Columns
How the right can fight Burnham
Andy Burnham has not yet entered No. 10, but the Conservatives and Reform are already preparing for the possibility of…
Burnham’s worryingly vague vision for Britain
Once again the question occurs: ‘Why do they want it?’ Keir Starmer held a very important role in the legal…
The death of two-party politics has been greatly exaggerated
Every twist in the winding road of our politics brings a latest thing to say. These wisdoms usually survive a…
‘It’s going to make Liz Truss look like a savant’: Are you ready for Burnham’s first Budget?
If I were Andy Burnham, I’d be terrified about the inheritance Keir Starmer has left. Yet instead of stepping gingerly…
Will the Iran deal destroy J.D. Vance?
When it comes to foreign policy, Donald Trump is neither hawk nor dove. He’s a dealmaker who plays differing sides…
Revealed: the Green plot against Zack Polanski
As Keir Starmer struggles to keep his crown, another leadership battle is raging. Away from the media spotlight, there is…
The radical left will regret embracing political violence
What are the circumstances in which it is right to smash up a building? When might one justifiably destroy an…
The New York Times’s twisted reporting of Henry Nowak’s murder
Last week’s headline in the New York Times was obfuscating: ‘In the UK, a Violent Cycle: Hateful Attacks, Right-Wing Agitation…
‘Rupert Lowe turns up for work; Nigel Farage doesn’t’: an interview with Kemi Badenoch
There was a moment backstage, before I interviewed Kemi Badenoch for a Spectator event this week, when I felt like…
In defence of two-tiering
What has been remarkable about Henry Nowak’s case was not the story itself, tragic though it is, but the potency…
Beware the ‘matrescence’ con
Every so often, a fashionable new concept is born. Witness the arrival of ‘matrescence’, which, for the uninitiated, is a…
Are we allowed to feel angry yet?
I get the sense that the political and media class badly miss Katie Hopkins. Back when the reality TV star…
Save us from the Gospel according to Grok
The Rt Revd Martyn Snow, the handsome and up-to-date Bishop of Leicester, has decided that it’s OK, even admirable, for…
Revealed: the missing Mandelson messages
Darren Jones has become the government’s Walter Model, the general known during the second world war as ‘the Führer’s fireman’…
Kemi gives me hope
I had a notion the other day that there was possibly more I could offer to this fleeting world. A…
Who fancies a pint in Rachel Reeves’s ideal pub?
Even the most gormless of Labour politicians don’t try to persuade the electorate that taxation is a privilege – a…
The lessons from Henry Nowak’s murder
I wonder how many readers have ever heard of the name Kriss Donald? The young Glaswegian was just 15 years…
Reform’s strange balancing act
Nothing illustrates the challenge facing Reform UK better than the strained interview Danny Kruger gave to the Today programme on…
Might Restore scupper Reform?
I was as appalled as I dare say many of you to discover that Reform’s candidate in the forthcoming Makerfield…
When did Sturgeon first notice her husband’s kleptomania?
What would you say if your spouse bought a luxury campervan? I know what I would say – something along…
Pity Andy Burnham
There is something infinitely melancholy in hearing what political ambition does to perfectly nice people. I awoke on Monday to…
The rise of the child-haters
On Petersfield station, southbound side, there’s a huge billboard advertising a tropical holiday with a photo of a beautiful couple…
Kemi has saved herself – but can she save the Tories?
Instinct matters in politics. Overthink and you can underperform. Try to box too clever and you get punched in the…
My encounters with Wes Streeting
The Labour party seems to have ignored the advice I gave it in last week’s column, and so we are…
The secret shame of being ‘Reform-curious’
As a sucker for any melody which relies heavily upon fourth and eighth notes hammered out on a piano, I…
