Columnists
The death of two-party politics has been greatly exaggerated
Every twist in the winding road of our politics brings a latest thing to say. These wisdoms usually survive a…
‘It’s going to make Liz Truss look like a savant’: Are you ready for Burnham’s first Budget?
If I were Andy Burnham, I’d be terrified about the inheritance Keir Starmer has left. Yet instead of stepping gingerly…
Alan Greenspan and the slow death of independent central banking
The passing, aged 100, of the former US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, prompts thoughts about shifting tensions between politicians…
Will the Iran deal destroy J.D. Vance?
When it comes to foreign policy, Donald Trump is neither hawk nor dove. He’s a dealmaker who plays differing sides…
Revealed: the Green plot against Zack Polanski
As Keir Starmer struggles to keep his crown, another leadership battle is raging. Away from the media spotlight, there is…
Don’t avoid the right questions about Preston Davey’s murder
It is now retrospectively acknowledged that great harm was done by the refusal to investigate serious crimes and dangerous mental…
The radical left will regret embracing political violence
What are the circumstances in which it is right to smash up a building? When might one justifiably destroy an…
The New York Times’s twisted reporting of Henry Nowak’s murder
Last week’s headline in the New York Times was obfuscating: ‘In the UK, a Violent Cycle: Hateful Attacks, Right-Wing Agitation…
Brexit was a huge opportunity shamefully mishandled
The Damascene moment in my personal Brexit journey came not when my pen hovered over the referendum ballot on 23…
‘Rupert Lowe turns up for work; Nigel Farage doesn’t’: an interview with Kemi Badenoch
There was a moment backstage, before I interviewed Kemi Badenoch for a Spectator event this week, when I felt like…
In defence of two-tiering
What has been remarkable about Henry Nowak’s case was not the story itself, tragic though it is, but the potency…
Beware the ‘matrescence’ con
Every so often, a fashionable new concept is born. Witness the arrival of ‘matrescence’, which, for the uninitiated, is a…
The posh are persecuted for their accents
Mark Nowak, father of the murdered Henry Nowak, spoke powerfully in public after Vickrum Digwa was convicted of the crime.…
Are we allowed to feel angry yet?
I get the sense that the political and media class badly miss Katie Hopkins. Back when the reality TV star…
Save us from the Gospel according to Grok
The Rt Revd Martyn Snow, the handsome and up-to-date Bishop of Leicester, has decided that it’s OK, even admirable, for…
No, minister: investing in tech ventures isn’t your job
To the London Stock Exchange (LSE) for a ‘scale-up capital’ circus in which 18 ambitious tech ventures had ten minutes…
Revealed: the missing Mandelson messages
Darren Jones has become the government’s Walter Model, the general known during the second world war as ‘the Führer’s fireman’…
Kemi gives me hope
I had a notion the other day that there was possibly more I could offer to this fleeting world. A…
Who fancies a pint in Rachel Reeves’s ideal pub?
Even the most gormless of Labour politicians don’t try to persuade the electorate that taxation is a privilege – a…
The lessons from Henry Nowak’s murder
I wonder how many readers have ever heard of the name Kriss Donald? The young Glaswegian was just 15 years…
Can we trust Palantir?
Best not to say too much about Albert Manifold, who was ousted as chairman of BP last week after only…
Reform’s strange balancing act
Nothing illustrates the challenge facing Reform UK better than the strained interview Danny Kruger gave to the Today programme on…
Devolution makes corruption likelier
Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, stands explicitly in the tradition of Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum 135 years ago.…
Might Restore scupper Reform?
I was as appalled as I dare say many of you to discover that Reform’s candidate in the forthcoming Makerfield…
When did Sturgeon first notice her husband’s kleptomania?
What would you say if your spouse bought a luxury campervan? I know what I would say – something along…
