Columnists

No one wins in the race race

12 December 2020 9:00 am

After the explosion of international self-abasement over George Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis, much theatrical soul-searching ensued. So your basic man…

Deal or no deal?

12 December 2020 9:00 am

When a deadline is missed for Brexit negotiations, it is tempting to think there will be another chance to keep…

joe biden speech

Biden’s speech impediment

10 December 2020 4:16 am

Does Joe Biden write his own speeches? Surely not. Yet his campaign says Biden was his own speechwriter for the address he made…

The Tavistock is a national scandal

5 December 2020 9:00 am

How noble of the British Library to have apologised to the family of the late Poet Laureate Ted Hughes for…

Green will be remembered only as a nasty stain on capitalism

5 December 2020 9:00 am

There really isn’t much left to be said about Sir Philip Green as his Arcadia fashion empire collapses into administration,…

The Spectator’s Notes

5 December 2020 9:00 am

My inbox is crowded with messages from Old Etonians attacking Simon Henderson, the headmaster of Eton. They are furious that…

Goodbye to all that

5 December 2020 9:00 am

On Saturday night we sat around the kitchen table, my family and I, and had a takeaway from the Turkish…

China needs to make reparations

5 December 2020 9:00 am

It is time we started to talk about reparations. I am not of course referring to the demands made by…

Can Boris win round his rebel MPs?

5 December 2020 9:00 am

The beginning of the end for Theresa May was when she tried to see if she could pass her Brexit…

Pension funds need a push to invest in the green revolution

28 November 2020 9:00 am

We’ve heard a lot this week about infrastructure spending, and how much more will be needed if the UK is…

The Spectator’s Notes

28 November 2020 9:00 am

Last week, I wrote about ‘Frost & Lewis’ (David and Oliver), leaders of our country’s team at the Brexit negotiations,…

The public sector delusion

28 November 2020 9:00 am

I wonder how much more money we will have to bung the teachers in order to inculcate within them an…

We need a dose of vaccine realism

28 November 2020 9:00 am

One of my geniuses as both a commentator and a character is to confront what for most normal people amounts…

The soggification of the Liberal Democrats

28 November 2020 9:00 am

I was never afraid of Jeremy Corbyn, never afraid of Momentum. I’ve never really feared Britain’s hard left at all.…

Here comes President Joebama

28 November 2020 9:00 am

‘So you’re seeing a team develop that I have great confidence in,’ said former president Barack Obama this week when…

Truth is in the eye of the beholder

21 November 2020 9:00 am

Ever since I saw him in Pensacola, Florida the other week, Donald J. Trump will not leave me alone. Each…

How to keep the UK united

21 November 2020 9:00 am

Tory MPs are already starting to talk about May’s various elections. Boris Johnson’s first post-Covid electoral test will take place…

The Spectator’s Notes

21 November 2020 9:00 am

‘Frost & Lewis’. It sounds like a programme amalgamating two of the most famous TV detectives. The former diplomat, Lord…

Liberty or death?

21 November 2020 9:00 am

Well thank goodness for that, eh? Just as we reached our darkest hour and resigned ourselves to an endless series…

If taxes must rise, Sunak should pick on private equity

21 November 2020 9:00 am

It’s not axiomatic that taxes must rise to pay for the pandemic, if you seriously believe the surge in growth,…

The march of the fascist mushrooms

21 November 2020 9:00 am

It has been too long coming. While conscientious and decent liberals have tried to explain why, to their horror, millions…

Beyond the new euphoria, the Irish question still looms

14 November 2020 9:00 am

FTSE indices soared as the Biden Bounce met vaccine euphoria, underpinned by the Bank of England’s announcement of another £150…

What Trump supporters really want

14 November 2020 9:00 am

As Democrats’ colossal collective sigh of relief drives wind turbines even over in Britain, let’s not lose sight of the…

The Spectator’s Notes

14 November 2020 9:00 am

Having only recently entered the House of Lords, I must tread with caution, but I had always understood that it…

Voters have lost their nerve

14 November 2020 9:00 am

Elections teach us nothing. Instead, each tribe dredges succour from the minutiae, proving that they had been right all along.…