Columnists
Resistance isn’t futile
Two lessons learned from the breakfast buffet at the Hilton Hotel, Deansgate, Manchester. First, the plates are no longer minuscule,…
The Spectator’s Notes
Much of this is not Liz Truss’s fault. The great big adjustment all over the West is that the era…
The new rules of sex
There are times when I feel like certain rakes must have done when they realised that the Regency period was suddenly…
Truss is hurting the free-market cause
In theory, I should be delighted about the Liz Truss project. She is saying the things I’ve been arguing for…
Is Credit Suisse the tornado on the banking horizon?
Headlines about ‘alarm over CreditSuisse’ might be read as a sign of normality in financial news, rather than the reverse.…
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…
