Columnists
Don’t scrap start-up grants for wannabe entrepreneurs
I’m hugely enjoying meeting the finalists for The Spectator’s Economic Innovator of the Year Awards. This year’s bumper entry was…
The truth about lies
There were two remarkable things about Emma Raducanu’s wonderful win at the US open last week. The first was the…
What’s the Tory majority for?
One of the things that distinguishes Boris Johnson from the last three Tory prime ministers is that he has a…
Little people, big nightmare
I think it’s for the best if we ban all children’s books containing the word ‘dream’. Dream big, little dreamer,…
Let’s have more diversity at the BBC
I noticed with interest that Gigalum island — off the Kintyre peninsula in Argyll — was up for sale for…
Tea with the WI offers lessons on responsible investment
Late-breaking exam results: many of the City’s top fund managers have failed a vital test of ‘stewardship’ — defined for…
Could you live without sex or the Tories?
In idle chatter the other evening, somebody pooh-poohed champagne. He was a brave soul because in certain circles — and…
Boris is in dangerous territory
The announcement of a tax increase for both workers and employers to fund more spending on health and social care…
The political power of Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown
There is a rather sweet moment in the middle of each Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown show where, after some magnificently obscene…
Defund the world’s policeman?
It gets lost in the many creative purposes successive American administrations invented to justify remaining in Afghanistan, but the primary…
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,…
