Columnists
What it means to be English
How can you ever put your finger on the comfort, the joy, the absurdity, of being English? Not, perhaps, through…
Britain shouldn’t put up with Donald Trump
History is the march of folly and far too many of my countrymen are hearkening to a drumbeat which would…
What the media doesn’t tell us about Gaza
Sir Keir Starmer’s apparent justification for threatening to recognise a Palestinian state by September is pictures. ‘I think people are…
Israel has gone too far
If any other country in the Middle East had behaved as monstrously as Israel has in recent weeks, the jets…
How to handle the Wagner problem
There are deep ructions across Europe, as in Britain. All come down to the same thing. The societies in question…
Is Len McCluskey a Manchurian candidate for the Tory party?
At Stansted on Monday, a currency kiosk offered me €270 for £300. ‘Wrong way round,’ I said, having swiftly figured…
The High Court’s war on truth
In Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass, Humpty-Dumpty tells Alice: ‘When I use a word, it means just what I choose…
A new water regime must still reward private investors
The weekend’s torrential Yorkshire rain amid a hosepipe ban offered a handy metaphor for the chaos that has befallen the…
MAGA, Epstein and the paedo files
Bill Clinton published another memoir last year, entitled Citizen, and I take it that everyone read the book the minute…
Raise the age of suffrage to 25
If I had been given the vote at the age of 16, I would have put my cross beside the…
The best deer deterrent? Radio 4
Behind the latest push for recognition of a Palestinian state – even though there is no agreement of what it…
Why wealth taxes don’t work
The nation owes the former Labour leader Neil Kinnock an eternal debt for losing the 1992 general election when he…
The radical vegan ‘Zizians’ are the cult we deserve
Every week brings a new revelation about the Zizians: the craziest, saddest cult in recent American history. Eight deaths have…
Why you should never trust a travel writer
After one of Jeffrey Archer’s minor tangles with the absolute truth, his friend the late Barry Humphries remarked: ‘We all…
The pointlessness of ‘smashing the gangs’
‘Smash the gangs’ is the fascinating slogan that Keir Starmer’s government has settled on for tackling illegal migration. What is…
Down with the middle class
I suppose this magazine is probably not the best forum to launch a movement to sweep away the British middle…
‘Let Keir be Keir’: inside the cabinet’s away day
Labour ministers face a range of terrible political choices, but when the cabinet met for an away day at Chequers…
What I’ll miss about Norman Tebbit
This column comes to you from Auckland Castle, former palace and hunting lodge of the Prince Bishops of Durham. We,…
Don’t compensate drivers for mis-sold car loans
Surprisingly big numbers are the theme of this week’s column, several having flashed up to disturb the pleasures of a…
How governments gaslight
The posters now plastered around German public swimming pools are so hilarious that you may have seen them already. Keeping…
The reign of Rayner
Angela Rayner declined an invitation to a hen do last weekend where the entertainment included axe-throwing. ‘She was worried about…
My tips to avoid arrest by the Met
An interesting event occurred in London at the weekend. A young man who goes by the name of Montgomery Toms…
The unspoken truth about 7/7
Did you take part in any of the mysterious commemorations last weekend? The newspapers were full of it – something…
What hope is there for today’s unlucky graduates?
I’m fresh out of advice for those now leaving university and wondering how on earth they’re going to make a…
How Labour governments always end
Couldn’t we just skip to the end? I’m old enough to have seen this so often: must I sit through…
