Columnists
Money is rotting
Punters and pundits alike reacted to rising mortgage rates in the wake of Truss’s mini-Budget with indignant horror. Leaving aside…
What everyone knows but no one says about Brexit
Theresa May’s premiership is now a memory. Boris Johnson’s time in office assumes the status of a rather brief, if…
The West’s uncivilised euthanasia policy
So much is happening on the surface at the moment that it can be difficult to notice certain undercurrents. Since…
Why I won’t be watching Qatar’s World Cup
The pop-up ad I get most frequently these days is David Beckham’s promotional video for the Islamic sandpit of Qatar,…
The personal faith of PMs
I have seen it suggested that because Rishi Sunak is a Hindu, it would be wrong for him to have…
The Liz Truss survival plan
At the first stage of the Conservative leadership race, when Liz Truss was trying to win MPs’ support, her message…
Has a Conservative government got any power at all?
In the House of Commons on Monday, someone accused Liz Truss’s government of being ‘in office but not in power’.…
The truth about corporate taxes
I’ve chosen to write about corporate tax rates this week not because they’re the sexiest subject available but because –…
Why can’t I give blood?
I read about the national shortage of blood last week with a feeling of gloomy inevitability. The brains of the…
Nobody wanted Liz Truss
One of the most important ingredients in the oil used to anoint King Charles during his coronation is becoming a…
How to protest the protestors
These are bleak times in our land, and we must take our pleasures where we can. Personally I have been…
Kwasi vs the markets
Warren Buffett famously said that ‘when the tide goes out, you see who is swimming naked’. Now that the tide…
The joy of tuning in to the night
‘That element of tragedy which lies in the very fact of frequency,’ wrote George Eliot in Middlemarch, ‘has not yet…
A house-price crash won’t be the only effect of the Kwarteng calamity
Where next for house prices? Clearly, they’re going down as mortgage rates go up – and my forecast in May…
Should failing students really graduate as doctors?
If I seem to be bashing universities lately, they’ve asked for it. The prestigious New York University in lower Manhattan…
The SDP is the anti-futility party
Two lessons learned from the breakfast buffet at the Hilton Hotel, Deansgate, Manchester. First, the plates are no longer minuscule,…
Why should Tom Watson be given a peerage and not Paul Dacre?
Much of this is not Liz Truss’s fault. The great big adjustment all over the West is that the era…
Is what Conor Burns did really so appalling?
There are times when I feel like certain rakes must have done when they realised that the Regency period was suddenly…
Truss is hurting the free-market cause
In theory, I should be delighted about the Liz Truss project. She is saying the things I’ve been arguing for…
Is Credit Suisse the tornado on the banking horizon?
Headlines about ‘alarm over CreditSuisse’ might be read as a sign of normality in financial news, rather than the reverse.…
Things can always get worse
As I was saying, way back in July, it is hard to love the Conservative party. Every time it tries…
Smoking is more hassle than it’s worth
I gave up smoking one year ago this week, as part of a series of pitiful capitulations to the forces…
Could it be Rishi by Christmas?
What was supposed to be a recovery moment for the Conservatives instead looks like a collective nervous breakdown. The Prime…
The trouble with Nick Robinson’s Thoughts for the Day
Thought for the Day appears every morning on BBC Radio 4. This preachy slot is hallowed by longevity, if not…
I’m in trouble with the police
There is almost nothing I like more than a running battle. As my friend Julie Burchill also says, when a…
