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Melanie McDonagh

Melanie McDonagh

The Spectator

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BBC cuts / Bring back the radio licence

Were you devastated to hear that the consumer programme You and Yours is to be axed in the latest round of BBC cuts? Me neither. Nor The Artificial...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh

Bring back the radio licence

Were you devastated to hear that the consumer programme You and Yours is to be axed in the latest round of BBC cuts? Me neither. Nor The Artificial...

yesterday 20

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh

Christa Pike should be allowed to live

Coincidentally with the sad passing of Esther Rantzen who spent her last couple of years campaigning for assisted suicide, there’s just been an...

02.10.2026 20

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh

Christa Pike should be allowed to live

Coincidentally with the sad passing of Esther Rantzen who spent her last couple of years campaigning for assisted suicide, there’s just been an...

01.10.2026 10

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh

What would Orwell have made of the term ‘un-British’?

There are few adjectives more abused than ‘Orwellian’. Sometimes, though, there’s nothing for it but to resort to Politics and the English...

26.09.2026 30

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh

Should Andy Burnham really appoint C of E bishops?

Hmm. Any minute now, the Church Appointments (Repeal of Discriminatory Provision) Bill will remove the last religion-related constraints on Andy...

16.09.2026 30

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh

Civil war / Want to get on in society? Read an etiquette guide

A few weeks ago, an Irish Times columnist, Fintan O’Toole, wrote about receiving a copy of a 1930s book of etiquette issued by the Christian...

07.09.2026 20

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh

Civil war / Want to get on in society? Read an etiquette guide

A few weeks ago, an Irish Times columnist, Fintan O’Toole, wrote about receiving a copy of a 1930s book of etiquette issued by the Christian...

07.09.2026 20

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh

Want to get on in society? Read an etiquette guide

A few weeks ago, an Irish Times columnist, Fintan O’Toole, wrote about receiving a copy of a 1930s book of etiquette issued by the Christian...

06.09.2026 20

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh

Gloria Steinem made feminism slick – and dishonest

So, it’s farewell to Gloria Steinem at the astonishing age of 92: the feminist whose most striking attribute to those outside the movement was that...

05.09.2026 20

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh

The tragedy of Jason Arday

Simon Baron-Cohen, the distinguished Cambridge autism specialist, has been speaking movingly about his friend, Jason Arday, in a BBC radio interview....

15.08.2026 40

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh

The tragedy of Jason Arday

Simon Baron-Cohen, the distinguished Cambridge autism specialist, has been speaking movingly about his friend, Jason Arday, in a BBC radio interview....

15.08.2026 40

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh

Has the hounding of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor gone too far?

God, the avenging Furies had nothing on the Jeffrey Epstein industry when it comes to the pursuit of its quarry. The latest instalment in the ongoing...

10.08.2026 40

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh

Exhibitions / Bring back the old Tube seat designs!

Enid Marx once pondered ‘whether postage stamps are fine or industrial art. In my view the question rests on the quality of a design rather than its...

05.08.2026 50

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh

Bring back the old Tube seat designs!

Enid Marx once pondered ‘whether postage stamps are fine or industrial art. In my view the question rests on the quality of a design rather than its...

30.07.2026 50

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh

Therapy is a silent haircut

You know what I want with a haircut? Silence. I want the hairdresser to keep his or her eyes on the scissors and not get distracted by conversation. I...

22.07.2026 50

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh

They don’t make broadcasters like Ed Stourton any more

There’s something more poignant about the death of Ed Stourton, which was announced today, than the passing of a decent man. He was that of course,...

20.07.2026 50

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh

Is forced adoption any more barbaric than abortion?

There was a moving and unusual display of unity in the Commons on Thursday when the Prime Minister apologised on behalf of the nation to the mothers...

03.07.2026 50

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh

Andy Burnham’s half-baked Catholicism

‘Catholic by upbringing but not particularly religious’ is how Andy Burnham described his religion to the Huffington Post in 2015. He will...

29.06.2026 70

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh

Did fears about homophobia prevent Preston Davey from being saved?

Poor baby Preston didn’t have much of a start in life. His mother Sarah, now 42, was jailed aged 14 for the 1998 torture and murder of a pensioner....

16.06.2026 50

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh

Three cheers for the new illustration museum

In the artistic pecking order, illustration long languished behind what were seen as the fine arts, even though it was the one art form that most of...

11.06.2026 50

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh

Museums / Three cheers for the new illustration museum

In the artistic pecking order, illustration long languished behind what were seen as the fine arts, even though it was the one art form that most of...

11.06.2026 40

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh

What have they done to Tom & Jerry?

Time was you knew where you were with Tom and Jerry. He chases the mouse; catches the mouse; the mouse gets away; Tom is flattened, gets up dazed but...

21.05.2026 50

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh

The art of flowers

Multisensory exhibitions are old hat, but in the case of In Bloom – How Plants Changed Our World at Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum, it feels just right...

18.05.2026 50

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh

Arts / The art of flowers

Multisensory exhibitions are old hat, but in the case of In Bloom – How Plants Changed Our World at Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum, it feels just right...

18.05.2026 50

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh

Monte Carlo isn’t glamorous

What does Monte Carlo conjure up? A glamorous casino where fortunes can be won and lost, but mostly lost? Men in evening dress at baccarat tables...

14.05.2026 50

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh

Monte Carlo isn’t glamorous

What does Monte Carlo conjure up? A glamorous casino where fortunes can be won and lost, but mostly lost? Men in evening dress at baccarat tables...

13.05.2026 40

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh

Oxford’s grand new building reveals the university’s misplaced priorities

The Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities in Oxford is well and truly open; there was an Open Day this weekend. It’s the product of a big donation of...

27.04.2026 50

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh

It’s hardly surprising that an Israeli soldier was caught desecrating a crucifix

There’s something apposite, I suppose, about the desecration of a crucifix. In this case, it was an Israeli soldier in southern Lebanon who took a...

21.04.2026 50

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh

Is it any wonder people don’t send letters?

Was there some failure of communication, do you think, when the Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky bought Royal Mail (with the full support of...

08.04.2026 50

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh

London’s St James’s is losing its soul

London is full of little ecosystems: areas that are distinctive by virtue of their purpose or history and where individual elements make up a sum...

04.04.2026 60

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh

Archbishop of Canterbury / Sarah Mullally makes me grateful to be a Catholic

Granted, I was not the most obvious person to appreciate the installation of Sarah Mullally in Canterbury, even though I think her a splendid...

29.03.2026 70

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh

Archbishop of Canterbury / Sarah Mullally makes me grateful to be a Catholic

Granted, I was not the most obvious person to appreciate the installation of Sarah Mullally in Canterbury, even though I think her a splendid...

28.03.2026 60

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh

The Church of England makes me grateful to be a Catholic

Granted, I was not the most obvious person to appreciate the installation of Sarah Mullally in Canterbury, even though I think her a splendid...

28.03.2026 60

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh

Non scents / Brussels is making your perfumes worse

‘Heliotropin,’ said the Frenchman mournfully. I was midway through lunch in Mayfair with Benoit Brosseau, whose father, Jean-Charles, created the...

27.03.2026 70

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh

Sarah Mullaly makes me grateful to be a Catholic

Granted, I was not the most obvious person to appreciate the installation of Sarah Mullaly in Canterbury, even though I think her a splendid Christian...

27.03.2026 60

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh

Brussels is making your perfumes worse

‘Heliotropin,’ said the Frenchman mournfully. I was midway through lunch in Mayfair with Benoit Brosseau, whose father, Jean-Charles, created the...

26.03.2026 70

The Spectator

Melanie McDonagh