Columnists

For true Brits, air con is as foreign as a bidet

11 July 2026 9:00 am

A quartet of news stories all point in the same troubling direction. First, easyJet is about to become the latest…

We should fear drones, not invasion

11 July 2026 9:00 am

A stray thought of my own while watching Iranian drones tracing fiery paths over the Gulf, a stray quote from…

‘No. 10 North’ won’t work

4 July 2026 9:00 am

It would be dangerously premature to say that Ukraine is winning the war with Russia, but Russia is undoubtedly doing…

Reform is right to fear the return of Boris

4 July 2026 9:00 am

The man from Reform had barely sat down at our table at the French bistro when he leant forward conspiratorially…

The confessions of J.D. Vance

4 July 2026 9:00 am

There were many reasons why 2016 was a strange year. One of them was the halfhearted effort by people on…

I can’t remember when I was last so disgusted with Trump

4 July 2026 9:00 am

You’d think when your country goes to war you’d want it to prevail, but these are topsy-turvy times. Thus the…

Storm warnings for Burnham from the weathermen of Basel

4 July 2026 9:00 am

Reading the annual economic report of the Bank for International Settlements while lying beside a pool with an Aperol spritz…

Non-hunting people will never understand the lose of a horse

4 July 2026 9:00 am

My favourite hunter has died and I am bereft. No disrespect to the myriad other horses I have known and…

Even Andy Burnham doesn’t know what Andy Burnham stands for

27 June 2026 9:00 am

The British constitution is an admirably flexible thing, so I would not claim that Andy Burnham’s leadership campaign, and the…

How the right can fight Burnham

27 June 2026 9:00 am

Andy Burnham has not yet entered No. 10, but the Conservatives and Reform are already preparing for the possibility of…

Burnham’s worryingly vague vision for Britain

27 June 2026 9:00 am

Once again the question occurs: ‘Why do they want it?’ Keir Starmer held a very important role in the legal…

The death of two-party politics has been greatly exaggerated

27 June 2026 9:00 am

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?

27 June 2026 9:00 am

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

27 June 2026 9:00 am

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?

20 June 2026 9:00 am

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

20 June 2026 9:00 am

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

20 June 2026 9:00 am

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

20 June 2026 9:00 am

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

20 June 2026 9:00 am

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

20 June 2026 9:00 am

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

13 June 2026 9:00 am

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

13 June 2026 9:00 am

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

13 June 2026 9:00 am

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

13 June 2026 9:00 am

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?

13 June 2026 9:00 am

I get the sense that the political and media class badly miss Katie Hopkins. Back when the reality TV star…