Columnists
Westminster’s climate conundrum
With three weeks until the Budget, the main political parties have been setting out their economic thinking. Each faces the…
The rudeness of Reform
Critics see Rachel Reeves as betraying her election manifesto tax promises; but she may well be trying ‘The Lady’s Not…
The engine’s pitch has changed
On a long flight there’s an instant, and perhaps you’ve noticed it, when a very slight alteration in the pitch…
We have to stop looking away
I learnt not to intervene on a late summer’s afternoon nine years ago. My son was still a baby and…
New York is not the city that Mamdani pretends it is
There is an unhappy history of left-wing Britons getting involved in US elections. Back in 2004, the Guardian organised a letter-writing campaign,…
Landlords need protecting too
Do you know how much faeces 30 dogs can produce over a couple of years? I have some idea because…
Who would want to be a housebuilder in Britain?
In a radio discussion of the Renters’ Rights Act which passed into law this week, I heard ‘Britain’s housing emergency’…
Minimum wage was a mistake
As others, including Nigel Farage, were quick to point out, Sarah Pochin got it wrong. She uttered words which, shorn…
Which party has the crypto factor?
He helped ‘break’ the Bank of England – but now Scott Bessent is helping to shape its future. As a…
Is Reform racist?
Sarah Pochin’s gonna take a lot of coachin’. You can’t just turn up on the telly and say you’re sick…
Don’t fear the bogeyman
Britain is beset by a bogeyman. A giant, mystical beast that the public are forever being threatened with. Remember last…
I’ve been enslaved by my Apple watch
Aside from streaming on an iPad, one of the few entertainments on offer when riding a stationary bike is tracking…
How America’s Wasps lost their sting
They moved, with a sort of nonchalant intent, up the aisle to make communion with their God; the men in…
George Abaraonye deserves his downfall
Contrary to what I had expected, the Oxford Union president-elect, George Abaraonye, lost his vote of no confidence by a…
Reeves’s fiscal play-off
In a week where political attention was on espionage and anti-Semitism, the cri de coeur from one Treasury official was…
Imagine what Enoch Powell might have said
The great John O’Sullivan has a story about Enoch Powell which he keeps promising to put into print. Since he…
The Chinese spy case you won’t have heard about
The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, handsomely housed in London’s Bedford Square, is responsible for trade relations between the…
The lost art of the insult
Imagine I were to begin this column by remarking that a woman preaching is like a dog walking on its…
The AI crash is coming
Who knows what Rachel Reeves reads in bed. Perhaps she dips into her own debut book, The Women Who Made…
The government is too concerned for the tender feelings of China
Poor old Hamas, losing all those dead Jews. The BBC reports that Hamas ‘could not locate the remaining hostages’ bodies’,…
The ECHR will never be reformed
It is more than nine years since I was suspended by the Labour party for – I think – a…
Legal immigration is an absolute nightmare
A personal note this week, as 15 October 2025 marked an occasion of sorts: when my husband’s and my Portuguese…
The pathology of politics
Researchers from Imperial College London this week released an analysis of the health of voters in the UK. In a…
Robert Jenrick is right
I’ve just got back from doing a spot of shopping in my local town – and do you know what…
Who will stand up for motherhood?
Scientists at the Oregon Health and Science University have created the beginnings of a baby using not human eggs, but…
