Columns
Can Starmer control his party?
Labour MPs ought to have been jubilant when they gathered for their weekly all-party parliamentary meeting on Monday. Most were…
Arise, Sir Gareth!
I detected a degree of surprise among those people who were uncommonly cheered by Sir Keir Starmer’s election victory that…
Could Ukrainians ever trust a Putin peace deal?
Last week at the Buxton International Festival I joined a big audience for an onstage interview with Anna Reid. She’s…
The cognitive dissonance of the Democrats
Believe it or not, I planned to write the gist of this column before Saturday night. However, a caveat. Unlike…
The new dark age
We have entered a new dark age. I’m not just referring to the situation in Britain since last week. Though…
The great bee-smuggling scandal
The principal concerns of the electors vary rather more widely than the pollsters and pundits would suggest. One man in…
Who will lead the Tories next?
Rishi Sunak performed a mea culpa when his shadow cabinet convened on Monday, taking full responsibility for the election loss.…
Why was Jeremy Hunt SHOUTING AT ME?
Robert Jenrick, once immigration minister and still, just, MP for Newark, said on Sunday that the Tories lost not because…
Biden is as big a narcissist as Trump
The dullest assertion you can make about Donald Trump is that he’s a narcissist who has no interest in the…
The Tories have only themselves to blame
I was amused the other week to read George Osborne’s Diary in this magazine. In it the man now in…
History will judge Rishi Sunak kindly
Memorably sweeping statements tripping easily from the tongue have a habit of worming their way into assumptions we make and…
‘I have to forge my own path’: Rachel Reeves on her plans for the economy
Outside a café on the outskirts of Reading, Rachel Reeves is listening to the concerns of small-business owners. ‘Something that…
Calm down, it’s a joke
I have never been a contributor to Twitter, partly because my comments would not be subjected to the intensive hygiene…
David Tennant’s pride and prejudice
As all non-bigoted readers will know, this is the holy and most ancient month of Pride. The time of year…
What’s the worst that can happen for the Tories?
When Rishi Sunak stunned his cabinet colleagues by calling a snap election, they feared the worst. Fast forward a month…
Tory men! Terfs need you
Some of my good male friends, Tories, are sick of terfs. I can see it in their shifty eyes, in…
Milkshake me!
Nine days of campaigning to go and I haven’t been milkshaked yet. I’ve hung out near McDonald’s in the hope…
Cowards run our museums
For some while I have marvelled at the way in which artworks seem to have become the focus of hatred…
Tory voters want to punish their party – and themselves
For progressive onlookers abroad, the Labour landslide now projected next month will seem a cheerful counterweight to the EU parliamentary…
How to lose voters
During the 1983 general election, I campaigned every single day with great zeal and avidity. I knocked on quite literally…
Meet Surrey’s ‘M&S movers’
On a street in Camberley, Surrey, a pensioner stands in the doorway, rollers in her hair, staring with some bemusement…
Would you want Nigel Farage to marry your daughter?
The opposite of attraction is repulsion. Political commentary gives too little attention to a party’s (or leader’s) capacity to repel.…
There’s something very wrong with children’s history books
The first editor I worked for was Charles Moore and, like many of his old and ageing former staff, I…
The return of Douglas Alexander
It’s a sunny Friday afternoon in Gullane, an affluent seaside town on the Firth of Forth. For political campaigners, golden…
Why Britain isn’t following Europe rightwards
My father was fond of telling anyone who would listen that Britain would never entertain fascism because we all had…
