Columnists
The Spectator’s Notes
Now that events in Ukraine are restoring a sense of proportion about the difference between aggressive autocracies and free countries,…
Market mischief and bad politicsmean business is never dull
Enough of stagflation forecasts, each more frightening than the last. Enough – for now – of energy policy sermons, as…
Why Y-fronts show that recession risks are rising
Should you happen to spot me these days lurking outside a Calvin Klein boutique, notebook in hand, I assure you…
It’s so hard to do the right thing
Delighted though we all are that Benedict Cumberbatch has decided to allow a Ukrainian family to live in one of…
Lessons from the ice queen
Spring commonly augers a quickening warmth, but for Britons this year the season coincides with a chilling marker: a 54…
The war’s next phase
A month in, and the war in Ukraine looks very different to how anyone expected. On the first day of…
Sorry is the hardest word
It is uncanny how swiftly British culture imitates the worst of American culture. Take Whoopi Goldberg, who distinguished herself again…
The Spectator’s Notes
Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands 40 years ago. I had joined the Daily Telegraph as a reporter in 1979 and…
It’s time to bang some heads together
Glasses chinked. From massive chandeliers, lights glittered beneath the high vaulted ceiling; heroic statuary around the carved stone walls stared…
The day I nearly brought RT down
It is interesting to watch Ofcom finally remove the broadcasting licence from the Russian propaganda channel Russia Today (RT). I…
The moral of P&O: too many strategic assets in foreign hands
P & O once stood for ‘Peninsular and Oriental’, with pleasant connotations of sailings to Cadiz and Constantinople – but…
What I learnt in sex education
The state of Florida recently passed a piece of legislation making it illegal for teachers to hold discussions with pupils…
Sunak’s choice
The Office for Budget Responsibility was designed to protect the Chancellor from accusations that he is cooking the books. If…
The Spectator’s Notes
Zakhar Prilepin is a well-known novelist in Russia and an ultra-nationalist warrior in Donbas. Once a member of the National…
China’s focus is Covid, not a proxy war
It is tempting to believe that we have gone from one crisis to another: Russia invaded Ukraine hours after Covid…
The Spectator’s Notes
I remember my father telling me about Imre Nagy’s final broadcast before the Hungarian leader was taken by the Russians…
Biden is right: crypto world needs regulatory control
President Biden’s executive order ‘Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets’ won praise on all sides, an unfamiliar experience for one…
Would you stay or would you go?
For many of us war voyeurs watching the news with a glass of sherry, admiration of the little-engine-that-could Ukrainian fighters…
There’s no putting Putin in a box
At the heart of the West’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sits an ambiguity that it is convenient, perhaps…
Will the West’s unity against Russia last?
Over recent days I have been reflecting on War and Peace. Or Special Operation and Peace as it must now…
The madness of mutual mayhem — and not exploiting our own fuel reserves
I’ll approach the hot topic of a ban on Russian oil by way of personal anecdote: I’ve never been a…
Russia’s memory war
It seems strange now that any of us ever imagined that Putin might not invade. He thinks of Ukraine as…
Life must go on
Well, at least Covid is over. No sooner had Vladimir Putin’s tanks rolled into Ukraine than the UK’s Covid advisory…
Watching the clock
Having just dusted down my Geiger counter and argued with the family about whether or not there is room for…
The Spectator’s Notes
I wish people would not say Vladimir Putin is mad. One understands him much better if one says he is…
