The Spectator’s Notes
Greta’s right about Cop being useless
Greta Thunberg said, in a newspaper interview, that Cop27 is a ‘scam’ for ‘greenwashing, lying and cheating’. Then she said…
The personal faith of PMs
I have seen it suggested that because Rishi Sunak is a Hindu, it would be wrong for him to have…
Has a Conservative government got any power at all?
In the House of Commons on Monday, someone accused Liz Truss’s government of being ‘in office but not in power’.…
Why should Tom Watson be given a peerage and not Paul Dacre?
Much of this is not Liz Truss’s fault. The great big adjustment all over the West is that the era…
The trouble with Nick Robinson’s Thoughts for the Day
Thought for the Day appears every morning on BBC Radio 4. This preachy slot is hallowed by longevity, if not…
The genius of Hilary Mantel
Yes, but why did the IMF put out its Tuesday night statement? Even if all its criticisms of the government’s…
Should Queen Elizabeth II be made a saint?
If this were a Catholic country, up would go the cry for canonisation. When Pope John Paul II died, the…
The night the Queen refused to read my book
‘So it is come at last, the distinguished thing!’ exclaimed Henry James on his deathbed. Such a thought is reflected…
Why Liz Truss’s political journey matters
As is now well known, Liz Truss has travelled politically. Her parents are left-wing, and there is a photograph of her…
Trimble may prove to be Unionism's last statesman
David Trimble, who has just died, has rightly been praised for his courage. History may prove him to have been…
Who can read Penny Mordaunt?
Whitehall is telling ministers that this is a ‘caretaker’ government and so, by convention, cannot take decisions. This is not…
The triumph of ethnic-minority Tories
If you had said, even ten years ago, that there was no chance of a white male cabinet minister becoming…
Thatcher and Boris: the problems of downfall
Few leaders could be as different in character as Margaret Thatcher and Boris Johnson, but one can compare their predicaments…
Who monitors the moralists?
If anyone was suitable to be the Prime Minister’s adviser on ministerial interests, it was Lord Geidt. Self-effacing, professional, unself-righteous…
Why neither Andrew Neil nor I can be part of the Establishment
Even before the ECHR injunction, the bishops had issued their anathema. All 25 of them in the House of Lords…
Boris’s cheerers will feel cheated if he goes
It was reported gleefully that Boris Johnson was booed as he entered St Paul’s Cathedral for the Jubilee Thanksgiving service…
Monarchy is the guarantor of democracy
Like many people who do not share his views, I have felt intermittent admiration for Peter Tatchell over the past…
The endless tiny errors of the NHS
I wrote recently elsewhere about Jeremy Hunt’s good new book examining unnecessary deaths in the NHS. Someone should write a…
Why parliament should move to Stoke
Justified relief that soldiers are now coming out of the Azovstal steelworks alive is accompanied by anxiety about what might…
Prince Charles and a living history lesson
When I was a lobby journalist, I never went to the State Opening of Parliament. I much regret it, because…
The truth about Roe vs Wade
As we get back into Roe vs Wade, prompted by the leak of what is said to be the US…
Putin’s argument is blood
My friend, the novelist Alan Judd, emails with the right quotation for those who argue that Putin should be given…
The case against a European army
The end of the Cold War was used by the victors to unite Germany. To balance this, Europhiles created a…
Spies shouldn’t be political
Now that events in Ukraine are restoring a sense of proportion about the difference between aggressive autocracies and free countries,…
What would have happened in the Falklands if Thatcher had been a man?
Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands 40 years ago. I had joined the Daily Telegraph as a reporter in 1979 and…
