Columnists
Why passengers won’t mourn the passing of Virgin trains
‘Virgin trains could be gone from the UK in November,’ blogged Sir Richard Branson from his billionaire hideaway after the…
Is it Islamophobic to disagree with Baroness Warsi?
In his famous speech to both Houses of Parliament in March 1960, General De Gaulle praised Britain: ‘Although, since 1940,…
A general election is now Brexit’s last best chance
It’s been even more humiliating second time round. The United Kingdom has again been reduced to asking the European Union…
The transgender agenda could topple intersectionality
It is a great disappointment to me that my phrases don’t get picked up by other writers and then society…
My advice to Leavers: go for a second referendum – you might just win
My first encounter with a plan to hold not one but two referendums on Britain’s European Union membership happened more…
Dear Remainer parliament: you won. Now revoke Article 50 – if you dare
Dear Remainer parliament. Although we’re the voters who spurned the petition for this very course of action, we the undersigned…
Germany’s economy is crashing – but its fall may help save us
This is no time for schadenfreude — but take comfort from the fact that the UK isn’t built like Germany.…
The logic behind Theresa May’s late move to Labour
There is a logic in Mrs May’s late move to Labour. It is the same logic by which both parties,…
In what possible way was Nick Boles ever a Conservative?
Who is your favourite brave Remainer Conservative MP? Anna Soubry has to be near the top of the list, for…
How I know the Conservative party is doomed
Gosh, it’s depressing watching the natural party of government committing slow-motion suicide. It’s depressing even if you’re not, as I…
UK business investment has nosedived – what’s to blame?
Business investment in the UK declined in all four quarters of 2018 to complete a year-on-year dive of 2.4 per cent,…
The obvious solution to the problem of Brexit
There is an obvious solution to the Brexit problem. It is based on a recognition that we want out and…
Muller has led to the vindication – not the destruction – of Donald Trump
Washington Robert Mueller’s two-year investigation into ‘Russiagate’ was meant to bring down President Donald Trump. That was the plan.…
Imagine the uproar if Remain had won, but MPs then made Britain leave
Sometimes it’s worth addressing what didn’t happen. For one exasperating aspect of appearing on television news is leaving the studio…
Outlawing ‘Islamophobia’ would help jihadis
Last weekend the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, described the massacre in Christchurch as the result ‘of failing to root…
The real winner from Brexodus won’t be Frankfurt, Paris or Dublin
How big is Brexodus — the flight of business and people from the City of London in parallel with our…
Britain’s fate now lies in the hands of Angela Merkel
Angela Merkel says disdainfully, ‘I admit I was not on top of the British parliament’s 17th-century procedural rules.’ Her implication…
On the subject of John Bercow
You can buy the latest edition of Thomas Erskine May’s Parliamentary Practice for just over three hundred quid, but I…
In defence of snake oil
A few months ago I had possibly the best massage I’ve ever had. My masseuse, Anouschka, had learned her skills…
There’s an arms race underway – between headphones and musak
I live with a ghost, or rather, I share an address with a man who’s been dead for many years.…
Merging two unhappy companies is a recipe for disaster
It never works to take two unhappy companies and blend them into a bigger pile of misery. That’s the way…
Leadership requires imagination, but Theresa May has never displayed any
I had forgotten, until I checked this week, that Mrs May timed the general election of June 2017 in order…
Can the Republican Party finally win over minority voters?
Washington, DC Republican strategists have long complained about how, every election, the Democrats mobilise minority groups against them. Now they’re…
Why I’ve joined the SDP (and why you should, too)
I was down the pub with my wife last week, out in the tiny smoking section, when a woman with…
What you learn standing on a street corner in Beirut
A pale sun had emerged from wintry clouds and the hillsides were topped snowy white. But all around me was…
