Columnists
![[GETTY IMAGES]](https://www.spectator.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/GettyImages_3288778.jpg?w=410&h=275&crop=1)
My diversity targets for the BBC
Terrible news for gay broadcasters — the BBC has only one year to meet a diversity target which says that…
The day I had enough of experts
‘Don’t even try,’ said the man on the car deck as Brittany Ferries’ Finistère tied up on the dock in…
![Virginia governor Ralph Northam, who is facing calls to resign after admitting he had worn blackface [WIN McNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES]](https://www.spectator.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Ralph_Northam.jpg?w=410&h=275&crop=1)
Without forgiveness, we’re all doomed
Over Christmas, I digitised slides from my twenties. In many an unidentified photograph, I didn’t recognise the scene. Where was…
![John Maynard Keynes [GETTY IMAGES]](https://www.spectator.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/GettyImages_3296722.jpg?w=410&h=275&crop=1)
What would Keynes make of a looming no-deal Brexit?
‘It is seldom wise to sacrifice a present evil for a doubtful advantage in the future,’ wrote John Maynard Keynes…
The genius of Titania McGrath
I am in a small minority in turning off the news when it is not about Brexit. The slow, agonising…
The Tories have never been less prepared for a general election
‘What would a Conservative manifesto say on Brexit?’ Many Tories consider this question a slam-dunk argument against an early election.…
Trump is divisive. He splits his opposition perfectly
Washington, DC Donald Trump, the unity president — doesn’t sound right, does it? Trump is, we know, divisive. Under his…
Arthritis, nerve pain and chronic fatigue: my life with Lyme disease
Some medical experts claim that Lyme disease is worse than cancer. It’s not a competition, but I do know one…
The Nissan move shows Britain is losing its competitive edge
Has ‘Jay’ Powell gone wobbly, or does he know something we don’t? That was the question being asked after the…
Is it society’s job to stop people singing racist jokes?
Where would you rather come from, Pakistan or Liverpool? Assuming you were somehow given a retrospective choice in the matter.…
Why are we allowing ourselves to be held to ransom by has-been Irish militants?
When politics goes round in circles, the columnist inevitably revisits issues that would have been sorted if only everyone read…
The super rich aren’t all bad – some even pay their taxes
Paying tax — which many of us have been doing this week before HMRC’s 31 January deadline — is a…
Could Kamala Harris be the Democrats’ dream antidote to Trump?
Washington, DC It’s no secret that President Donald Trump has women problems. His relationship with his wife seems strained. Feminists…
The EU’s hard-border bluff will soon collapse – and then it can get serious about Brexit
The House of Commons does work better than it seems to, I promise you. When a big subject comes up,…
When ‘politician’ is the biggest insult of them all
This column has laughed before at the BBC’s satirical wit in having a slot called ‘Reality Check’ on Brexit. If…
Brexit goes back to the backstop
As the prime minister walks up the main staircase in No. 10, he or she must pass the portrait of…
Even in moderate Malaysia, anti-Semitism is rife
The question I had hoped to pose this week was this: ‘Do people dislike Diane Abbott because she is black…
The scent of London has changed: all I can smell now is cannabis
Fewer people are smoking cannabis these days, down to 1.4 million from two million, they say. I say, if you…
No luxury has ever disappointed me as much as my wood-burning stove
When I first heard rumours that Michael Gove was planning to go round the country with his environmental Gestapo, ripping…
Nobody who’s anybody was at Davos this year. Here’s why
Nobody who’s anybody is in Davos this week and, as usual, neither am I. World leaders from Donald Trump to…
In defence of unicorns
The scale of the government’s defeat on Mrs May’s deal is, as everyone keeps saying, amazing — yet also not.…
It’s Salmond vs Sturgeon – and whoever wins, the SNP loses
Amid the wreckage of a Brexit process that has disrupted every aspect of British political life, it is easy to…
On Nobel Prize winners and Mastermind losers
I once worked my way through two whole books of IQ tests devised by Hans Eysenck and by the time…
Leavers have just killed the best chance of Brexit ever happening
When intelligent, informed and rational people make a choice that onlookers can see confounds their own declared interests, we are…
Why do authors have to be ‘moral’? Because their publishing contracts tell them so
Suppose you’re a writer with a self-destructive proclivity for sticking your neck out. Would you sign a book contract that…
