The Week
Barometer
Hot topic Last week’s Barometer detailed past UK temperature records. Those were broken by this week’s heatwave. On Monday a…
Diary
When I was a teenage Tory activist in the mid-1990s, I hoped one day I’d be part of a leadership…
Letters
Procurement profligacy Sir: In response to Susan Hill’s query ‘Who allows the profligacy in NHS hospital procurement to continue?’ (‘Best…
Reckless caution
Trains were running even more slowly than usual. Schools were closed again. Offices were empty. No one would deny that…
Barometer
Hot hot hot The Met Office said temperatures may hit 40˚C on Sunday, which would be the highest ever recorded…
Letters
Boris’s legacy Sir: It is grossly unfair to assert that Boris Johnson’s legacy was the lockdown (Leading article, 9 July).…
Big tech’s big failure
A few years ago the Conservatives were excited about the march of the tech giants. Uber was offering an alternative…
Portrait of the week
Home The Conservatives began the process of finding a new leader, which involves balloting MPs and then sending two names…
Diary
‘So what did he say?’ I asked the ministerial friend who went to tell Boris last week he had to…
Territorial battles
The word ‘colony’ meets with a sharp intake of breath these days, but ‘province’ raises no eyebrows. How very odd.…
Failure to govern
What is the purpose of a Conservative government? It’s a reasonable question for voters to ask. In 2019 Boris Johnson…
Portrait of the week
Home Rishi Sunak resigned as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Sajid Javid as Health Secretary. (Nadhim Zahawi accepted the post…
Letters
Sturgeon’s single issue Sir: Nicola Sturgeon needs to be careful what she wishes for. Declaring that the next general election…
Barometer
Blooming huge Botanists discovered the largest species of giant water lily at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, with leaves more…
Diary
It feels like the end, but we’ve been here before. The past months of Boris Johnson’s teetering administration have felt…
Diary
I made it through the airport crush to Berlin at the beginning of last week to see how Germany is…
Sturgeon’s bluff
Nicola Sturgeon presents Scotland as a country outraged by Brexit and straining at the leash of the United Kingdom. She…
Portrait of the week
Home Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, said that military spending had to increase. Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, reacted to…
The play’s the thing
Last week Lloyd Evans was wondering whether it was about time audiences started booing dramatic productions of which they disapproved.…
Letters
Strong leaders Sir: Freddy Gray states that ‘voters seemed most enthusiastic about the leaders who removed their liberties’ (‘Leaderless’, 18…
Letters
Be prepared Sir: The advice of Jeremy Clarke’s Aunty Margaret that he ‘must “get right with the Lord” as a…
Labours of love
An Oxford don has raised the prospect of producing a cocktail of hormone pills that would help you to fall…
Barometer
Striking differences This summer’s strikes are unlikely to erupt as badly as the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 in the…
Portrait of the week
Home A rail strike on three alternate days, bringing the system to a standstill for a week, was organised by…
Diary
In 1977, when I set up the South Bank Show for ITV, I wanted Paul McCartney to be on the…
