President thinks is the ‘right’ one?
He invented the modern vice presidency. But was he too honest for the White House?
Voters understandably doubt Biden’s Catholic convictions
What was once a women’s health and abortion rights group has become an interchangeable cog in the progressive machine
The facts of any one case are by the by.
The best available evidence suggests that a sizable chunk of published psychological findings may be false
‘Putin is a murderer,’ read the signs carried by protestors outside the Russian Embassy in Prague on Sunday. On Saturday night, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš stunned the Czech Republic by stating that evidence now links Russian GRU secret agents to a massive explosion which killed two people at an arms depot near the Moravian village
The war has exposed US military primacy as a chimera
Suga is a prickly character, with limited people skills and little experience in foreign affairs
The Lugano convention – part of a tapestry of complicated international law agreements ensuring the courts of one country recognise the courts of another – has a dull name but it matters a great deal. Since the EU referendum, the convention has played a small role in the great internecine conflict between Britain and Brussels.
The media has mastered the art of the thinly sourced bombshell — soon followed by the subtle retraction
The proposed voting reforms are ‘racist’ solely in the eyes of those who spot racism in throat-clearings and dog toys
In search of wisdom about how an officious government reluctantly relaxes its grip after an emergency, I stumbled on a 1948 newsreel clip of Harold Wilson when he was president of the Board of Trade. It’s a glimpse of long-forgotten and brain-boggling complexity in the rationing system. ‘We have taken some clothing off the ration
The files arrived marked ‘STRICT EMBARGO’ and ‘CONFIDENTIAL’ and ‘FORTH BRIDGE REVISED’ and stamped with various crests and insignia. My dog Mot was intrigued and sniffed the stack warily. I have a few days to ingest this mass of information — ceremonial detail, armed forces involvement, order of service, processional arrangements, musical selections, historical precedent,
White to play. Van Wely–Shimanov, March 2021. White has several tempting options here, but one move is much stronger than the rest. Which one? Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 19 April. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address and
As I’ve written before, the thing I’ve missed the most in the past 12 months is going to see QPR with my son Charlie. So I’m alarmed about the prospect of having to produce a ‘Covid status certificate’ every time I want to go to a game. That was the advice in a recent letter
Washington, DC The Democratic party is dying. That may be hard to believe since Democrats control both houses of Congress and won the last presidential election with a record 81 million votes. But the exiguous margins of their hold on the House and Senate, with fewer than 51 per cent of the seats in either
The west end of London is still pale and necrotic, but there are points of light. Hatchards the bookseller is open and its memorial to the Duke of Edinburgh is relatively, blissfully, restrained: a portrait in the window, with minimal text for a writer to trip up on his own sycophancy. People are buying whisky
The unclued lights (two of two words) are of a kind, verifiable in Brewer. Across 4 High-handed relation in discussion first (11)11 This amphibian would need Marvel to make vanilla ice cream (9)12 Auxiliary doctor taking pulse (5)14 Ancient Glaswegian notice covering centre of Mull (4)15/38 Office facility managed 25C (6, two components)19 Nothing
Q. Our neighbours have a tennis court which, under the property’s previous owner, we enjoyed playing men’s fours on. The new owner is very welcoming and friendly. The problem (without sounding conceited, I hope) is that he is not up to the standard of the rest of us in the village who would like to
So wickets are out and outs are in for the new Hundred competition. But why? The language of sport is a beautiful thing, even in the hands of a pub bore. Why is it a try in rugby, when you have to touch the ball down, and a touchdown in American football, when you don’t?
One of my favourite things on British Muslim TV is Ask the Alim. An alim is a learned expert in the law. He’ll answer anything, live. The 2020 Best Bits highlights programme included a question about divorce. Can a man take back a woman he has divorced? Good question. It depends whether the divorce is
In some cases, conversations about potential voter fraud can provide greater clarity
The blue-checks seem desperate to fan the flames of racial hatred
Why politicians, pundits and ‘experts’ don’t want COVID to end
The politics of relocating pups
The Biden era is much like the Trump era — you just hear more cant from the leadership
The drug war remains a sensitive topic for the administration
