The Spectator’s Notes
The West needs to spread doubt and fear
Zakhar Prilepin is a well-known novelist in Russia and an ultra-nationalist warrior in Donbas. Once a member of the National…
Is Putin really losing?
I remember my father telling me about Imre Nagy’s final broadcast before the Hungarian leader was taken by the Russians…
Putin is bad, not mad
I wish people would not say Vladimir Putin is mad. One understands him much better if one says he is…
The true meaning of 'emergency'
Much attention has been paid to how Vladimir Putin has learnt from western weakness over his earlier invasions, including into…
What Putin has in common with Hitler
We are always cautioned against comparing a modern political event with those that led up to the second world war.…
What would Thatcher have made of Putin?
When Sir Tony Brenton writes a letter to the Times, as he frequently does, it always says at the bottom…
Why Falklanders should fear China
In a lecture I recently gave to mark the approaching 40th anniversary of the Falklands War, one of the questions…
Downing Street’s growing problem
In answers to questions following his statement in the Commons on Monday, Boris Johnson let drop an interesting statistic. He…
Is Putin the reason my house is so cold?
Justin Webb is normally one of the least self-righteous BBC presenters, but he was out-Maitlising rivals on the Today programme…
The curious case of Barry Gardiner
In May 2020, in the wake of the Barnard Castle story, Emily Maitlis delivered her famous Newsnight address to the…
My new nickname for Putin
According to the new Chief of the Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the Russians wish to ‘put at risk…
Why is Microsoft offended by ‘Mrs Thatcher’?
The interregnum between incumbents is a well-known and often elongated process in the Church of England. I have recently witnessed…
Lockdown has made poachers bolder – and more dangerous
One midnight last month, Jon Wiltshire, who lives in a cottage just outside our Sussex village, was woken by a…
Who will be the Democrats’ Gorbachev?
As this paper has argued since the time of the Tiananmen Square massacres, this country should offer Hong Kong people…
Peppa Pig’s conservative values
I like to think that Boris Johnson’s rambling performance at the CBI this week was a satire against the organisation…
National Trust members fight back
At the National Trust’s annual general meeting last week, the voting was much more unusual than the public will have…
The cold hard truth about heat pumps
When I went to Poland not long before Covid, I found a country more bitterly divided by a culture war…
Why the baby doomers are wrong
Rarely does a piece of journalism bring a tear to my normally cynical eye, but I did find this happening…
In defence of Angela Rayner
On the one occasion when I spent any time with Angela Rayner, she was funny, direct and friendly. We were…
The legacy of Stephen Toope
Stephen Toope, Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, has begun this academic year by announcing it will be his last in the…
Is the world we value falling apart?
From time to time, people get worried and ask one another: ‘Is the world falling apart?’ I imagine this is…
The BBC exaggerates Britain’s importance in Afghanistan
This week, the media pressure was on the British government to extend the deadline for the evacuations from Kabul airport.…
It is shabby of Biden to blame the Afghans
Q. Is a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan now inevitable? The President: No, it is not. Q. Why? The President: Because…
What ministers won’t admit about A-levels
The tale of A-levels shows how ministers can sometimes find themselves in a position when it is simply too dangerous…
Chris Packham’s suggestions to save the world
On Monday 2 August, the BBC Today programme offered its ‘Countdown to COP26’. For the rest of the month, Amol…
