Leading article
Blundering on
Yet again, the Conservative party has reminded us that it is quite capable of losing the next election. The events…
French lessons
François Hollande and Ed Miliband could be political blood brothers. Neither has held down a job outside politics for any…
The price of weakness
One cannot legislate for a quiet world. When a former Princeton University college professor was elected president of the United…
Pensions revolution
It is easy to see why George Osborne seemed so confident ahead of the Budget. His radical reform of the…
Mother country
Next week’s Budget marks George Osborne’s last chance to make a game-changing reform before the next election. The Chancellor will…
Who speaks for Europe?
For the first time in many years, the eyes of the world are on Crimea. As Russian troops violated Ukrainian…
Bribing Kiev
The last time Viktor Yanukovych was removed from power in Ukraine, following a corrupt election nearly a decade ago, it…
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…
