Columnists
Trouble ahead if we run out of pigs in blankets
This is getting serious. Never mind global shortages of microchips, plastics, copper and container ships; now we’re running out of…
The doors of St Aidan’s were locked
The end of summer 2021, the end of the great British staycation. I sat on the grass outside the post…
The Tories aren’t in party mood
Nearly two years on from the general election and 11 years since the Tories took office, they remain comfortably and…
The Spectator’s Notes
From time to time, people get worried and ask one another: ‘Is the world falling apart?’ I imagine this is…
A farewell to arms
It was quite the handover at Kabul airport this week. The last American troops to exit Afghanistan reportedly left facing…
The Nobel truth
I suspect that there are no people in the world quite so right-on as the Nobel prize committee members. A…
It’s natural to be territorial
The Afghans the Home Office is scrambling to resettle in Britain present one of immigration’s most sympathetic cases: translators and…
Johnson’s problems are piling up
This time last year, Boris Johnson and his team were making plans to ‘move on’ from the pandemic. He had…
Leahy’s love bomb livens up the bid battle for Morrisons
The Hundred — some sort of pimped-up cricket tournament, I gather — passed me by entirely, but I’ve been admiring…
I blame Tony Blair
The Americans may have pulled out, but luckily the Afghans have the world’s vibrant community of witches intervening to save…
The Spectator’s Notes
This week, the media pressure was on the British government to extend the deadline for the evacuations from Kabul airport.…
The cruel seafood
It was a hot late evening on the Greek island of Tinos, and we were sitting at a quayside restaurant…
The Spectator’s Notes
Q. Is a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan now inevitable? The President: No, it is not. Q. Why? The President: Because…
Time to restore normality in the world of work
Give or take a few leader-writing shifts and editing projects, I’ve been working from home for the past 30 years,…
Berks and burkas
I have the feeling that Joe Biden will have to wait a while before he receives his Nobel Peace Prize,…
What Biden learnt from Trump
When was the only time America’s left-liberal media gave President Trump any real credit? The answer is 7 April 2017,…
It’s not just Biden who’s kidding himself
One of the most interesting aspects of President Biden’s speech on the American withdrawal from Afghanistan is that it shows…
Does the vaccine affect periods?
It’s fashionable to talk about periods. Books on the subject, with glossy red and pink covers, are bestsellers. They have…
The Spectator’s Notes
The tale of A-levels shows how ministers can sometimes find themselves in a position when it is simply too dangerous…
Why vaccine passports are pointless
Despite having mocked app-happy Albion in my last column, I finally downloaded the NHS app. (Lest I seem a raging…
Down the rabbit hole
The literary sensation of the season is apparently a book called The Constant Rabbit, by Jasper Fforde. In brief, a…
Talking to a brick wall at the National Trust
Press officers, breathe easy. This is not another column attacking the National Trust. Actually, I tell a lie. It is.…
How to burst the grade inflation bubble
The Tories regard a return to rigorously marked exams as one of their big achievements in education. In 2010, the…
The bottleneck in shipping will deliver an expensive Christmas
Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey looks increasingly uncomfortable as inflation notches upwards from ‘nothing to worry about’ towards the…
Putting the commie in committee
Last month an epidemiologist called Professor Michael Baker described the UK government’s decision to free its people from Covid restrictions…
