Matthew Parris

Matthew Parris is a columnist for The Spectator and The Times.

In defence of first past the post

7 December 2024 9:00 am

Here comes a new law in political science: Joe’s Law. As I write, the Republic of Ireland is still working…

Am I alone in thinking?

23 November 2024 9:00 am

‘Et remarquant que cette vérité, je pense, donc je suis, était si ferme et si assurée, que toutes les plus…

In defence of the liberal elite

9 November 2024 9:00 am

You can hear it already. Rising from the tents of the dejected Democrat camp comes the whimper of self-reproach. It’s…

Do you like the century you’re in?

26 October 2024 9:00 am

Years ago Lord Patten of Barnes – Chris – was our guest for my Great Lives programme on BBC Radio…

The sugared-almond theory of economic consequence

12 October 2024 9:00 am

Let me ease you gently into a big and boring-sounding word for a small dishonesty that today corrupts the language…

Will AI make bricklayers better-paid than barristers?

28 September 2024 9:00 am

Old tortoise that I am, my head usually yanks back into my shell when people start talking about artificial intelligence.…

Why people would hate a property tax

14 September 2024 9:00 am

My friend Tim Leunig is a cerebral thinker of the best kind. Though not party-political, he has worked for Tory…

Afrikaners have been endlessly maligned

31 August 2024 9:00 am

This I began writing two weeks ago as an overnight guest in a cosy cabin on a farm beside an…

Could Ukrainians ever trust a Putin peace deal?

20 July 2024 9:00 am

Last week at the Buxton International Festival I joined a big audience for an onstage interview with Anna Reid. She’s…

History will judge Rishi Sunak kindly

6 July 2024 9:00 am

Memorably sweeping statements tripping easily from the tongue have a habit of worming their way into assumptions we make and…

Would you want Nigel Farage to marry your daughter?

22 June 2024 9:00 am

The opposite of attraction is repulsion. Political commentary gives too little attention to a party’s (or leader’s) capacity to repel.…

The moment Starmer lost control of the Labour left

8 June 2024 9:00 am

‘Tony Blair walks on water.’ Decades ago this statement led a Times photographer and me to the front door of…

Are ultra-processed foods really so bad?

25 May 2024 9:00 am

Last week saw a flurry of media reports, of whose headlines one of the worst preceded one of the best…

Save us from the plague of plastic tree protectors

11 May 2024 9:00 am

Can nothing protect us from a plague of plastic tree protectors? They’ve descended on us like locusts, covering our hills,…

Donating to charity is too easy

27 April 2024 9:00 am

It’s been a torrid few weeks for anyone who knows anyone who was running in the London Marathon. In have…

What is there left to say about the Tories?

13 April 2024 9:00 am

Spare a thought for us political commentators. We stare into the void between now and a (presumed) decisive Labour victory…

Euthanasia is coming – like it or not

31 March 2024 7:27 pm

Throughout the short life of the Assisted Dying Bill which failed in the Commons, the ‘faith community’ (a quaint term…