The Spectator’s Notes
Give Hong Kongers real security: a British passport
We seem to be building up to a second Tiananmen Square, 30 years after the first. This time the venue…
Were the US shootings racially motivated?
Who wrote ‘Our lifestyle is destroying the environment of our country … creating a massive burden for future generations. Corporations…
What would you save, Marmite or the planet?
In his very long letter to Jeremy Corbyn about why, after all, he will stay out of the Labour party…
The conviction of ‘Nick’ shows the evil behind McCarthyism
‘No great surprise’ headlined the BBC television news on Tuesday lunchtime. The BBC does not admit it now, but it…
What would Jane Austen say about Debrett’s going digital?
Seventy-five years ago on Saturday, the July plot failed. Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg placed a bomb in a briefcase…
Sir Kim Darroch failed to recognise Trump’s communicative genius
When I last talked to Sir Kim Darroch, he was a slim young private secretary, so it was a long…
Thankfully, the world is waking up to the threat of China
The Cabinet Secretary, Sir Mark Sedwill, is offering to meet Jeremy Corbyn about the Times story last week which reported…
Boris’s big mistake? Agreeing to the BBC debate
Boris and his team made a mistake by agreeing to take part in Tuesday’s BBC leadership debate. In such decisions,…
The silliness of ‘serious’ leaders
You would think it would be unarguable that ‘Serious times demand a serious leader’. This, with small verbal variations, is…
My profoundly impractical, unquenchably generous, thoroughly benevolent father
My father Richard, who died last month aged 88, was a profoundly impractical man. He could not drive a car,…
The strangeness of Jeremy Hunt’s leadership campaign
Jeremy Hunt’s approach is very odd. It is the first time I remember an aspirant for the top job saying:…
If you’re going to leave Notre Dame in ruins, why not set fire to Oxford University?
Almost everyone agrees it is a pity that so few pupils from ‘disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds’ get into Oxford. But no…
What would happen if the Gospels were judged in a history contest?
This week, the Wolfson History Prize announced its shortlist. It is always worth drawing attention to, precisely because it is…
Is it Islamophobic to disagree with Baroness Warsi?
In his famous speech to both Houses of Parliament in March 1960, General De Gaulle praised Britain: ‘Although, since 1940,…
The logic behind Theresa May’s late move to Labour
There is a logic in Mrs May’s late move to Labour. It is the same logic by which both parties,…
The obvious solution to the problem of Brexit
There is an obvious solution to the Brexit problem. It is based on a recognition that we want out and…
Britain’s fate now lies in the hands of Angela Merkel
Angela Merkel says disdainfully, ‘I admit I was not on top of the British parliament’s 17th-century procedural rules.’ Her implication…
Leadership requires imagination, but Theresa May has never displayed any
I had forgotten, until I checked this week, that Mrs May timed the general election of June 2017 in order…
Artists are not always good people, but should their work really be boycotted?
A kind billionaire called Jeremy Hosking, whom I do not know personally, has invited us to join the Britannia Express,…
Corbyn’s handling of Brexit has been magnificently opportunistic
Jeremy Corbyn never ceases to attack Mrs May for trying to run down the clock. She has certainly done that,…
Carrying cash is becoming a minority occupation like smoking
The BBC reported on Tuesday that the proposed closure of Honda’s plant at Swindon was largely caused by the prospect…
It turns out I sound much cleverer in French
On Tuesday, Le Monde published a piece it had commissioned from me to explain why, from a British point of…
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 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…
