Columnists
The Sizewell delusion
The Chancellor’s promise of £14 billion for the Sizewell C nuclear power station in Suffolk is hardly news. The project…
My plan for Prevent
In the autumn of 1940, British cities were being bombed every night by large aeroplanes whose provenance was apparently of…
How to ruin a city
Why would you choose to make a city crappy? Plenty of cities don’t have much going for them. But when…
Has deporting illegals become illegal?
The circus around Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia – whose full name the New York Times likes to trot out as…
Rachel Reeves, the Iron Chancer
Gordon Brown may not be every teenager’s political pin-up. But as an Oxford student, Rachel Reeves proudly kept a framed…
The BBC’s Israel problem
Intrepidly, the BBC dared recently to visit Dover, Delaware – source, it implied, of starvation in Gaza. I listened carefully…
Richard Hermer’s campaign against Britain
Five years ago, the man who is now Lord Hermer gave an interview to the Times. The then QC was…
The EU can’t resist empire-building
A wearisome aspect of modern political polarisation is feeling forced to take sides. Until recently, I felt I could contemplate…
What history doesn’t tell us
The trouble with history is that it is topiary. History is what’s left after the unwanted foliage has been clipped…
Don’t write off Kemi Badenoch
In the great game of musical chairs that is British politics, it’s impossible to foresee which contestant will be left…
Kemi’s one chance at recovery? Trussonomics
You may have noticed that for some while the BBC News people have stopped referring to Reform UK as ‘far…
Leave our period dramas alone!
It is a truth universally acknowledged that any article about Jane Austen must begin with a mangled, platitudinous variation on…
In praise of Michael O’Leory
NatWest has returned to full private-sector ownership 17 years after the £46 billion bailout that took it into state hands…
The derangement of Harvard
It is 60 years since William F. Buckley said that he would ‘rather be governed by the first 2,000 people…
Are beards a political statement?
Yes, it was right of the police to announce quickly that they did not think terrorism was the motive in…
The rise of the Red Queen
‘All Labour prime ministers go gaga for the Queen,’ sighed Cherie Blair, played by Helen McCrory, in the 2006 film…
Will Labour’s rail replacement service leave travellers stranded?
By spooky coincidence, on Saturday night I watched an old episode of Slow Horses in which a passenger died mysteriously…
How Covid broke Britain
It was at about this time, five years ago, that the workers at my (then) local farm shop began wearing…
The war on normality
Exciting news. To ‘showcase the vibrant diversity of both marine life and the LGBTQ+ community’, the visionary Bristol Aquarium has…
Keir Starmer’s intellectual barrenness
Keir Starmer’s appearance before Labour MPs on Monday was a crowded affair. Such was the level of excitement that organisers…
My VE Day in Kyrgyzstan
In travelling to Bishkek, I was heading for the hills. I had not expected to be marking the 80th anniversary…
The death of public discourse
It is said that since Donald Trump returned to the Oval Office, it is once again possible to use the…
Reform and the problem with the Overton window
In the space of about one month a further 9 per cent of the electorate has decided that the views…
The battle over fishing is a sideshow
So far, so routine. Labour wants to update and if possible upgrade the United Kingdom’s arrangements with our immediate neighbour…
I’ve reached zero tolerance on zero tolerance
I know an astonishing 89-year-old who climbs mountains, uses a chainsaw and has the muscular, vice-like grip of a gym-built…
