Leading article
Thank heavens for Welby!
For decades, interventions of the Archbishop of Canterbury in national debate were like a sporadic bombardment of small pebbles against…
Devolution vs democracy
Imagine if, in one of her first acts as First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon announced that, in spite of…
How to fight Ukip
In the 2005 general election this magazine supported the Conservatives, with one exception — we urged voters in Medway not to…
Dicing with debt
George Osborne has declared victory over Ed Balls, the IMF and all the others who warned that his austerity measures…
Turkey goes cold
Turkey has long been a bridge between the West and the Middle East. Its record on free speech may be…
How to beat Ebola
There is something depressing about the fact that it has taken a sick Spanish nurse to put Ebola back on…
Think again, Mrs May
If the Labour party conference in Manchester felt like a funeral, the Conservatives’ gathering in Birmingham had the air of…
The good fight
It is a mark of the uncertainty of our policy in the Middle East that just over a year ago…
The age of rage
In his short and infrequent visits to Scotland this year, the Prime Minister should have found time to speak to…
How to save a country
Next week, the most important vote in recent British history will be held. Indeed, it may well turn out to…
A new Nato
This week’s Nato summit was originally intended to look back on lessons learned from Afghanistan and reflect on the notion…
Rotten borough
If Rotherham council were a family, its children would have been removed by social services long ago, and Ma and…
Give them shelter
The tale is now familiar: shouts are heard from inside a freight container and police are called. A cargo of…
World disorder
The old cliché that ‘nothing happens in August’ has again been brutally disproved. From the centenary of the outbreak of…
The welfare line
George Osborne proposed an attractive idea this week: that spending on state benefits should be diverted into new infrastructure in…
Unfair welfare
With Ukip snapping at the Conservatives’ heels, it is not difficult to see why David Cameron has hit upon the…
Let the people judge
Dominic Grieve was a worthy attorney-general whose career was helped by this magazine: nine years ago, he was named Spectator…
School lessons
During his time as Education Secretary, Michael Gove would often have occasion to quote a passage of Machiavelli: ‘There is…
Climatic correctness
Listen to ‘Is climate change a factor in the recent extreme weather?’ on Audioboo It is only a matter of…
Let’s stop slavery – again
Who would have expected to find slavery on the outskirts of Cardiff? Not the locals, who were shocked when police…
Censors silenced
We have not heard much from Hugh Grant this week. Nor from Max Mosley, Steve Coogan or any of the…
What the West has lost
It would have been easy enough to imagine the 25th anniversary of the Eastern European revolutions being marked with a…
The new Iraq war
Seven weeks ago, Barack Obama proclaimed that ‘it’s time to turn the page on more than a decade of war’.…
Tory wars, contd
Modern Conservatives seem to be allergic to success. Every time things are going right, the party spasms. Sir John Major’s…
Europe’s slippery slope
This week, the European parliament took a strong lurch to the left. That is not quite the story that you…
