Columnists
Parliament’s new tribe
Politics is such a fickle game that it’s perfectly acceptable to believe six impossible things before breakfast without ever having…
Parliament’s new tribe
Politics is such a fickle game that it’s perfectly acceptable to believe six impossible things before breakfast without ever having…
Parliament’s new tribe
Politics is such a fickle game that it’s perfectly acceptable to believe six impossible things before breakfast without ever having…
Parliament’s new tribe
Politics is such a fickle game that it’s perfectly acceptable to believe six impossible things before breakfast without ever having…
The dark clouds threatening Brexit
It’s summertime and the living is easy… unless you’re a civil servant working on Brexit. Whitehall has recognised that the…
If Brexit is dying, what about democracy?
Never meet your enemies — you might like them, and that ruins stuff. I had dinner with the former Archbishop…
The Spectator’s Notes
The pre-commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales is already in full swing. She…
Cheating German car-makers are good news for Brexiteers
It came as no great surprise to learn that the EU competition authorities are crawling all over the three major…
No true Tory can support this gender idiocy
I’ve had it with the Conservatives. For me, and I know I’m not the only one, the final straw was…
Why must I have a strong opinion about everything?
At a party earlier this summer, I was chatting to a man who asked me how I voted in last…
Bending London’s listing rules to win Saudi favour smacks of desperation
Now here’s a tricky question. The world’s largest oil company, potentially worth six times as much as ExxonMobil and ten…
Dear Leavebugs, it’s time to admit your mistake
‘Brexit,’ says my friend David Aaronovitch, ‘is dying.’ We Remainer irreconcilables certainly hope so. But there’s a slim chance the…
My fears about the new ‘extremism commission’
The Egyptian-born Muslim cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi was once invited to speak in this country — and the row which developed…
The Spectator’s notes
We went to the first night of the Proms last week. Thinking it was all over, we left the auditorium…
The Tories need a ‘what’ as much as a ‘who’
Theresa May has made it to the summer. In the aftermath of the election, Downing Street’s immediate aim was to…
Let’s keep up the Moggmentum
‘We need to talk about why the internet is falling in love with Jacob Rees-Mogg, because it’s not OK,’ warns…
The Taylor report is wrong to suggest cash in hand is fundamentally dishonest
Would a cashless world be a -better place, morally or fiscally? -Matthew Taylor, in his relatively uncontroversial review of work…
Labour’s middle-class problem
Be fair. Theresa May’s plan actually half-worked. No, there was a plan. I know the consensus now seems to be…
A vicious reaction to a very bad word
Having a nigger in the woodpile and a skeleton in the closet are closely related problems, although subtly different. In…
The Spectator’s Notes
For some time now, banks have wielded hamfistedly the concept of the ‘politically exposed person’. They have withdrawn bank accounts…
Let’s make sure our fishermen are protected against Brexit tit-for-tat
I voted Remain last year for two reasons. First, however irritating I found some aspects of the EU, I could…
The strange case of my first love and the stolen Stradivarius
Because I’d been reading about Stradivarius on the bus home, my helpful iPhone suggested a related story: the Totenberg Ames…
How not to handle an independence referendum
If David Cameron seeks any testament to his handling of Britain’s difficulties with Scottish separatism, the mess that Spain is…
Corbyn can be beaten – here’s how
The Tory party is suffering from an intellectual crisis of confidence. Before 8 June, its collective view was that Jeremy…
Being anti-smoking damages your mental health
I lit a cigarette in an open-air car park a couple of years ago as I was walking to the…
