Obituaries
Dying art
There’s nothing morbid about writing obituaries
Despite rumours to the contrary, the high-speed loco has left the drawing board
There’s a lot of negativity around HS2, and I sniff a Brexit connection. You might think Leave campaigners whose aim…
How is it where you live? A tale of two nations and a message for George
Upbeat or downbeat? I asked last month whether the mood where you live is energised by enterprise or demoralised by…
We must play the blame game over HBOS. How else will bankers learn?
‘Everyone remembers the names of Applegarth of Northern Rock and Goodwin of RBS, but history may judge the HBOS men…
The spectre haunting George Osborne
Rather more attention was paid last week to the strange position of George Osborne’s feet than to the dark shape…
All those boardroom codes still can’t catch rogues and incompetents
Sir Adrian Cadbury, who has died aged 86, is remembered as the author in 1992 of a first stab at…
Contagion of a different kind as Greece wriggles off the hook
The clear winner in the Greek crisis is the author of The Little Book of Negotiating Clichés, whose royalties must…
The surfer, the sailor and the horseman: prosperity is all about personal stories
The tectonic plates of economic life rumble and shift. As ever, market watchers are obsessed by big themes — and…
Highland star
Charles Kennedy remembered
The Spectator’s Notes
Who benefits from Prince Charles’s handshake with Gerry Adams? Not the victims of IRA violence, including the 18 soldiers who…
Remembering Raymond
Laughter, bird-watching and erudition with Raymond Carr
Cricket’s glorious dead
He’s a tall man, Kevin Pietersen, and he casts a long shadow. It loomed large over the Long Room at…
Switch over to the Greek debt drama: the final episode must be coming shortly
Bored with the election? Switch over to the Greek debt drama. In this week’s cliffhanger, silver-tongued finance minister Yanis Varoufakis…
End of the Rainbow
The golden age of pop music may be long gone, but the golden age of pop musicians’ obituaries is definitely…
Why this long-awaited FTSE100 peak deserves only a small cheer
The FTSE100 index has at last breached 7,000, surpassing its peak of 30 December 1999 and provoking moderate celebration among…
Just in time, Osborne answers Labour’s 50p tax trick with a bumper monthly surplus
Last week’s public borrowing and tax-receipt figures, headlined ‘Chancellor hails biggest monthly surplus in seven years’, received considerably less attention…
Put the water cannons on standby and your money on a swift Grexit
‘Will Greece exit the eurozone in 2015?’ Paddy Power was pricing ‘yes’ at 3-to-1 on Tuesday, with 5-to-2 on another…
Love, care and laughter
Remembering Candida Lycett Green
Why it’s right to criticise the newly dead
I could start by remarking that we should not speak ill of the dead, quoting the pertinent Latin phrase: de…
