Columnists
Arise, Sir Jim: Grangemouth’s offshore billionaire is an industrial hero
You know my theory that Unite leader ‘Red Len’ McCluskey is a Conservative secret agent? Well, having watched events at…
The thrill of the bore draw
A successful gambler once told me: ‘Never bet on football, never bet on multipliers, and never ever bet on football…
The human condition in a scuffed yellow line
My preferred route from the Times’s offices in Wapping on to the main road takes me across a precinct then…
The thrill of the bore draw
A successful gambler once told me: ‘Never bet on football, never bet on multipliers, and never ever bet on football…
The thrill of the bore draw
A successful gambler once told me: ‘Never bet on football, never bet on multipliers, and never ever bet on football…
How the Tories can win the next election
The mood was grim when David Cameron, George Osborne and their advisers convened for a crunch meeting on 4 February…
The Spectator’s Notes
I do not know whether the Greek gypsy couple accused of abducting a girl called Maria are guilty, but I…
What do we call the people who abducted Maria? It’s a minefield
How should we describe the people who allegedly abducted that little girl in Greece, after a neighbour claimed that they…
Why can’t the BBC be impartial in the climate change debate?
‘Well, you’re arguing facts against opinions. OK, I mean, the fact that the amount of carbon dioxide in the air…
What is Facebook? That’s the problem – nobody really knows
I’d never noticed that there aren’t any tits on Facebook. The place always seems brimming with right tits to me.…
A new nuclear plant is better than a stab in the dark
Prediction, as Mervyn King once observed, is ‘a stab in the dark’. Who can say with confidence where the wholesale…
What is Facebook? That’s the problem – nobody really knows
I’d never noticed that there aren’t any tits on Facebook. The place always seems brimming with right tits to me.…
Why can’t the BBC be impartial in the climate change debate?
‘Well, you’re arguing facts against opinions. OK, I mean, the fact that the amount of carbon dioxide in the air…
Cameron must soften if he wants to keep the Lib Dems loyal
Ten days before polling day in 2010, it was clear that a hung parliament was the most likely result of…
If we stop stigmatising fat people, we’ll have lots more of them
Trying to get good, healthy, nutritious food down the ungrateful throats of the lower orders, especially northerners, has become a…
Religious sceptics deserve better enemies
I wish I were a religious conservative: the field’s wide open. It must be dispiriting for believers to encounter so…
The Spectator’s Notes
AS THE WHOLE Leveson wrangle approaches its climax (or anti-climax), one collateral, innocent victim of it all is the Queen.…
America makes a fool of itself with another episode of debt-ceiling drama
Some say it’s natural optimism that makes the Americans so different from the British, and some say it’s a lack…
Religious sceptics deserve better enemies
I wish I were a religious conservative: the field’s wide open. It must be dispiriting for believers to encounter so…
What the reshuffles showed us: none of these parties are ready to win
Reshuffles are meant to demonstrate the power of a leader, to show that they are in command of their party.…
The Spectator’s Notes
Friends of mine called Georgiana and Mouse Campbell recently bought a new house. In the period between completion and moving…
Hugh Grant’s censorious friends may be about to win the day
It is a peculiar alliance, when you think of it, which wishes to bring to an end 300 years of…
Feminists, you are betraying yourselves
I’ve been racking my brains to think what I might have in common with Kim Jong Un and Piers Morgan.…
For the time being, I am choosing to believe this far-right conversion story
I’ve often thought it might be interesting to meet Tommy Robinson, or Stephen Lennon, or whatever one is supposed to…
Dickensian misery at the pawnbrokers’ — but now it’s on the other side of the counter
While attention has focused on the sudden ubiquity and alleged iniquity of payday lenders, boom and impending bust has infected…
