Features
Coffee break
I gave up coffee a couple of weeks ago. I won’t pretend it was easy. The physical withdrawal began with…
What are the Tories for?
It’s time for the Conservatives to rediscover conservatism
West Middlewick Farm
In springtime in our family, we always have the same old argument: where should we go on our summer holiday…
Alt-hate
At the start of the year, a Facebook friend messaged me, telling me that she and a chum had been…
Hands off our Ruth
At last, there is light in the north. The long Scottish Tory winter has finally ended, giving way to the…
Corbyn copy
Since the election, Jeremy Corbyn has been parading himself as prime-minister-in-waiting. ‘Cancellation of President Trump’s State Visit is welcome,’ he…
The Macron miracle
Paris While Theresa May flounders in a mess of her own making, Emmanuel Macron is striding out on to the…
Fad diets are just junk
Why do we do it? We really need to stop supporting the snake-oil industry. We know there is no such…
Oceans apart
Readers of The Spectator will be familiar with the argument that climate change, like Britpop, ended in 1998. Raised on…
The Maybot 3000
Had Theresa May won the election with the landslide she expected, she’d have fired several of the cabinet with her…
The doorstep
You have probably been hearing a lot about doorsteps recently. Politicians love to demonstrate how much they care about ordinary,…
The killing God
On 6 July 1535, the severed head of England’s former lord chancellor, Sir Thomas More, was carried across London Bridge…
Generation wars
British general elections have often evolved from contests between parties into battles between two opposing themes or ideas. In 1964,…
To catch a jihadi
My taxi was about 90 seconds behind the murderers who struck on London Bridge last week. My wife and I…
Post-truth, pure nonsense
For as long as there have been politicians, they have lied, fabricated and deceived. The manufacture of falsehood has changed…
Big trouble in little Qatar
Washington DC At 8:06 on Tuesday morning the Tweeter-in-Chief reached for his Android phone and told the world: ‘During my…
Let there be dark
Who’s afraid of the dark? Who now fears shadows and bumps in the night? Where do you even find any…
Weak and wobbly
When Theresa May decided to go for an early election, she transformed the nature of her premiership. Up to that…
Duchy original
The Cornish nationalist party Mebyon Kernow (‘sons of Cornwall’) is not contesting any seats in the general election. Its leader…
Corbyn for PM?
‘The news that Harry Perkins was to become prime minister went down very badly in the Athenaeum.’ Thus begins my…
Writing wrongs
Does anyone still care about handwriting? Although it was for centuries the medium and motor of daily life, handwriting has…
The madness of King Donald
Washington DC The panhandlers outside the White House hold signs saying: ‘Trump is President — saving to leave the country.’…
Chez newts
The dragon hung motionless above the surface of the earth, belly picked out in the colours of fire and a…
A rugby legend
‘There’s a chance we’ll meet up with Richie McCaw in Christchurch,’ proffered the PR on our New Zealand press trip.…
Kentish wine
As a wine bore, holidays abroad are a battle with the family to cram in as many vineyard visits as…
