Camilla Swift

This piece is from the new issue of Spectator Money, out on Thursday 19 May. The magazine will come free with your next copy of The Spectator, and will also be available to read online at spectator.com/money. The Conservative party’s Black and White Ball is a lavish, billionaire-laden affair. Tickets can cost up to £1,500, with

The RSPCA over the last decade has – many would say – lost its way, bogged down in a mess of private prosecutions against honest members of the public instead of focusing on real animal welfare issues. But could the charity be about to do a U-turn? In an interview with the Telegraph their new chief executive,

Election results day a good day to bury bad news — who’d have thought it? Fortunately for people living in rural areas, the bad news wasn’t buried as well as the government might have hoped: it turns out the Conservatives have changed their tune a little on their plans to roll out decent levels of broadband across

Last Saturday, on 2 April, 9-year-old Bonnie Armitage was killed by a kick from a horse. This tragic accident could have happened anywhere – at the yard, at a pony club camp, on a fun ride – but as it happened, it was at the closing meet of the Cotswold Hunt.  This last aspect of the accident

Pol Roger have a long history of sponsoring exciting, and sometimes somewhat eccentric events – from real tennis to horse racing. But the company are also staunch supporters of country sports, so it makes perfect sense for the champagne house to turn their hand to three-day eventing. This year they have decided to sponsor Burghley

The RSPCA have been in a fair pickle for a while now. It had been without a CEO for two years – after their last one, Gavin Grant, stepped down citing health reasons – until two weeks ago when they announced that Jeremy Cooper, (formerly chief executive of the charity’s ethical food label) would be

As Nigel Farndale wrote in this magazine in February, leaving the EU would have a dramatic effect on British farmers and the agricultural industry. When it comes to British agriculture, the EU very much sets the rules – with regards to both regulations and funding – so a vote for Brexit would mean change, in

Anders Behring Breivik – the Norwegian extremist who killed 77 people in 2011 – has for the last few days been involved in a human rights trial in his prison in the south of Norway. Many would argue that, for a person in jail, he has a fairly cushy life – particularly given his crime.

Is political correctness a good thing or a bad thing? As Simon Barnes writes in this week’s magazine, he used to think that people should be free to use whatever words they wanted to, in pursuit of truth and meaning. But having a son with Down’s syndrome has changed his mind. Now, he has seen the benefits that

On my first night in Christchurch, I woke at 3.32 a.m. to what felt like an explosion. My bed was rocking, and a few things fell off the shelves. After my initial panic, I realised what it was: an earthquake, of course. The next question: what to do? Being an earthquake virgin, I had no

I’ll willingly admit that the moors of south-west England are not my natural territory. Mention the word ‘Dartmoor’ and my immediate thoughts are of scruffy, sturdy ponies and a giant bog. But then I boarded a train to Exeter to spend two days crossing said bog on horseback, and my whole perception changed. Yes, there

How much do you love your dog? Do you secretly wish, as he or she grows older, that you could have another just the same? I’ll bet that tens of thousands of Brits feel this way — and soon their dreams could come true. When most of us last thought about it, cloning was an

Much has been written in these pages – both by Robin Oakley and myself – about the lack of female jockeys in racing. But every single time the topic is raised, the same argument pops up: that women simply can’t compete with men because they ‘aren’t strong enough’. But yesterday Michelle Payne proved them all wrong, by