Status anxiety
I’m back on the ‘public humiliation diet’ – thanks to my kids
I’m on holiday with my family in Turks and Caicos, and maintaining my current weight is proving difficult. Regular readers…
By taking on grouse-shooting, Labour is risking rural jobs
The Glorious Twelfth this year, signalling the start of the grouse-shooting season, was overshadowed by a Labour party press release…
Donald Trump isn’t to blame for America’s mass shootings
The BBC’s flagship news and current affairs programme wasn’t in any doubt about who to blame for America’s latest bout…
I’m considering joining the police – they need me
I was driving to Gunnersbury Park last Sunday for my weekly 10K run when I caught the tail end of…
If you want a pro-Boris pundit, please pick me!
The changing of the guard at 10 Downing Street always creates opportunities for the commentariat. I don’t just mean it…
I’m starting a trade union for intellectuals
I have just returned from Minneapolis after attending the annual conference of the International Society for Intelligence Research. That’s ‘intelligence’…
I love Boris for not firing me when I wrote a play about his sex life
Fourteen years ago, almost to the day, Lloyd Evans and I received a note from Boris. It was the press…
Scotland and Wales have much to learn from England’s education reforms
I’ve contributed a chapter to an education book published this week by the Institute of Economic Affairs. I was asked…
Britain is becoming more meritocratic, not less
You have to admire the Sutton Trust’s PR skills. For those who don’t know, the Sutton Trust is a social…
Is this a turning point in the culture war?
Something rather wonderful happened last week for those of us who have been the victims of a public shaming —…
It’s a scandal that the BBC can still tax anyone who owns a TV
If I were a pensioner, I’d be a bit miffed by the BBC’s decision to end the policy of giving…
Budweiser flags up how Pride has been taken over by woke corporations
Maurice Bowra, the flamboyant warden of Wadham College from 1938 to 1970, once argued against the legalisation of homosexuality on…
The fanatical thinking that’s on its way to British schools
For anyone who isn’t following the long march of racial self-flagellation through America’s institutions, last week’s revelations about the excesses…
How paranoia has infected our politics
The politics professor Matthew Goodwin made an interesting observation on Twitter this week. He pointed out that many of the…
In defence of British landowners (and the truth about grouse moors)
I was surprised to read the article by Ben Macdonald in last week’s Spectator urging Britain’s grouse moor owners to…
The UN’s extinction warning doesn’t add up
Anyone watching the BBC’s News at Ten on Monday would have been surprised to learn that economic growth poses a…
Charities are allowed to be political – if they’re left wing
On Monday, I appeared on Good Morning Britain to debate President Trump’s forthcoming state visit with Asad Rehman, the executive…
What would a Corbyn victory mean for me?
Until now, I haven’t been too worried about Jeremy Corbyn. True, he exceeded expectations two years ago, but that was…
No mere mortal could possibly keep up with Game of Thrones
By the time you read this, James Delingpole and I will have made our first podcast in 596 days. That’s…
Being ‘down with the kids’ has turned the Tories into a laughing stock
The news that 83 per cent of Conservative voters are over 45, compared to 53 per cent of Labour voters,…
Now – as in the Soviet Union – making a joke can be a dangerous, life-changing mistake
I was surprised to learn that the novelist Milan Kundera celebrated his 90th birthday on Monday. I had no idea…
Jordan Peterson and mob rule at the University of Cambridge
On Monday, the vice-chancellor of Cambridge university, Stephen Toope, issued a statement defending the decision of the divinity faculty to…
Why the LGBT health panel isn’t diverse enough
On Monday, the government announced that Penny Mordaunt, the Minister for Women and Equalities as well as the Secretary of…
Why is it only privately educated women who get to lecture people about ‘oppression’?
Scarcely a week passes without a privately educated young woman with a successful career in journalism publishing a book about…
Gone are the days when the middle class could afford to go skiing
It won’t be news to readers of The Spectator that one of the long-term effects of globalisation is the hollowing…
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