Columnists
Labour’s new cabinet divide
There were no civil servants present when ministers gathered for their weekly cabinet meeting on Tuesday. The reason? It was…
My AI boyfriend turned psycho
Last week it was reported that a 14-year-old boy, Sewell Setzer, killed himself for the love of a chatbot, a…
Still hunting for a Trump trade? Gold may have further to rise
Anyone hunting for a ‘Trump trade’ at this late stage has probably missed the US election bus. If you bought…
The 38 candidates to be Oxford’s chancellor
Being Cambridge, I thank God that we have no nonsense about electing our chancellor. We have had a blameless, unchallenged…
The resurgence of Angela Rayner
On Monday evening, the Strangers’ Bar at Westminster was treated to a rare sight: Angela Rayner looking happy, smiling and…
America’s last undecided voter
This is the last column I’ll file before the American presidential election, and I’ve dreaded writing it for months. (The…
The ICC’s rogue prosecutor
Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of 7 October, went to meet his maker last week. Having spent a year being pursued…
The lessons of the Chris Kaba case
I wonder if we should join with the radical campaigning organisation Buy Larger Mansions (BLM) in order to protest about…
Wahed’s alarming Tube adverts
As the interminable Budget wait goes on, so does the trawl through the Chancellor’s bin bags. I refer to the…
Do you like the century you’re in?
Years ago Lord Patten of Barnes – Chris – was our guest for my Great Lives programme on BBC Radio…
Should we prioritise the LGBTQI community when disaster strikes?
Are homosexuals and transgendered people more at risk from natural disasters than the rest of the population? I dare say…
The real problem with the Tory leadership contest
James Cleverly found some unlikely support in parliament on Monday night. Having just been ousted from the Tory leadership contest,…
Why won’t David Lammy help Jimmy Lai?
As I write, the Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, is flying to China. So I am only guessing when I say…
The rise of anti-Elonism
You can tell a lot about a country by who it admires. I was pleasantly surprised some years ago to…
The rehabilitation of evil
One of the many good reasons to want every new generation to study the second world war is that it…
In defence of eating out
Scheduling the Budget almost four months after their election victory would have counted as a monumental misjudgment for the Labour…
Can Morgan McSweeney reboot the government machine?
The Queen is dead: long live the King. This week brought an end to Downing Street’s unhappy experiment in dyarchy.…
Does Keir Starmer have a soul?
One of the main arguments against hereditary peerages is that talent and ability are not always passed down across generations.…
Liberals are not just stupid – they’re dangerous
We held a small party to celebrate the news that the UK had seen its largest rise in population in…
Who will dress Keir Starmer now?
It is worth upholding the stuffy point which should have prevailed at the start. It was always improper and unethical…
My friend the pariah
Spectator TV viewers may recall that in last week’s Americano podcast, Freddy Gray interviewed the University of Pennsylvania law professor…
The sugared-almond theory of economic consequence
Let me ease you gently into a big and boring-sounding word for a small dishonesty that today corrupts the language…
Where are all my after-dinner speaking gigs?
How excited are you to hear the Prime Minister talking tech with Eric Schmidt, an American billionaire who used to…
The joy of opposition
By rights, the Conservative party conference in Birmingham ought to have been a funereal affair. It was the first time…
The Tories’ Greek tragedy has reached its catharsis
I write this as I leave the Tory conference in Birmingham. I have covered most of these events (and many…
