Columnists
What I expect from this pointless election
A general election is called and in a matter of hours a neutral and unbiased BBC presenter has likened our…
The Spectator’s notes
The fact that nothing leaked about Mrs May’s snap election tells you much of what you need to know about…
What message do Trump’s missiles really send?
Let me take this opportunity to join with our Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary in commending President Trump’s swift and…
A whistleblower mystery that illuminates the inner turmoil of the banking sector
What troubled places banks have become, I thought as I listened to two news stories, one concerning a formal reprimand…
Who dares face down the teenage gangsters?
The baby, unbothered by diesel fumes, enjoys an outing down the main road through London N1. Each passing bus is…
Give me the Anglican option
The Algerian government’s official tourist guide describes ‘the walled town of Beni Isguen — normally closed to foreigners — where…
If Trump’s listening to his generals, that’s great news for Britain
‘Great Britain has lost an Empire and not yet found a role’. Fifty-five years on, Dean Acheson’s remark has not…
The Spectator’s notes
Each Easter, I think of David Jones (1895-1974). He was a distinguished painter and, I would (though unqualified) say, a…
Let’s rein in Brexiteer triumphalism before we all go mad
According to archaeologists and all the papers last week, the 11th-century villagers of Wharram Percy, North Yorkshire, used to mutilate…
Britain’s most hated man isn’t all that hateful
‘Christ, I would be shot for buying this if people knew,’ says an anonymous fan in the comments below Amazon’s…
On balance, I’d vote for a rate rise and a stronger pound
Since Article 50 was triggered last week, City traders have been avidly watching the fluctuations of the pound. Analysts at…
You can take the liberal media bubble out of London…
An American woman started a website called ‘People I Want to Punch in the Throat’, in which she listed the…
The Spectator’s Notes
Cadbury and the National Trust stand accused of taking the Easter out of Easter eggs. The Trust’s ‘Easter Egg Trail’…
The mad, bad war on ‘cultural appropriation’
It’s usually best to ignore the indignant fury of the 21st-century young. We’re used to them now, these snowflakes, posing…
Our dangerous impulse to make sense of murder
‘On Friday noon, July the 20th, 1714,’ begins the small, perfect 20th-century novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey, ‘the…
Brexit brings us endless little beakers of joy
The thing that got me about the photo-graph which prompted the Daily Mail’s harmless but now infamous headline ‘Never mind…
Does the truth about Trump’s art of the deal really matter?
How good a businessman is Donald Trump? Maybe the answer doesn’t matter, since barring death or impeachment he’ll be the…
The Spectator’s Notes
An email from the high-minded Carnegie Endowment, marking the triggering of Article 50 and the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of…
For a real Oxbridge education, go to Durham
‘Should I just have done with it and tell them they’re a bunch of tossers?’ I was on my way……
Juncker is now the hardest Brexiter there is
The best thing about being a Remainer is obviously the dinner parties, where we all sit around being incredibly well-heeled……
Google still needs to try a lot harder to do the right thing
Shortly before agreeing, early last year, to pay token back taxes on a decade’s worth of UK-generated profits, Google also……
The real BBC shocker: occasionally it isn’t biased
There’s one thing that bothers me a lot about the letter sent by ‘more than 70’ MPs to the director-general…
The Spectator’s notes
We keep being incited to find it heartwarming that Martin McGuinness and Ian Paisley were known as the Chuckle Brothers.…
A way for both sides to claim Brexit victory
Theresa May doesn’t do drama. She regards order as both a political and personal virtue. And this goes a long…
The Spectator’s notes
We keep being incited to find it heartwarming that Martin McGuinness and Ian Paisley were known as the Chuckle Brothers.…
