Columnists
The young men of Middlesbrough just don’t care
No one looking back on the last fortnight could say that Middlesbrough didn’t make the most of its time in…
The Greens are coming for north London
When Sir Keir Starmer announced that he was standing down as an MP on Tuesday, jubilation erupted among Green activists.…
Why is there so little protest about Russia’s brutality towards Ukraine?
Reporting of the war in Ukraine suffers from the tendency of journalism to exaggerate a trend. The most recent one…
Time’s up for Burnham’s happy thoughts
Kemi Badenoch, headlines my newspaper, ‘prepares Tories for early general election’ with her big reshuffle this week. I do not…
How to save Middlesbrough
When I wrote here 30 years ago that ‘Middlesbrough, once renowned for building bridges for Sydney Harbour and the White…
Is Andy Burnham ready for the world stage?
If Andy Burnham has a golden rule, it seems to be this: do the opposite of Keir Starmer. The new…
Harry and Meghan deserve a second chance
A little while back I came across a copy of Ted Hughes’s Laureate poems which had an inscription to some…
Call me a cripple
In case you missed it (well done, if so), last week Will Self wrote an extraordinary rant on Substack attacking…
We are ignoring the biggest threat the world faces
In my mid-twenties, my one-bedroom in Astoria, Queens, developed a roach problem. I don’t mean the odd single scurry disappearing…
The stock market crash is coming
Margaret Thatcher famously told the Commons in 1988 that ‘there is no way in which one can buck the market’.…
The questions Cambridge still has to answer about Jason Arday
If poor Jason Arday killed himself, it will be necessary to work out why. To do so, it will help…
Middle England is finally waking up to the migrant crisis
I don’t know how familiar readers are with the term ‘accelerationism’. It is generally used to describe a tendency on…
Baby Gabriel-Rumi is the latest victim of the global surrogacy business
On Tuesday, a court in Dallas, Texas will convene to decide the fate of a small baby called Gabriel or…
I love Cape Town – but it’s not Africa
There can be few foreign cities where the Spectator, Times and Telegraph are more widely read than Cape Town. In…
Bond’s identity crisis mirrors Britain’s
Sometimes I wake up in the night disturbed by dreams of James Bond. Surely, you might say, that’s the point…
Mike Ashley is the hero of the British high street
Adura, a new name to most of us, turns out to be a joint venture between Shell and the Norwegian…
How I got Rod Liddle sacked
The organised hard left has moved fast after the fall of Jason Arday at Cambridge. They are furious with the…
Politicians’ contempt for the press is contempt for the public
I was hacked by the Chinese a few years ago. Security at News UK, where I was employed on the…
How I learnt to stop worrying and love pessimism
I was on friendly terms with Rod Liddle for quite a few decades. He applied for the job I got…
Don’t blame supermarkets for your expensive shop
I’m sufficiently nostalgic for the British supermarkets I left behind in 2023 that on visits to the UK I run…
Farming today: field fires and food price hikes ahead
I report from FTSE boardrooms and City bars, but I also spend time – mostly in Yorkshire, currently in France…
The mawkish madness of Dobby’s ‘grave’
I don’t know how many readers have visited the grave of Dobby the house-elf, but any who have should immediately…
The Keminisation of the Tory party
Since succeeding Rishi Sunak in November 2024, Kemi Badenoch has had two jobs to perform. Firstly, her constitutional obligation as…
Can I fucking swear yet?: Rod Liddle’s last column
The following column was written in 2024 for former Spectator editor Fraser Nelson when he left the magazine. This is…
Rod’s bravery made others brave too
How do you produce the type of person who cares deeply while seemingly not giving a damn? With great difficulty,…
