Columnists
The Conservatives admit they have a problem – but can they solve it?
For those who don’t want Jeremy Corbyn to be prime minister, the Tory conference was half encouraging and half depressing.…
The media is paying too much homage to Catalonia
However much we try — and lots of us don’t — we fall for the power of the photo-image. So…
The Spectator’s Notes
However much we try — and lots of us don’t — we fall for the power of the photo-image. So…
Gentrification is far from our biggest problem
The late afternoon sun fell on the anomalous pine trees of Gillett Square, London N16, and on the wooden decking…
Uber was the ugly snowplough that cleared the path but its dominance is bound to fade
An Uber insider tells me not to write off the ride-hailing giant too soon, because it’s a very smart company…
At last! The subversion of Brexit has begun
The Brexit crowd are right to smell a rat. In any great national debate a columnist may feel tempted to…
The dwarves of death who control your TV
My own fault, I suppose, for turning on the television. Not an action I undertake very regularly these days, because…
The Spectator’s Notes
You can see why Theresa May said in Florence that the British wished the European Union well in its plans…
At this rate, we’ll have to rename New York
Growing up in Raleigh, North Carolina, I took the monuments around the state capitol for granted. The first Confederate soldier…
Accept this as the new normal? Never
Not long after the Parsons Green Tube bombing, another of those viral, defiant-in-the-face-of-terror cartoons started doing the rounds. It was…
A rate rise in November? After years of dithering, don’t bet on it
It is more than three years since Bank of England governor Mark Carney was accused by Labour MP and Treasury…
The Spectator’s notes
Sir David Norgrove, the chairman of the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA), is an honourable man. When he publicly rebuked Boris…
Poor old Ron and Pen, just trying to help
Here’s the problem. An Asian bloke gets on to the Tube holding a bulging Lidl bag with wires sticking out…
Can anyone unite the Tory tribes?
One of the reasons that coalition governments are so unusual in Britain is that both main parties are coalitions themselves.…
An orchestrated race storm
A fascinating story has emerged from a north-western leftie quadrant of the United States: the sacking of British conductor Matthew…
The Spectator’s notes
Apologies for my absence from this column. My editors kindly let me get on with the final volume of my…
The City still leads the financial world but faces a fight on all fronts
Should we place faith in a survey, conducted in June but published this week, that says London is still the…
The African bush took me back to my boyhood
Entering the Bulawayo Club, you step out of the blinding African sunshine on that safe and friendly city’s wide streets,…
May’s exit strategy
Nearly all Tory MPs now agree Theresa May should stay on as Prime Minister. She must get the party through…
Why English footballers are so useless
It is late in the evening. You’re in a bar. You’ve had quite a bit to drink but you are…
Ten years after the banking crisis began, the unfairness of its aftermath still stings
Arguably it was Robert Peston’s breathless reporting of trouble at Northern Rock on the evening of 13 September 2007 that…
The sinister power of family courts
It’s right that some children are taken into care. One case in point is that of Ayeeshia-Jayne Smith, the toddler…
Oh brave new gender-fluid world…
Later this year, the Advertising Standards Authority will reveal to the world their list of rules designed to wipe out…
May’s opponents are the mad and the bad
I first met Theresa May, or met her properly, way back in the last century. I’d been invited to speak…
Hurricane Harvey is bigger news than the bankers at Jackson Hole
In Houston last November I spent an evening at the city’s industrial-scale food bank, where I heard a presentation on…
