The Spectator5 hours agoWhat’s wrong with national stereotypes?The Spectator - Druin BurchSaying that national generalisations have fallen out of fashion is an understatement. Stereotypes have become less common and less tolerated. But not all is unblemished improvement, and something of value has been lost. National generalisations – often misnamed racial – now veer close to thought …
The Spectator11 hours agoWhat Warfare gets wrong about IraqThe Spectator - Colin FreemanIn Alex Garland’s new film Warfare, one detail stakes the film’s claim to be the most honest depiction of combat yet. Not the severed foot left lying on an Iraqi street after a bomb blast, nor a wounded US soldier’s screams as a medic bandages up what is left of his leg. Instead, it is that …
The Spectator12 hours agoThe frugal luxury of a pod hotelThe Spectator - Robin AshendenRight beside the airport I often use to fly home from Italy, there is a pod hotel where I am becoming a regular client. These, as most will know, are dirt-cheap places where sleep is stripped down to its absolute core. For about £35 a night here, you get a tiny berth of a room – a ‘capsule’ about …
The Spectator1 day agoFarewell to the Fleet Street I lovedThe Spectator - Ruth BloomfieldFilthy, foetid and fraught with danger. A magnet for hooligans, hard drinkers, a few saints and plenty of sinners. And that was Fleet Street before the newspapers moved in. Most popular Flora Watkins Why the middle classes are giving up on skiing Debbie Hayton The truth about trans rights in …
The Spectator1 day agoDid Terry Pratchett really write classics?The Spectator - Alexander LarmanThe news that Terry Pratchett’s 2002 novel Night Watch has joined the ranks of the Penguin Modern Classics series may seem, to the Pratchett uninitiated, something of an eyebrow-raiser. Penguin has proudly announced that the book ‘which draws on inspirations as far ranging as Victor Hugo …
The Spectator1 day agoAn ode to my old NokiaThe Spectator - Nicholas ClairmontMy decade-long relationship with my Nokia 6820 belonged to a simpler time – but are iPhones really an improvement?
