World
What you won’t learn from Channel 4’s Partygate drama
Partygate has morphed from a half-forgotten scandal into a new drama-documentary which airs on Channel 4 tomorrow night. This rehash…
Is this year’s Tory conference slogan the worst ever?
Boris Johnson got plenty of things wrong as prime minister but he at least knew how to come up with…
Does Rishi Sunak hate dogs?
Every world leader these days needs to have a pet. Joe Biden has a pair of out-of-control German Shepherds that…
What went wrong with Billy Bragg?
An online ding-dong is like a full complement of condiments at lunch; you wouldn’t want to live off it, but…
Rishi outlines Keir Starmer’s five ‘pledges’ in 1922 speech
Rishi Sunak’s first Conservative party conference as prime minister is off to a roaring start. Never one to miss a…
Kemi Badenoch guns for Stonewall – and the charity sector
Kemi Badenoch’s war with Stonewall opened up on a new front this evening. Earlier this year, the business secretary incurred…
Bully XL owners team up with anti-Brexit Steve Bray outside Tory conference
It wouldn’t be a Tory party conference without hundreds of protesters lining the streets. Manchester has not disappointed. From trade…
How a pro-Russia party triumphed in Slovakia’s election
The staunchly pro-Russian Robert Fico is back in power for a third time in Slovakia. Fico’s Smer party clinched at least…
Is a path to victory opening up for Rishi Sunak?
A new Rishi Sunak is being launched at Tory conference and one I saw first hand being interviewed by Laura…
Sunak comes out fighting on net zero in tetchy Kuenssberg clash
Rishi Sunak is in Manchester for what could be the final party conference ahead of next year’s election – and,…
Why did the Observer bury a poll showing Starmer’s shrinking lead?
As Conservative conference kicks off, there is a crumb of comfort for the Prime Minister in the latest polling in…
How Britain fell in love with radioactive material
For most people today radioactivity is synonymous with bright yellow warning signs, explosions and poison. But there was a time…
The endless myth of British decline
The former governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, recently compared the British economy with that of Argentina. This…
Paris has become the city of love, rats and bugs
There are said to be six million rats in Paris. I met one last week when I was retrieving some…
Tory conferences don’t have to be dull
The former Tory MP Christopher Hollis wrote for The Spectator in 1960 that ‘a Conservative conference is, and is intended…
What have the Conservatives done for us?
Assuming this is the Conservative party’s last conference in power, I decided to investigate what kind of country they leave…
What exactly is the new space race all about?
The recent spate of articles about attempts by different countries to land vehicles on the Moon make it clear that…
The first world war wasn’t the first world war
For reasons that not even Czechs can explain, in the past they developed a habit of throwing their rulers out…
The cult of cleverness
Whenever I’m at a dinner party with very clever people, I always feel like I’m the dumbest person in the…
A beginner’s guide to noodling
In Oklahoma, noodle is both a food and a sport. For generations, Okies have been jamming their hands in crevices, trying to…
Did the iPhone kill Britain’s productivity?
In the year 2007 Gordon Brown became prime minister, Northern Rock went bust and the iPhone was introduced. But something…
What happened to the Russia I loved?
I first came to Russia as a travelling English literature-lecturer in the late 1990s. This wasn’t a job given to…
Britain’s tax system is a mess
The last time a Conservative Chancellor was in the business of cutting taxes, he pointed out that they reduce the…
There is still everything to play for in New Zealand’s general election
With two weeks to go before New Zealand’s general election, the contest is so close that many have stopped bothering…
GB News civil war intensifies
It’s safe to say that this hasn’t been GB News’s finest week and there’s no sign of the drama stopping…
