Clarissa Tan 
What Gove should know about Singapore schools
Excelliarmus! Why do East Asian children feel they can relate to Harry Potter? Because he wears glasses, like so many of them do. The fascination with British wizarding students extends… Continue reading
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François Hollande’s great haul of China
François Hollande has just completed his visit to China. The two great socialist nations more or less embraced: ‘I look forward to… working with you to make our relationship closer,… Continue reading
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Kim Jong-un is the least of Asia’s problems
This may look like just a photo of rather boring-looking suits being led by a placid Eastern monk through some Asian temple, but it’s created a furore in South Korea… Continue reading
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China’s GDP shock may be good for everyone in the long run
Is the Chinese economy for turning? The country has reported a ‘shock’ GDP growth of only 7.7 per cent for the fourth quarter. Yes, I know — if only Britain could… Continue reading
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North Korea nukes — China has a hell of a lot to answer for
Let us be clear — Beijing bankrolled this monster. As Kim Jong-un continues his bellicose bluster, now having moved a second missile to North Korea’s east coast, we cannot forget:… Continue reading
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Would you prefer to do business with the eurozone or China?
Does it really matter now whether the eurozone breaks up or not? The damage may already have been done, in terms of business confidence. A £10 billion bailout for Cyprus… Continue reading
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Do politicians know what they’re doing with the Royal Charter?
I witnessed my first-ever PMQs last week. It was, as my friend and Spectator colleague Isabel Hardman told me, not a raucous a PMQs as can usually be. Yet for… Continue reading
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The Spectator’s new Shiva Naipaul Prize winner
The Spectator is proud to announce it has a new Shiva Naipaul Memorial prize winner — Tara Isabella Burton. Tara’s dazzling travel essay about the town of Tbilisi greatly impressed… Continue reading
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Christmas story: Forever Christmas
Once upon a time, in a land so far away they had heard neither of Google nor of the iPhone 5, there lived a Queen so beautiful it almost hurt… Continue reading
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Boris in Bollywood
So Cameron is making his mark on the EU budget, Gove has caused a stir with his Leveson remarks, and Osborne is prepping for his Autumn Statement. No matter. As… Continue reading
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The indebted superpower: China
Not only the US, but China is gearing up to welcome a new President, in its case Xi Jinping. That’s not the only similarity between the two global powers. While… Continue reading
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Last chance for the Shiva Naipaul Prize 2012
Hilary Mantel recently won her second Booker Prize, having clinched two Bookers in a row, the latest for the second book of a planned trilogy – surely a first. As… Continue reading
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The Visit – Shiva Naipaul Prize, 2007
The 2007 Spectator/ Shiva Naipaul Memorial Prize was won by Clarissa Tan. The prize, named after the late Trinidadian author, is for ‘the most acute and profound observation of a culture… Continue reading
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When hunger strikes
How many of history’s great revolutions were sparked by sheer, human hunger? In 2008, global food prices spiked, with the cost of basic crops doubling. In the two years that… Continue reading
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The Robin Hood tax, unlike Olympic archery, won’t hit its target
The Robin Hood tax has galloped into France, and once again Britain is being pressured to introduce the same thing in its financial sector. It’s a thankless job defending the… Continue reading
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Be ‘unafraid’, Hilary Mantel tells Shiva Naipaul Prize contenders
Hilary Mantel has just been long-listed for the Booker Prize for Bring Up the Bodies, her brilliant follow-up to Wolf Hall, which netted the coveted Booker itself in 2009. We at The Spectator… Continue reading
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Everybody duck! It’s macho Merv
Just as Mervyn King, as Isabel flags in her blog, is being dragged into the Libor scandal, comes a truly remarkable article from the FT headlined ‘The bank that roared’.… Continue reading
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China’s economy runs out of gas
Today’s news on the Chinese economy – that growth has slowed for the sixth quarter running – is no big surprise: the question for months now has been whether China’s… Continue reading
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Even the Chinese aren’t buying the ‘Chinese model’
It’s immensely difficult to manage such a huge and complex country as China, we are constantly told by its mandarins. Indeed it is. Tens of thousands of Hong Kongers took… Continue reading
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Sir Mervyn and money-fixing
Is manipulating interest rates really as shocking to the Chancellor and the Governor of the Bank of England as they make it out to be? The Libor and Euribor fixing… Continue reading
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