Columnists
Why austerity is coming to an end
The last day of the parliamentary term is usually an occasion for the government to get a whole bunch of…
The more extreme the left’s screeches, the greater the populist surge
The latest exciting news is that it may very soon be possible for surgeons to perform uterine transplants, so endowing…
Who remembers the greatest crusader?
For your perfect summer read I’d recommend Zoé Oldenbourg’s 1949 classic medieval adventure The World Is Not Enough. It’ll comfortably…
Full-fibre broadband by 2033? I wish I could believe you, minister
I bought BT’s offer of an upgrade to ‘superfast’ broadband because the standard service seemed to be deteriorating just as…
Why dismiss a Catholic priest for being Catholic?
They’re just kids! What’s your problem? This has become the default reaction of a whole raft of clever people to…
The sense of betrayal feeds the demand for a no-deal Brexit. Watch this space
The collapse of Mrs May’s Chequers plan, followed by Tuesday’s failure of the Tory Remainers to defeat the government, creates…
May’s summer delusion: the recess won’t solve anything
The summer holidays couldn’t come soon enough for Theresa May. So desperate was she to get MPs away from Westminster…
Real football fans don’t care about race
It’s middle-class commentators – not supporters – who seem obsessed with the number of black players There were altogether too many darkies in England’s World Cup…
Brexit is in chaos. It’s time to delay it – then stop it
Omissions can be as instructive as inclusions. I noted a curious example in a column Nick Timothy wrote last month…
In the end, the Remainers will win. The powerful always do
Before the referendum, I predicted behind closed doors that even if Leave improbably prevailed, Britain’s political establishment would ensure that…
An amoral money world needs ethical campaigners more than ever
When I first visited Canary Wharf in the early 1990s, I was struck by a set of black-and-white posters in…
Why did Theresa May ‘clear’ the EU deal with Merkel before consulting her colleagues?
Why do the British turn to the Germans in their moments of European trouble? It never works. When Jacques Delors…
This is Brexit in name only to keep the plebs happy
My wife has decided she likes Dominic Raab, the latest poor sap to be despatched from a hamstrung, spasticated government…
Ukip’s on the verge of a spectacular comeback – and it’s all thanks to Theresa May
Paul Joseph Watson, Count Dankula and Sargon of Akkad have joined Ukip. Let that sink in. This is an in-joke…
Why do so many women feel such a strong urge to paint?
Why do so many women feel such a strong urge to paint? It has been troubling me for years now.…
Data breaches show we’re only three clicks away from anarchy
An IT glitch afflicting BP petrol stations for three hours last Sunday evening might not sound like headline news. A…
Does anyone know how we can entice our house martins back?
Newsmax, the magazine of the eponymous US conservative multiplatform network, carries a full page advertisement for ‘The Presidential 1911 Pistol’,…
Can Brexiteers stomach May’s Brexit blueprint?
It isn’t just Brexit that worries the government, as the cabinet meeting this week demonstrated. Much of it was taken…
I’m off to Woman Fest (I’ll be self-identifying for the day)
At last I have found a summer festival I can attend in good faith without the possibility of Jeremy Corbyn…
The term ‘marriage’ needs to be untangled
Rebecca Steinfeld (37) and Charles Keidan (41) have a moral objection to marriage. They’ve been together since 2010, have two…
You don’t win an argument by getting personal
‘If you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant,’ Democratic Representative Maxine Waters railed to a California rally last…
Enjoy your feelgood summer while you can – there may be trouble ahead
I’ve been on a mini-tour, full of echoes and warnings. First, to the Grange Festival in Hampshire, where we might…
The internal logic of the NHS makes it ruthlessly cold-hearted
Gordon Brown, echoing Aneurin Bevan, says that the greatest gift that the NHS brings to people is ‘serenity’. He is…
July 2018 could prove to be Theresa May’s cruellest month
Theresa May is about to embark on the toughest month of her premiership to date. Next week, she must persuade…
There’s a reason restaurants everywhere are failing: Red Hen Syndrome
Anxious to find out what food they served at the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia, I clicked on the…
