Leading article
How to save elephants
The Duke of Cambridge deserves credit for bringing his influence to bear on the growing tragedy of the elephant, whose…
A time to spend
There is nothing inevitable about the by now familiar sight of residents being towed away from flooded homes, of shops…
Floods of incompetence
When Prince Charles arrived in Somerset to meet some of those caught up in the disaster which in five weeks…
Rebels without a cause
Things could scarcely be going better for the Conservatives. Every week seems to bring more news of the recovery. High…
Pilling’s progress
Four bishops and a retired civil servant shut away in a palace, talking about human sexuality — it sounds like the…
Wolves of Whitehall
This week, Martin Scorsese’s film The Wolf of Wall Street opened and the Office of National Statistics reported that house…
Welfare wars
George Osborne is refreshingly uninterested in his public image, believing that he will be judged by the success (or otherwise)…
The power of choice
In one sense David Cameron is lucky that the Conservatives do not enter 2014 with a lead in the polls.…
Joy to the world
Pessimism sells. It shifts books and newspapers, sends ratings soaring. It fills lecture halls, wins research grants, makes political careers.…
By George, he’s got it!
George Osborne has not been a complete disappointment as Chancellor. He has, it is depressing to note, ended up giving…
Winter fuel
Fanciful predictions of all the deaths that will result from climate change, decades into the future, are regularly thrown into…
Alex Salmond’s economic policies would drive an independent Scotland into the ground
Within the white paper on economic policy in an independent Scotland that was published by Alex Salmond’s government this week…
Diplomatic meltdown
President Obama’s flagship foreign policy of ‘leading from behind’ has had some surprising consequences. Not least among them is that…
Remembering well
One remarkable fact of recent years is that even as the veterans of the first world war have died and…
High-speed fail
A year ago the electoral strategies of the two main parties seemed set. The Conservatives would stand as the party…
Tackling health tourism
In February, an NHS surgeon came to The Spectator’s offices to discuss a piece he felt it was time to…
Dim sums
Trade missions are almost comically pointless nowadays, as George Osborne’s visit demonstrated this week in Beijing. He is right that…
Blowing bubbles
In opposition, George Osborne said that you cannot borrow your way out of a debt crisis. In government, he has…
Drawing the lines
Every opposition leader sometimes needs to act as a saboteur. Ed Miliband showed his wrecking skills this week, picking a…
The end of Aids
In a week in which the world is once again invited to consider the prospect of climatic Armageddon, it would…
A climate glasnost
Next week, those who made dire predictions of ruinous climate change face their own inconvenient truth. The summary of the…
Saving the BBC
Three years ago, our columnist and former editor Charles Moore was summoned to Hastings Magistrates’ Court to pay £807 for…
The right man
By conventional wisdom, Tony Abbott should not become Prime Minister of Australia this weekend. He ought to be too conservative,…
A war without a purpose
There is something deeply disturbing about switching on the television and finding Jack Straw talking about the need to take…
Freedom and security
It is good to see the Guardian suddenly rediscover its interest in the sanctity of a free press. Just five…
