Columnists
Things can always get worse
As I was saying, way back in July, it is hard to love the Conservative party. Every time it tries…
Giving up smoking was an absolute doddle
I gave up smoking one year ago this week, as part of a series of pitiful capitulations to the forces…
Rishi by Christmas?
What was supposed to be a recovery moment for the Conservatives instead looks like a collective nervous breakdown. The Prime…
The Spectator’s Notes
Thought for the Day appears every morning on BBC Radio 4. This preachy slot is hallowed by longevity, if not…
I’m in trouble with the police
There is almost nothing I like more than a running battle. As my friend Julie Burchill also says, when a…
Maybe Nanny does know best
Not least among the shivers down my spine as I listen to Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng pump up the…
Shame should not be heritable
Vice-chancellor Stephen Toope claims it was ‘inevitable’ that a university ‘as long-established as Cambridge’ would have links to slavery. Now…
City slickers’ reaction to Kwarteng’s unfunded plan is entirely rational
‘Fury at the City slickers betting against UK plc,’ shouted the Daily Mail on Tuesday, after Monday’s mayhem saw the…
How high a price will Truss pay?
This year’s Conservative party conference was supposed to be a moment of celebration for the new Tory leader. Instead there…
No such luck
There was an article recently in the increasingly woke but still useful New Scientist which attempted to gauge the degree…
The Spectator’s Notes
Yes, but why did the IMF put out its Tuesday night statement? Even if all its criticisms of the government’s…
The poly-problems of polyamory
The saddest thing I saw this week was a dating advert written by a woman – let’s call her Jane…
Labour has a problem – but it’s not Keir Starmer
I see that Green campaigning groups are angry that the Conservative party has received donations from the aviation industry, because…
Truss’s first big test
Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng are determined to show that Britain’s economy is under new management. They want to indicate…
The bonus cap was boneheaded but is this the moment to scrap it?
Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng – keen to sharpen the City’s competitive edge, we’re told – wants to remove the legislative cap,…
The Spectator’s Notes
If this were a Catholic country, up would go the cry for canonisation. When Pope John Paul II died, the…
Leicester and the downside of diversity
As I have said many times in recent years, if you import the world’s people you import the world’s problems.…
Must Charles change?
When something starts to be said with such frequency that it fast becomes the conventional wisdom, one should pause, step…
The Spectator’s Notes
‘So it is come at last, the distinguished thing!’ exclaimed Henry James on his deathbed. Such a thought is reflected…
Dynasty rules in the US too
I suppose it was inevitable that with the death of HM the Queen certain floodgates would open. During her reign…
Don’t blame the badgers
My dog was bitten by an adder last week. Jessie had been snuffling around in bracken a few yards from…
Politics is on pause
Politics is in suspended animation. The only proceedings in parliament are the tens of thousands of mourners moving through Westminster…
Never mind terrorising the Treasury, let’s see some energy-policy action
At His Majesty’s Treasury, it’s all looking a bit like Year Zero in revolutionary Cambodia. Kwasi Kwarteng’s first act was…
Not all Americans are so crass
In the face of American snark about the Queen’s death, many a British newspaper reader was disgusted. With bad tidings…
The BBC’s new direction
I am becoming terribly worried about the people of Sunderland with regard to how they will cope in this coming…
