Columns
I’m a culture war addict
Reading Melissa Lawford’s excellent analysis in the Sunday Telegraph, ‘Putin can’t afford peace – Russia’s economy is hooked on war’,…
The weakness of Donald Trump
Forgive the mordant tone, but this article was written in a desolate post-industrial nightmare girdled by diversionary roads going nowhere…
The reformation of the Labour party
The world order has shifted on its axis, having been given a peremptory boot by the US President. What is…
A trap for the right
On Thursday 16 August 1739, the young John Wesley met and for an hour argued with the middle-aged Bishop of…
What Europe gets wrong about the far right
The head of America’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ (Doge) has written to all federal workers in the US asking them…
The engagement vs isolation debate returns
British foreign policy has always oscillated between isolation and engagement. The division has shaped Conservative thinking over generations. The archetypal…
Who’d dare join the SAS now?
We should all feel scared to our bones about the persecution of the SAS, soldiers harried through the courts for…
Starmer’s Scottish headache
What does a party get after nearly two decades in office, collapsing public services, an internal civil war and a…
It’s time to scrap the asylum system
Whatever you think of the blizzard of executive orders howling from the White House, at least the new President doesn’t…
Keep Britain blasphemous
In its infinite wisdom, the Labour government appears to be reconsidering the introduction of a blasphemy law in the UK.…
J.D. Vance didn’t go far enough on Europe
In January last year the European Union revealed that it had dreamed up a ‘secret plan’ to sabotage the economy…
Je suis Andrew Gwynne
How do you like your members of parliament? Do you prefer them to be vacuous automatons devoid of wit, humour…
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…
