Matthew Parris

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

When righteous anger goes wrong

4 November 2023 9:00 am

From abroad I’ve returned to a country where, in language to which the word ‘shrill’ hardly does justice, fellow British…

The four big questions our politicians need to answer

21 October 2023 9:00 am

Anyone would think (anyone, that is, who has followed our three main annual party conferences this autumn) that Britain’s principal…

The folk wisdom that’s just wrong

7 October 2023 9:00 am

I was only a boy when I first began protesting against the idiocy of so much of the folk wisdom…

Australia’s disastrous indigenous voice referendum

23 September 2023 9:00 am

My partner and I have just returned from the most magical trip. As guests of Western Australia’s tourist board we’ve…

Britain has an entitlement problem

9 September 2023 9:00 am

An Institute for Fiscal Studies paper, published at the end of last month, makes grim reading. Through the prism of…

The hypocrisy of Nigel Farage’s supporters

12 August 2023 9:00 am

Much heartened by the barrage of criticism I’ve been receiving from both Spectator and Times readers, I’m returning to the…

In defence of Coutts

29 July 2023 9:00 am

Dame Alison Rose should not have resigned as head of NatWest over the Nigel Farage affair – and ministers who…

Don’t write off Rishi

15 July 2023 9:00 am

Were I sure this was about me alone, I’d hardly bother to mention it: but I may be typical of…

Our God complex

1 July 2023 9:00 am

Pantomime is meant to be silly and perhaps superficial, but fun. One does not (for example) join an audience for…

Why Conservatives must get behind Rishi

17 June 2023 9:00 am

The hubbub about Boris Johnson is blocking the view. He is, of course, an easy and undemanding topic of conversation.…

Price caps are a slippery slope

3 June 2023 9:00 am

Sometimes it’s the little things that depress most. I groaned last week to hear the news item. The government is…

Could Derbyshire survive on its own?

20 May 2023 9:00 am

Since at least the beginning of this century there has been a mood abroad – cultural as well as political…

On looking without seeing

6 May 2023 9:00 am

Guadix is a windy, dusty town on the slopes of the dry side of the massive ridge that is the…

The problem with St Paul

22 April 2023 9:00 am

On Easter Saturday, I wrote for the Times about the victimhood of Christ, describing this as a regrettable foundation for…

My messiah complex

8 April 2023 9:00 am

In June 1999, I described on this page jameitos, tiny, blind, albino crabs on the sea bottom in a cave…

What I’ve learned from a lifetime of travelling

25 March 2023 9:00 am

In the language of the Mapuche people of Patagonia, futa (I’m told) means ‘river’ and leufú means ‘big’. So Spanish–speaking…

Why ‘safe routes’ to asylum can’t work

11 March 2023 9:00 am

I have never met Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, but I have not the least doubt…