Columns
Would Margaret Thatcher have joined Reform?
It is 50 years since Margaret Thatcher was elected Tory leader and at this week’s shadow cabinet meeting, Lord Forsyth…
Pride in Britain? It’s history
A poll out this week found that only 41 per cent of those aged 18 to 27 are proud to…
The truth about surrogate babies
I was a twin when I was born, but this was in the days before decent scans and proper neonatal…
Let Trump buy the Chagos Islands
Forgive me for returning in this column to Diego Garcia. The issue is too important to shrug aside: important not…
How I took on Microsoft’s AI – and won
‘This is an assault!’ I screamed in my study, oblivious to the fact that my husband had a guest downstairs.…
Could a Tory/Reform pact be looming?
In 1603, James VI managed to do what few thought possible. The self-styled first King of Great Britain succeeded in…
Well done to the Channel 4 halfwits
The number of people arriving here in small boats has increased since Sir Keir Starmer was elected Prime Minister on…
America has seen sense on aid. When will we?
The new administration in Washington has somewhat startled its critics by issuing a blizzard of executive orders during its opening…
How to solve a problem like the Chagos Islands
Very soon – as soon as the mutual courtesies now being exchanged between the new American President and his British…
The Tory party’s wannabe comeback kids
When a prime minister leaves No. 10, they usually discover the phone soon stops ringing. But there is at least…
My money-saving tips for Rachel Reeves
It is always upsetting to watch a woman enmired in distress and so I thought I might ride on my…
The hard truth about Britain’s soft power
How hard is your soft power? According to David Lammy, Britain’s soft power is so strong and underrated that he…
Don’t believe the ‘Believe Her’ movement
I never expected to have strong feelings for a member of Germany’s Green party, but I really do feel extremely…
Britain is losing friends – and making enemies
Whatever way you voted in 2016, I suspect that many of us have the same image of post-Brexit Britain. It…
Is Keir Starmer a lawyer or a leader?
Keir Starmer surprised his colleagues during his first week in power when he appointed his old friend Richard Hermer KC…
The truth about Southport
When I first saw the headline I was highly optimistic. Sir Keir Starmer had identified the threat to society posed…
Immigration’s theatre of the absurd
On the cusp of an almighty row over Trump’s planned mass deportations, let’s look to Europe for light relief. Last…
The answers Starmer must give
It will probably only damn me further in the eyes of many, but when I was a government minister I…
My guide to liberals
Last Saturday I was making my way across the road from St Pancras to King’s Cross when I noticed a…
The day DEI went up in smoke
What’s in a word? ‘Equality’. ‘Equity’. It’s the sort of thing that Channel 4 newsreaders find impossible to understand. Surely…
The inevitable rise of the divorce party
Have you been to a ‘divorce party’ yet this season? If you haven’t, not to worry, there’s still time. Divorce…
Why was everyone fooled by Rachel Reeves?
It is some time since I could claim any close acquaintance with the daily skirmishes of workaday Westminster. From risers…
‘We’re pretty bullish’: Farage’s plan to transform politics
‘We’ve had enough of living in two-tier Britain,’ bellows Nigel Farage to cheers from an 800-strong crowd at Chester’s Crowne…
Donald Trump and new political disorder
Donald Trump isn’t back in the White House yet, but already his victory is being felt across the world. Greenland…
Who’ll join my war against liberalism?
I can see one possible benefit of having a full inquiry into the almost exclusively Muslim grooming gangs who raped…
