Harriet Harman vs Socrates
Since apologising has recently been all the rage, refusing to apologise, as Harriet Harman has done over the NCCL’s connection…
Yanukovych vs Caligula
Tyrants never learn, do they? From Caligula through Gadaffi to the ex-Ukrainian prime minister Viktor Yanukovych, they rule not to…
Hadrian on the Somerset floods
Since the Somerset Levels are a flood plain, nature will flood it. Romans had no problems with that. Much of…
Rome’s student politics
Foreign students getting on to courses under false pretences, overstaying their welcome and so on are nothing new. Ask the Romans.…
Democritus on the 50p rate
What a song and dance about a tax rise affecting a minuscule proportion of the richest in society! Greeks would…
In our best interests
There is, apparently, an ‘obesity epidemic’ in the UK, such that two million people could benefit from weight-loss surgery. Ancient Greeks…
Rory Stewart’s big idea
In last week’s Spectator, Rory Stewart, MP for Penrith, was reported to be proposing that we should create in Britain…
Ovid on selfies
A ‘meme’ is ‘an idea, behaviour, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture, often by mimicry’.…
Why start in January?
The ancients were an inquisitive lot, a characteristic shown to best effect in works like Aristotle’s Problems (‘Why do sex-maniacs’…
While shepherds watched…
‘And lo, there were shepherds in the fields, watching over their flocks by night…’ Reading recently that it was…
Master charlatans at work
To watch the Revd Paul Flowers being grilled by the Treasury Select Committee on his role in the demise of…
Why slaves had it better in Rome
The grim tales of ‘modern slavery’ that are currently emerging across the UK make one wonder whether ancient Roman slavery…
Aristotle on the age of consent
Prime Minister Cameron has rejected the proposal that the age of sexual consent be reduced from 16 to 15, arguing…
Happiness in your own hands
On 21 November The Spectator is hosting a discussion about addiction — disease or choice? — and how we should…
Art history
‘Democracy has bad taste’, declared potter Grayson Perry in his Reith Lectures on the BBC about art. Tell that to…
Arbitration by hedgehog
Since trial by jury is so expensive, government is keen to cut costs on legal aid by ‘alternative dispute resolutions’…
Tyrannical sexual appetites
A new book about Colonel Gaddafi goes into shocking detail about his monstrous sexual appetites. He used rape as a…
Livy on Ed Miliband
What should we make of Ed’s support for his father Ralph against the Daily Mail? Livy’s life of Torquatus suggests…
The middle people
Party conferences always provide the most agreeable spectacle of politicians desperately trying to appeal to both the diehards among the…
Tacitus on Damian McBride
Damian McBride’s revelations about back-stabbing in Gordon’s imperial court raise a serious question: what was in it for him? The…
Pleb power
Momentarily banish thoughts of policemen on duty at the House of Commons, and picture a Roman pleb. You will probably…
Herodotus in Sochi
As a result of Russian laws against propagating homosexuality, there are calls to boycott the 2013 Winter Olympics in Sochi…
Notes on…Classic cruising
We arrive at the tiny Greek island of Sikinos on a blustery day, making landing rather difficult. Is there transport…
Vegetius vs Obama
So the USA must launch its onslaught against Syria without the Brits. Well, if Obama will make public announcements of…
Varro on The Apprentice
Budding businesswoman Luisa Zissman, with her A in A-level English, has enquired whether ‘Bakers Toolkit’ or ‘Baker’s Toolkit’ is correct.…
