Columnists

The BBC is self-destructing

15 July 2023 9:00 am

There are still 27 people left in the British Isles – at the time of writing – who are unaware…

Don’t write off Rishi

15 July 2023 9:00 am

Were I sure this was about me alone, I’d hardly bother to mention it: but I may be typical of…

The high price of public service

15 July 2023 9:00 am

The news has been coming so thick and fast of late that every week there are dozens of stories we…

Heritable guilt is in vogue

15 July 2023 9:00 am

I made a poor excuse for a Presbyterian even as a kid. I resented religious indoctrination every precious school-free Sunday.…

The Spectator's notes

8 July 2023 9:00 am

National health disservice

8 July 2023 9:00 am

It’s a rare occasion that sees politicians put aside their feuds and rivalries to gather together at Westminster Abbey. These…

French racism is not the problem

8 July 2023 9:00 am

Last week we learned that a woman in a park in Skegness was dragged into the bushes and raped by…

A narcissist eyes up the White House

8 July 2023 9:00 am

Back in the late 1990s, when I lived in Dallas, Texas, I became fascinated by television evangelists. They were hucksters…

Reshuffle season

1 July 2023 9:00 am

Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak have something in common: both men are under pressure to reshuffle their front benches and…

The myth of intersectional politics

1 July 2023 9:00 am

A few years ago I mentioned the profusion of moaning women on BBC Radio 4, after a longish car journey…

The unspeakable truth about housing

1 July 2023 9:00 am

Earlier this year I was a panellist for Any Questions, and a young man in the audience asked what could…

Our God complex

1 July 2023 9:00 am

Pantomime is meant to be silly and perhaps superficial, but fun. One does not (for example) join an audience for…

No country for young men

1 July 2023 9:00 am

One of the most reliable standards in international comedy has long been the outstanding ineloquence of American politicians. In this…

Can Labour win back Scotland?

24 June 2023 9:00 am

When the political cabinet met on Tuesday, by-elections were on the agenda. The Prime Minister is facing four of them.…

The trouble with teachers

24 June 2023 9:00 am

A teacher once told me that he couldn’t stand Pakistanis ‘because of the smell’. I was 13 at the time…

The diversity trap

24 June 2023 9:00 am

If anyone reading this ever bought shares in the diversity racket, then I would suggest you start dumping them now.…

Why I hate drones

24 June 2023 9:00 am

I have a plan for my old age. Now that we all might live for a century or so, feeling…

The Spectator's Notes

17 June 2023 9:00 am

The Tories’ capital punishment

17 June 2023 9:00 am

London faces its seventh mayoral election next year and, yet again, the Tories are having trouble finding a suitable candidate.…

The judgment of Carla Foster

17 June 2023 9:00 am

‘No one has the right to judge you’ was one of the last posts made on Facebook by Staffordshire ‘mum’…

Bring back weather

17 June 2023 9:00 am

I was in New York while the smoke from Canadian wildfires filtered over the city for three days last week,…