Diary

Diary

24 September 2022 9:00 am

When the Queen died, I was on my way to Kyiv. My mind focused on the war in Ukraine, I…

Diary

17 September 2022 9:00 am

I am completely and utterly devastated by the passing of our wonderful, inspirational Queen, as I’m sure are so many…

Diary

10 September 2022 9:00 am

Liz Truss doesn’t waste energy on unnecessary emotion. At the announcement of her victory at the QE2 Centre, she ditched…

Diary

3 September 2022 9:00 am

You wait 11 years for a Tory leadership election and then three come along in quick succession. The first in…

Diary

27 August 2022 9:00 am

She’ll never do it. She’d have to be mad. Why take the risk? That’s what everyone said when I announced…

Diary

20 August 2022 9:00 am

I love Suffolk, not just for its beauty but for the stories to be found all around me. Every day…

Diary

13 August 2022 9:00 am

We left prepared. Bottles of water, protein snacks, phone chargers, portable Scrabble (even the teenagers can look at the internet…

Diary

6 August 2022 9:00 am

The Season has ended and – apart from The Spectator’s summer bash of course – the two bang-up parties of…

Diary

30 July 2022 9:00 am

Two and a half years ago I joined the Tory party to vote for Boris, then unjoined as soon as…

Diary

23 July 2022 9:00 am

When I was a teenage Tory activist in the mid-1990s, I hoped one day I’d be part of a leadership…

Diary

16 July 2022 9:00 am

‘So what did he say?’ I asked the ministerial friend who went to tell Boris last week he had to…

Diary

9 July 2022 9:00 am

It feels like the end, but we’ve been here before. The past months of Boris Johnson’s teetering administration have felt…

Diary

2 July 2022 9:00 am

I made it through the airport crush to Berlin at the beginning of last week to see how Germany is…

Diary

25 June 2022 9:00 am

In 1977, when I set up the South Bank Show for ITV, I wanted Paul McCartney to be on the…

Diary

18 June 2022 9:00 am

To Windsor for Garter Day, the first since 2019. With a strong voice and smiles for us all, the Queen…

Diary

11 June 2022 9:00 am

I wish I could persuade certain cabinet ministers to put their money where their mouths are. Several times last month…

Diary

4 June 2022 9:00 am

When I was asked by an old friend to write this diary, I did my usual thing of: ‘Yeah I’d…

Diary

28 May 2022 9:00 am

I met a Canadian couple for lunch in Edinburgh. They were from Vancouver – he a judge, she an opera…

Diary

21 May 2022 9:00 am

It is a glorious spring evening in Lviv and what could be better than a ballet gala at one of…

Diary

14 May 2022 9:00 am

I wonder at times how some of my fellow hacks in America get out of bed in the morning. The…

Diary

7 May 2022 9:00 am

It has been wonderful to welcome seven refugees – and their four dogs – to my home in Suffolk. I’ve…

Diary

30 April 2022 9:00 am

I have just got back from Cannes, where I was the president of a jury, judging TV dramas. I’ve never…

Diary

23 April 2022 9:00 am

As you may have heard (if you haven’t, I’m losing my narcissistically self-promotional touch) my new TV show Piers Morgan…

Diary

16 April 2022 9:00 am

This week has been Passiontide, which means lots of wonderful plainsong in the choir of Canterbury Cathedral as my predecessors…

Diary

9 April 2022 9:00 am

  Strasbourg Europhobes will never have a better argument against European integration than the seat of the European parliament in…