Columns
Boris’s booster shot
The first full week of the new national lockdown had the potential to be very difficult for Boris Johnson. Although…
It’s shameful how we have treated our elderly
There’s a lot I don’t know about care home visits during this pandemic. I don’t know how straightforward it would…
Nous sommes tous Emily in Paris – why can’t we admit it?
A frothy new drama called Emily in Paris arrived on Netflix last month. Starring Lily Collins — daughter of Phil…
This lockdown is much riskier
Keir Starmer has his first attack line of the next general election campaign. He will say that England’s second lockdown…
There is no Santa Claus, Sir Patrick
It seems, then, that this latest lockdown has been instigated simply to protect two very questionable institutions — the National…
America sails into the unknown
Washington, DC On election day in the capital there is no thrill in the air, but there is a sound:…
Why I’m ducking the Rashford debate
Moments arrive when it becomes clear you’re losing the zeitgeist. Whatever might be the spirit of the era, you don’t…
Make America boring again
I just spent £2.50 in postage to bring about one of the last things I want. Specifically, the next-to-last thing…
The morality of free school meals
The main problem with the government giving in over free school meals during the holidays — other than that it…
What will post-pandemic politics look like?
A few days ago, I came across a group of Tory MPs in a House of Commons corridor looking rather…
The Hay festival’s uneasy dance with the UAE
The Hay Festival, memorably described by Bill Clinton as ‘the Woodstock of the mind’, has, over the past couple of…
A crazy game of chicken
There’s a reason why No. 10 is always so inclined to ratchet up the tension in any given scenario. Downing…
Does anyone recognise David Hare’s Britain?
Having not watched television for nine months and already growing bored of the 1,000-piece jigsaw of General Alfredo Stroessner (part…
My week with the baying mob
Portland, Oregon In the days when you could still watch a nature documentary without feeling as if you were sitting…
There are no good choices for Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson used to be defined by his commitment to having his cake and eating it. But now he isn’t…
Covid has killed off our civil liberties
It started with smoking. The 1960s and 1970s saw little popular objection to legislation restricting advertisements by private companies purveying…
Get yourself to Sweden – while you still can
An idea gains ground that we shouldn’t go abroad any more: that the very act of travelling without urgent reason…
What I got wrong about lockdown
The news that residents of Liverpool are not allowed to visit any other cities in the UK is a hammer…
Veeps shall inherit the earth
In Pence and Harris, we are looking at the future of the Republican Party
The transatlantic mask divide
Should we wear our masks? The question has been on my mind as I have been battered that way and…
My pick for BBC chairman
There are two striking things about the new book, 100 Great Black Britons, which was compiled to celebrate the achievements…
Will the Abbey ring for Remembrance Day?
It took me several weeks, after returning to the Spectator office, to work out what was missing. It wasn’t the…
Why Boris has his hopes pinned on spring
In a non-Covid world, next week would be the Tory party conference. Boris Johnson would march on to the stage…
It isn’t always easy to give money away
I always felt sorry for my father, then president of a chronically strapped educational institution, for having ceaselessly to approach…
The memo Dominic Cummings never sent
There’s something about Dominic Cummings I will always like, and perhaps partly it’s the danger. I hardly know him well…
