Columnists
How will this ‘war’ change us?
In the past ten days we have seen the greatest expansion of state power in British history. The state has…
The world of make-believe is stranger than we realise
Last summer, in the bc era, I took my then three-year-old to a new group play session: ‘Lottie’s Magic Box.’…
The Spectator’s Notes
‘Lourdes shrine closes healing pools as precaution against coronavirus,’ says a discouraging headline in the Catholic Herald. Jesus ‘made the…
Below the crisis, a question floats: ‘Where do we find purpose?’
Perhaps we are at least past the beginning of this crisis. The phase where the hunt for multipacks of loo-rolls…
Lockdown in the little coronavirus café
‘Now I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in To saucy doubts and fears.’ Shakespeare got there first, as ever, and…
Airlines are no special case when we all need a bailout
The world needs airlines — and, barring Armageddon, will still have some when this crisis is over. It will also…
I’ve been self-isolating for 20 years
Hulking fat chavs pushing shopping trolleys full of lavatory paper back to their Nissan Micras. I can’t think of a…
A test of trust
We are in a make-or-break moment for trust, not just in this government but in the British state itself. The…
The thrill of apocalypse
Something about the word ‘bomb’ has always thrilled me, and I know why. No school today. In the 1950s we…
When did publishers become so spineless?
Even amid plague, economic apocalypse, and the cancellation of 2020, dumb stuff keeps happening. Besides, loads of us will now…
The Spectator’s Notes
When we left this Britain on Thursday last week, life was almost as usual. Shops and restaurants were open. The…
The antidote to virus panic is in the hands of entrepreneurs
‘It’s a ghost town,’ said the officer manning the body scanner at Manchester airport — Manchester, New Hampshire, that is,…
Apocalypse in East Finchley
I was mansplaining to my wife earlier this week about why we ought to be very, very concerned by the…
The stranglehold of the wokerati
At least none of us will have to pretend that we read Woody Allen’s memoirs. This week the publishers Hachette…
Britain has its first punk-rock government
The most surprising thing about the letter from Guardian and Observer journalists moaning about Suzanne Moore’s supposed ‘transphobia’ is that…
The Spectator’s Notes
Monday night’s Commons rebellion over Huawei was on a surprisingly serious scale for a new government with a big mandate.…
The test of the Budget
British politics has not lost its flair for the dramatic. If it was not enough to have Sajid Javid resign…
To the friend who dropped me
I’ve put off sending a private email that’s been ready to go for weeks. Then last Sunday, I read Julie…
I’m getting my coronavirus bunker ready
We have now got past the absurd stage of glaring in a reproachful manner at Chinese people on the tube.…
The SFO as a deterrent? Not in the Barclays-Qatar case
Hit-and-miss, heavy-handed, but a necessary use of justice to deter repetition. That was my summing-up, last year, of the Serious…
The unbearable lightness of Boris Johnson
Months ago, not long after Boris Johnson’s 2019 general election triumph, I wrote a Times column of a cautiously hopeful…
The Budget’s corona contagion
When Sajid Javid resigned in a row with No. 10, there was much speculation about what would be in the…
The Spectator’s Notes
The government is trying to get onshore windfarms going again, defying the damage they do to unique environments. I am…
The Spectator’s Notes
The fall from grace of Jean Vanier is truly a sad story. The founder of the L’Arche communities did extraordinary…
Sanders, Trump, and the populist juju
‘Bernie beats Trump! Bernie beats Trump!’ That’s what Bernie Sanders’s fans keep chanting, and they have the polls to prove…
