Simon Heffer's Blog, page 16

Nicola Sturgeon takes political fantasy to new heights

I t was courteous of our new Prime Minister, within hours of her coronation, to visit Edinburgh to see Scotlands First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon. Mrs Sturgeon, who we are routinely assured is a consummate politician who positively demands our unequivocal admiration, did not repay that courtesy. Instead, she spent the...

Why the Victorians excelled at architecture

O ccasionally one sees a building that, through a combination of factors (design, obviously, but also setting, uniqueness, materials and scale), stops one in ones tracks. Structures such as the Taj Mahal, the Chrysler Building, Sydney Harbour Bridge, the pyramids, Mont Saint-Michel, the great temples of the Aztecs. And Britain...

Lord's showed why Test cricket is the greatest game on earth

W hy, when a Test match is as absorbing and fascinating as the one that finished at Lords on Sunday , is Test cricket said to be dying? The fluctuations of the game, its surprises, its shifts of fortune over four days were profoundly fascinating. Lords was packed.

Corbyn���s survival will guarantee the self-destruction of Labour

T he decision by Labours National Executive Committee to allow Jeremy Corbyn, un-nominated, on the ballot in the leadership election means the party as we know it will cease to exist.

The ECB must do more to develop England's spin culture

T he ease with which Yasir Shah went though the England batting on Friday afternoon certainly raised concerns about our middle order. But it also raised concerns about the range and capability of our bowling.

Mohammad Amir gets the silent treatment from well-behaved Lord's crowd

T he moment in this Test series that we had all been waiting for rather in the way that, in the 18th century, people would trot enthusiastically along to Newgate or Tyburn to watch a hanging or a flogging occurred early in the first session of play at...

England v Pakistan: Hosts must bat formidably to get anything out of first Test

A day of Test cricket can fall into one of three distinct categories exciting, absorbing, or tedious. There is sometimes a fine line between the last two, and Thursdays play at Lords from time to time stayed just on the right side of it. It threatened during the morning...

For the real smell of old Paris, watch a gangster film

F rench gangster films from the Fifties and Sixties are often said to be entirely derivative of their American forebears. But anyone who has watched James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart or George Raft in those films from the Thirties will notice little similarity between them and the French masterpieces, which is...

Andrea Leadsom is a Conservative every Brexiteer should want as Prime Minister

T ory members have an interesting choice when picking the new prime minister . Theresa May has extensive experience but backed Remain, though lacked the guts to campaign for it . A poor Home Secretary, she has failed to control non-EU immigration.

We���ve made the right choice, now let���s stop talking the country down

W e British once cherished the idea of the good loser. Michael Gove exemplified it in his gracious speech of defeat last Thursday. Sadly, the concept has bypassed a small, but vocal, minority whose outrage at the exercise of democracy by those they hold in utter contempt is boundless. In...