The Spectator’s Notes
The Spectator’s Notes
‘Show, don’t tell’ is the mantra of PR advisers when telling public figures how to communicate. Pope Francis’s technique does…
The Spectator’s Notes
Maria Miller’s forced resignation is a disgrace. No iniquity was proved against her. Over her expenses, I suspect her motive…
The Spectator’s Notes
The Daily Telegraph’s revelation last Friday that the Financial Conduct Authority was going to arraign companies for 30 years of…
The Spectator’s notes
Everyone can see that the West has no idea what to do about Russian power in the Ukraine. Britain, in…
The Spectator’s Notes
Thirty years ago this Saturday, I became editor of this magazine. In the same month, the miners’ strike began, Anthony…
The Spectator’s Notes
People seem bewildered that the National Council for Civil Liberties in the late 1970s gave house-room to the Paedophile Information…
The Spectator’s Notes
It is 15 years since the publication of the Macpherson Report into the investigation of the death of Stephen Lawrence.…
The Spectator’s notes
Those of us who want a referendum on the European Union need to be cautious in our approach to the…
The Spectator’s Notes
Last week, David Cameron said that we have ‘seven months to save the most extraordinary country in history’. He meant…
The Spectator’s Notes
The accusation that the Tories have been installing their people in public appointments should evoke only a hollow laugh. They…
The Spectator’s Notes
Our neighbour Philip Merricks is a farmer on Romney Marsh, 90 per cent of whose land is below sea level.…
The Spectator’s Notes
When I interviewed Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, the former president of France, for my biography of Margaret Thatcher, I asked him…
The Spectator’s Notes
Who owns Scotland? The people who most commonly ask this question believe that the land has been wrested from ordinary…
The Spectator’s Notes
In Dublin, where I am writing this column, people are watching the Scottish referendum campaign more closely than in London.…
The Spectator’s Notes
Boris Johnson’s Margaret Thatcher Lecture to the Centre for Policy Studies attracted attention for its remarks about IQ, but the…
The Spectator’s Notes
There has naturally been plenty of unfavourable comment on how the Revd Paul Flowers, the ‘crystal Methodist’, was allowed by…
The Spectator’s Notes
There has not been much good news out of Greece since the eurozone powers decided to crush the country, but…
The Spectator’s Notes
The most extraordinary thing about the scandal of Unite at Grangemouth and in Falkirk is how long it took the…
The Spectator’s Notes
As I write, the World Islamic Economic Forum is opening in London, the first time it has been held in…
The Spectator’s Notes
I do not know whether the Greek gypsy couple accused of abducting a girl called Maria are guilty, but I…
The Spectator’s Notes
AS THE WHOLE Leveson wrangle approaches its climax (or anti-climax), one collateral, innocent victim of it all is the Queen.…
The Spectator’s Notes
Friends of mine called Georgiana and Mouse Campbell recently bought a new house. In the period between completion and moving…
The Spectator’s Notes
Manchester For those of us of a certain age, Ed Miliband’s speech last week was exhilaratingly nostalgic. His promise to…
The Spectator’s Notes
No doubt it will happen, because the Tories will not dare oppose it, but is there any conceivable good reason…





























