Columnists
Liz Truss is no Margaret Thatcher
The late Senator Lloyd Bentsen was 26 years older than the young Senator Dan Quayle when in 1988 they crossed…
The fight for the future
To govern is to choose. So leadership contests for a party in government tend to come down to a key…
The Spectator’s Notes
Whitehall is telling ministers that this is a ‘caretaker’ government and so, by convention, cannot take decisions. This is not…
I won’t have another Covid jab
In the news recently, we’ve heard from multiple Britons who’ve lost family members or sacrificed their own health to Covid’s…
Sack Heathrow’s boss? No, put him on the front line
Airports are on my mind, since I’ve just stepped off an on-time early-morning flight from East Midlands to Bergerac –…
The ruthless inefficiency of the Tory party
It is hard to love the Conservative party. But one reason it has at least always commanded a certain amount…
The new face of the Tories
The hardest thing for any political party to achieve is renewal in government. The Tories have managed it twice since…
Why it has to be Kemi
Have you considered a career in whoring? It can be very rewarding, apparently – especially financially. World’s oldest profession and…
The next black swan? Keep your eye on China’s banks
‘Black swan’ theory, developed by the writer Nassim Nicholas Taleb, refers to unexpected events that have extreme consequences but are…
Parents must resist Stonewall’s gospel
I think by now it’s becoming horribly apparent to parents of every political persuasion that we can’t sit out the…
The Spectator’s Notes
If you had said, even ten years ago, that there was no chance of a white male cabinet minister becoming…
Is anything off limits in politics?
Scandal is such a wonderful driver of human emotions. Just think of the number of things you get to feel…
Inflation pressures may be easing but the worst still lies ahead
Is anything anywhere getting noticeably better – economically speaking – or at least less bad? Are commodities and manufactured goods…
The age of the anti-natalists
As of 2023, the novel for which I may still be best known will have been out for 20 years.…
Playing the ace card
The radical feminist publishing house Verso has begun, in its tweets, to refer to a section of the population as…
The Spectator’s Notes
Few leaders could be as different in character as Margaret Thatcher and Boris Johnson, but one can compare their predicaments…
The truth about life as a gay Tory MP
Male Tory MPs molesting young men? Buttock-squeezing and groin-fumbling at a private members’ club? A middle-aged politician slipping into a…
Where’s the art attack fightback?
One problem of being mugged, I am told, is not just the event itself but the dreams of violence that…
‘It’s just about him’
Westminster has always been run more by convention than by rulebook. Prime ministers are seldom forced out: they are persuaded…
What Mayra Flores reveals about America
If you had to take a guess on which American political party would produce the first Mexican-born Congresswoman, which one…
The rise of the sex bore
You know you’re getting old when your friends start going to sex parties. In our twenties, there were parties, and…
Women’s rights and wrongs
When I awoke the other morning and switched on my radio, the airwaves were alive with the sound of furious,…
Oxford Street reborn could be the model for every British high street
Oxford Street is ‘a dinosaur district destined for extinction’, says Marks & Spencer boss Stuart Machin – whose plan to…
Will tactical voting topple the Tories?
Boris Johnson has always been a celebrity politician. It is one of the reasons why the normal rules of politics…
All’s calm on my morning train — but it won’t be by autumn
Here I go again, in my occasional role as your intrepid transport correspondent. Last week I reported on airport chaos,…
