Features
Cut the price of stamps to save the Christmas card
Readers with a nervous disposition should turn the page because I’m going to be sprinkling the C-word across the next…
How Prague cured me of my communism
Proust can keep his soggy madeleine. For me the word ‘Prague’ is a trigger of memory like no other. It…
Picking mulberries is my rebellion against modernity
Behind the ticket booth at Levens Hall, Cumbria, is an old black mulberry tree (Morus nigra) that vastly improves the…
I watched Chris Packham’s climate crisis film so you don’t have to
The podium is out, what looks like a government logo fixed in the corner: we are watching the People’s Emergency…
There’s still time to save the West
When The Spectator asked me whether I would write an essay on ‘Why we need to strengthen the West’, I was delighted…
Revealed: the feuding at the heart of Reform
If Tolstoy had written about British politics, he might have noted: ‘Happy parties are all alike; every unhappy party is…
Enjoy Anglican priests while you still can
Something amazing happened as I was walking my 91-year-old mother through Ledbury: we saw a bobby on the beat. He…
Why won’t the UK curtail the Muslim Brotherhood?
What should the British government do about the Muslim Brotherhood? This question has confounded policy-makers for decades and was brought…
Are Ukraine’s deep strikes simply strengthening Putin’s hand?
Are Ukraine’s deep strikes against Russia helping Kyiv win the war or strengthening the hand of Kremlin hardliners? Since early…
Death to the dinner party!
It’s time to put the dinner party out of its misery. Oh, and the awards dinner, dining with the cruise…
The great whataboutery delusion
If you live near the frontiers of acceptable opinion, as any thinking person must surely do, you quickly find that…
Don’t grow a beard
I was looking at a photo of my great-grandfather the other day and admiring his beard. A magnificent spade-shaped affair,…
There’s a logic to Donald Trump’s incendiary diplomacy
On his very first day as Colombia’s new President, Abelardo de la Espriella received a dramatic house-warming gift: a billion…
Class clowns: the triumph of inanity over academia
Daniel Defoe observed that plague victims ‘never perceiv’d that they were infected’ until they discovered the ‘tokens’ on their skin.…
Why Nigel Farage’s ‘Australia-style’ border policy is doomed to fail
When I served as Australia’s High Commissioner in London, I was naturally flattered by how often British politicians and officials…
Who decides if a word is racist?
I swear Rod Liddle was smiling down on me last week, as I found myself tussling with an editor. I’d…
When does killing the enemy become murder?
When is extrajudicial killing just war by other means, and when does it become a state-sponsored act of terror? ‘We…
Do you have Old Money Face?
Recently, I have started to worry about my face. Early in the morning, before the children wake up, I’m sure…
Nothing beats writing by hand
I wrote the first drafts of both of my children’s novels by hand. It’s a great feeling: tactile, calming, a…
Puttshack has ruined crazy golf
It is a great family disappointment that I could never get into golf. My late grandfather would become so engrossed…
I didn’t want to like Rod Liddle
One of the joys of being director of digital at The Spectator, back in 2015, was seeing the magazine proofs…
‘The Middlesbrough Shakespeare’: Why I loved Rod
I met Rod 22 years ago this month. We had been selected as team-mates on a gameshow pilot, and, halfway…
Rod had one great regret
In 2019 I had to explain to Iain Dale – live on LBC – that Rod Liddle’s suggestion in his…
‘I asked for a substitute for the f-word. He suggested the c-word’: the joy of editing Rod
It was in Westminster Magistrates’ Court, where I was sitting waiting for the judge’s verdict, that I decided I needed…
Good riddance, Rod
When a famous right-wing, straight white male dies, if your first instinct isn’t to gloat and trash his reputation then…
