Columnists
Stupidity takes hold of another students’ union
I had never heard the acronym Soas before I started work at the BBC, almost 30 years ago. But as…
The Spectator’s Notes
At the Golden Globes ceremony, Meryl Streep attacked Donald Trump because he ‘imitated a disabled reporter’. ‘When the powerful use……
Inflation creeps back like the forgotten whiff of cigarette smoke
From supermarkets to superyacht builders, sales figures are remarkably buoyant: consumer debt may be rising too, but no one can…
How the Donald will beat the Green Blob
Just before Christmas I popped over to Washington DC to test the waters of the Trump administration. I spoke to…
As the cab doors locked, I wanted to get out
I meant to get the bus, but by the time I arrived at the stop at 5 p.m. last Tuesday, I…
Theresa May, left-wing Tory
Curbs on executive pay, restrictions on foreign takeovers and workers on boards. Not Jeremy Corbyn’s plan for Britain, but ideas…
The lies we tell ourselves about the NHS
The language of the left is a truly transformative grammar, so I suppose Noam Chomsky would heartily approve. There are…
Inflation creeps back like the forgotten whiff of cigarette smoke
From supermarkets to superyacht builders, sales figures are remarkably buoyant: consumer debt may be rising too, but no one can…
How the Donald will beat the Green Blob
Just before Christmas I popped over to Washington DC to test the waters of the Trump administration. I spoke to…
As the cab doors locked, I wanted to get out
I meant to get the bus, but by the time I arrived at the stop at 5 p.m. last Tuesday, I…
Theresa May, left-wing Tory
Curbs on executive pay, restrictions on foreign takeovers and workers on boards. Not Jeremy Corbyn’s plan for Britain, but ideas…
The Spectator’s Notes
At the Golden Globes ceremony, Meryl Streep attacked Donald Trump because he ‘imitated a disabled reporter’. ‘When the powerful use…
The lies we tell ourselves about the NHS
The language of the left is a truly transformative grammar, so I suppose Noam Chomsky would heartily approve. There are…
The Spectator’s Notes
‘My deep concern is that because of changed ways that news is now gathered, collated, packaged, delivered and displayed, the…
In our virtual future, why would anyone work?
A flash of the future, over the holidays, that felt like a flash of the past. It happened on Christmas…
Markets start the year strong while Italy totters towards the next crisis
The headline business story of the holiday season was the latest bailout of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena. This…
An age of bright new lights on ugly new estates
‘Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers,’ remarked the journalist and screenwriter Ben Hecht,…
May’s big chance
It is the fate of all new prime ministers to be compared with their recent predecessors. Theresa May has already…
My poster girl for free speech
Now is the time of year to take down the Christmas decorations from your front window and put up, in…
In our virtual future, why would anyone work?
A flash of the future, over the holidays, that felt like a flash of the past. It happened on Christmas…
Markets start the year strong while Italy totters towards the next crisis
The headline business story of the holiday season was the latest bailout of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena. This…
The Spectator’s Notes
‘My deep concern is that because of changed ways that news is now gathered, collated, packaged, delivered and displayed, the…
May’s big chance
It is the fate of all new prime ministers to be compared with their recent predecessors. Theresa May has already…
My poster girl for free speech
Now is the time of year to take down the Christmas decorations from your front window and put up, in…
Will disgruntlement prevail again in 2017? Who knows, but at least 2016 was quite fun
Most of my predictions for 2016 were wrong; so let’s not revisit them. But I was right, in January, to…






























