Columnists
The conversion therapy we should really ban
In 2012, California was the first US state to ban ‘conversion therapy’ for minors, the better to stop the forcible…
Making Tax Difficult: another Whitehall farce
Welcome to the new tax year, with its overflowing hamper of half-baked, growth-eating, enterprise-crushing Labour measures. And if you happen…
What if the UK hadn’t voted for Brexit?
Someone in Brussels has a sense of humour. One of the euro elves let it be known this week that…
Where’s my free BMW?
My friend Will Clouston, the leader of the Social Democratic Party, dropped round with his wife for a bite to…
The Christian grace of Jimmy Lai’s prison drawings
Sharp-eyed readers will notice that Peter Brookes’s fox, who normally tops this column, is absent. They can be reassured. He…
Can the chaps in chaps smash fascism?
I have spent a small portion of the past week wondering what I would do if I thought communists were…
Why I failed my Lent resolution
It’s the end of Lent as I write this and I’ve almost entirely failed to give up X, which is…
Hong Kong is the new Dubai
I had forgotten, if I ever knew, that National Savings and Investments (NS&I) began life in 1861 as the Post…
Iran’s secret weapon of self-sacrifice
Much has been made of the adjective ‘asymmetric’ when discussing warfare in recent years. The word enjoys a renewed currency…
Does it matter if Prince William believes in God?
The Prince of Wales seeks to assure us that, as a friend puts into his mouth, ‘I might not be…
‘We’re into 1973 territory now’: How bad could the energy price crisis get?
The energy price surge caused by war in the Middle East has sent shockwaves through Westminster. It has pushed up…
The real reason the left hates Israel
‘Listen to what the man on the left of the camera has to say about Israel, the man who is…
How to brainwash the British public
During the Cold War I am fairly certain that films, TV dramas and other popular entertainment did not remain silent…
We’ve already given up on novels
Late last year, I was notified that one or more of my novels might have been fed to an Anthropic…
Never mind bashing ‘profiteers’, slash fuel taxes and green levies
As chairman of the value-for-money Iceland frozen-foods chain, Richard Walker might be expected to know what he’s talking about in…
Trump should ditch the faux concern for the people of Iran
Live long enough and all your cherished memories of childhood will end up besmirched somehow. For many of us Boomers…
The only living being on our banknotes should be the monarch
This Middle East conflict ought to be much easier than the oil embargo which followed the Yom Kippur war of…
Keir Starmer has surrendered to Ed Miliband – and we are all paying the price
Labour MPs who want Wes Streeting to be their leader have, apparently, one great fear. If their man triggers a…
The glaring flaw in Keir Starmer’s ‘cohesion plan’
On the way back home down Mile End Road, I stopped for a cup of tea in a nice-looking café.…
The latest Guardian attack on Nigel Farage is desperate stuff
Some years ago I was approached by someone from a platform called ‘Cameo’. Not all Spectator readers will have heard…
Can the special relationship survive Trump?
Since this calamitous Iran war began, there’s been endless talk in Britain about our ‘special relationship’ (often capitalised) with the…
Has Rachel Reeves secured a rare victory for growth?
There’s very little to celebrate in Downing Street these days but it must have been vodka shots all round in…
Will books soon become extinct?
I am glad that Radio 4 is producing a series called How Reading Made Us, presented by the subtle, super-literate…
David Lammy’s depraved new world
Beamish, the living history museum in County Durham, invites visitors to ‘step into the past’. It shows how people lived…
Has Reform peaked?
Murton is a rather frowsy former pit village in County Durham, about half a dozen miles down the A19 from…
