Columnists
Has the gin craze reached its zenith?
The list of business leaders who have damaged their careers with a single word famously begins with Gerald Ratner, who…
What would Jane Austen say about Debrett’s going digital?
Seventy-five years ago on Saturday, the July plot failed. Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg placed a bomb in a briefcase…
Will ‘chairman Boris’ revive cabinet government?
It has become something of a tradition in British politics: an incoming prime minister promises to restore proper cabinet government.…
The ethnicity pay gap just doesn’t add up
I suppose it was a bit naive to wander on to Newsnight having been booked to talk about Brexit and…
We Remainers aren’t going away
My voice is often recognised by people who don’t know me. My face, which is unmemorable, less so. But once…
The best response to hate speech is free speech
There’s a broad mainstream consensus on both sides of the Atlantic: Trump’s tweet telling four hard-left minority Congresswomen to ‘go…
Should we all be alarmed by Boris?
Back when Boris Johnson was editor of this magazine and MP for Henley, I was with him at a Tory…
Sir Kim Darroch failed to recognise Trump’s communicative genius
When I last talked to Sir Kim Darroch, he was a slim young private secretary, so it was a long…
The most important decision that Boris has to make
After being backed by a majority of Tory MPs, Boris Johnson now looks set to win over party members by…
End this hate speech against my community
I am a football fan. Each fortnight I go to watch my club and, like the overwhelming majority of the…
My daughter’s gone to Magaluf, and it’s hard not to worry
At the Leavers’ Ball held to mark our daughter’s last day at boarding school, there were only two topics of…
Deutsche Bank is a parable for our mad modern era
Among the numbers attached to the restructuring of Deutsche Bank announced by Chief Executive Christian Sewing this week, the 18,000…
Thankfully, the world is waking up to the threat of China
The Cabinet Secretary, Sir Mark Sedwill, is offering to meet Jeremy Corbyn about the Times story last week which reported…
Revealed: Tom Watson’s secret plan to oust Jeremy Corbyn
The phrase ‘existential crisis’ is thrown around too easily. But it is hard to find a better description of the…
I admit it: I enjoyed the Women’s World Cup
I was asked on to the BBC Today programme — my old manor — last week to talk about the…
Re-wilders forget that humans are nature too
‘Life pours back in.’ A score of us, listening to Charlie Burrell at the Knepp estate ten days ago, will…
The Democratic debates are proving to be the perfect advert for Trump
I have plenty of shamefaced company in having rashly predicted, as pundits are warned never to do, that Donald Trump…
The titanic battle between the former Tesco chiefs
How surprising to read one former Tesco chief, 82-year-old Lord MacLaurin, badmouthing another, Sir Terry Leahy. The surprise is because…
The biggest challenge for Boris isn’t this contest – it’s what comes next
Every campaign has a wobble — and Boris Johnson is getting his in early. A mix of complacency (he felt confident…
Why I’m not convinced by Boris
I had never heard of Mark Field until he was suspended for removing, in a commendably vigorous manner, the Greenpeace…
Abandoning stop and search would be abandoning a generation of kids
It was somehow inevitable that shortly after Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick announced a fall in violent crime, there would…
Smart motorways are very stupid
‘An attempted improvement which actually makes things worse.’ The Germans have a name for this — Verschlimmbesserung — and I…
Facebook’s new currency is not to be trusted
Friends of former Barclays chief executive John Varley — I don’t mean ‘people who speak to the media on his…
Boris’s big mistake? Agreeing to the BBC debate
Boris and his team made a mistake by agreeing to take part in Tuesday’s BBC leadership debate. In such decisions,…
When it comes to Trump, don’t count on the polls
New York The great ceremonial game of poll dancing is gearing up for its quadrennial orgy. Headlines across the fruited…
