Columnists
The vanity of Gavin Newsom
Not long before Joe Biden finally accepted defeat, Gavin Newsom, the 56-year-old governor of California, was on the stump for…
Why there’s rioting in Leeds
As something of a fan of riots and social unrest I was interested to know who, precisely, had gone doolally…
How many summers do you have left?
If the new government’s ‘pensions review’ takes forward last year’s ‘Mansion House reforms’ – credited to chancellor Jeremy Hunt but…
Will we always have Paris?
There are times when you might be fooled into believing all is well. I had a moment of such weakness…
The Tories are a danger only to each other
On Monday night the Conservatives announced the rules of the party’s leadership contest. The reaction in Labour circles was incredulity…
Joe Biden was never quite all there
As President Biden sank more deeply into the mire this month, kind friends kept urging me to write in his…
How the markets reacted to Trump’s assassination attempt
Market reactions to the assassination attempt in Pennsylvania represent, according to taste, rational bets on the significantly increased likelihood of…
David Lammy’s Trump problem
There’s no shortage of people who have spent recent years comparing Donald Trump with Adolf Hitler. Among other places, the…
Can Starmer control his party?
Labour MPs ought to have been jubilant when they gathered for their weekly all-party parliamentary meeting on Monday. Most were…
In praise of Pat McFadden
There is a small section of the Labour party which I greatly admire – those on the party’s right, often…
Arise, Sir Gareth!
I detected a degree of surprise among those people who were uncommonly cheered by Sir Keir Starmer’s election victory that…
Could Ukrainians ever trust a Putin peace deal?
Last week at the Buxton International Festival I joined a big audience for an onstage interview with Anna Reid. She’s…
The cognitive dissonance of the Democrats
Believe it or not, I planned to write the gist of this column before Saturday night. However, a caveat. Unlike…
How safe do you feel boarding a Boeing?
‘They knocked down our old house in three hours,’ says a friend who has embarked on what he says is…
The new dark age
We have entered a new dark age. I’m not just referring to the situation in Britain since last week. Though…
The great bee-smuggling scandal
The principal concerns of the electors vary rather more widely than the pollsters and pundits would suggest. One man in…
Who will lead the Tories next?
Rishi Sunak performed a mea culpa when his shadow cabinet convened on Monday, taking full responsibility for the election loss.…
What the Tories got wrong on housing
Sir Keir Starmer may be our first atheist prime minister, but his manner in parliament resembles that of what, in…
Why was Jeremy Hunt SHOUTING AT ME?
Robert Jenrick, once immigration minister and still, just, MP for Newark, said on Sunday that the Tories lost not because…
Biden is as big a narcissist as Trump
The dullest assertion you can make about Donald Trump is that he’s a narcissist who has no interest in the…
The Tories have only themselves to blame
I was amused the other week to read George Osborne’s Diary in this magazine. In it the man now in…
Let’s start the new era with a glass of champagne
‘I drink champagne when I’m happy and when I’m sad,’ Madame Lily Bollinger (1899-1977) remarked. ‘Sometimes I drink it when…
History will judge Rishi Sunak kindly
Memorably sweeping statements tripping easily from the tongue have a habit of worming their way into assumptions we make and…
‘I have to forge my own path’: Rachel Reeves on her plans for the economy
Outside a café on the outskirts of Reading, Rachel Reeves is listening to the concerns of small-business owners. ‘Something that…
I will miss my vote
I feel as if I first took part in a general election even before I was born. My father was…
