World
How Iran will strike back after the killing of Qasem Soleimani
In the early hours of the morning, Iraqi State television reported that the leader of Iran’s Qud’s Force, Qasem Soleimani…
Taking out Soleimani is like stepping on a landmine to cure a headache
Talleyrand once commented that Napoleon’s execution of the Duke of Enghien in 1804 was worse than a crime. It was…
Cummings offers a glimpse of the incoming Whitehall revolution
Over the parliamentary recess, there’s been much speculation over what the government’s mooted Whitehall revamp will mean in practice. Part…
Can our prison system ‘cure’ convicted terrorists?
We’ve just celebrated the birth of a refugee who went on to radicalise a group of fishermen and transform the…
Why Trump will win again in 2020
This article is in The Spectator’s January 2020 US edition. Subscribe here. My reasons for thinking Trump was going to be…
What could go right for Trump in 2020?
It’s starting to dawn on Democrats that Donald J. Trump might stand on the steps of the Capitol in January…
Hong Kong faces a growing crisis in 2020
Last week Carrie Lam, the embattled chief executive of Hong Kong’s increasingly beleaguered and unpopular government, deplored the latest round…
Islam, reform and the battle of narratives
Is a wind of change blowing in the Arab world and bringing Muslims and Jews closer together? Ed Husain made…
A crime still in progress
This article is in The Spectator’s January 2020 US edition. Subscribe here. Crime in Progress is, inadvertently, the cruelest book ever written…
Why my booze-free Christmas just didn’t work
I decided to go booze free this Christmas. I had a lot of people staying, which means work, stress, and…
What could go wrong for Donald Trump in 2020?
What are the four things that can go blooey for President Trump in the next year? First, he can get…
Rachel Riley: How I deal with trolls
I have in the past received thousands of abusive social media messages at a time. I used to feel that…
Lily Allen to Newsnight: The 41 most annoying things in 2019
Lily Allen. Lights! Camera! Hanky! It’s been a vintage year for Twitter’s comedy genius. The needy pub-bore grumblings of Tony…
Trump and the troops
This article is in The Spectator’s January 2020 US edition. Subscribe here. Thanksgiving Day, the most American of holidays, found President Trump…
Boris Johnson and the Tories should fear a weak opposition
We have a likely candidate who allegedly told one of her colleagues ‘I’m glad my constituents aren’t as stupid as…
Corbyn may be a goner but his ideology is as strong as ever
East Germans had a name for their version of ‘woke’ culture’; it was Zersetzung, or ‘decomposition’ in English. It was…
My grandad hated Thatcher and the Tories. Here’s why he voted for Boris
“I am not a manual labourer and please God I shall never be one, but there are some kinds of…
BBC’s A Christmas Carol was the victim of tub-thumping lefty politics
‘Spoke to someone at The BBC yesterday, this person told me they are SH–TING themselves right now, as viewing figures…
Am I in the mainstream now?
The moment of Boris’s victory makes me stop and look back. In the referendum of 1975 — my first vote…
Gay giraffes and dead in ditches: The Spectator 2019 quiz
They said it In 2019, who said: 1. ‘You have stolen my dreams and my childhood.’ 2. ‘I didn’t sweat…
What’s your worst Christmas song?
Just to sour the festive mood a little, I thought I’d ask what are your least favourite Christmas songs and…
Diane Abbott to Donald Trump: Christmas messages from the great and the good
Diane Abbott I spent the entire day searching for those familiar traditional Christmas delicacies which all kids adore – but…
The best Christmas gift you can give yourself is to learn some poetry by heart
Every Christmas I find I am living in the past. I blame my father. He was born in 1910 —…
How Christians feel at Christmas
Imagine being in love with someone who ignores you eleven months of the year, then suddenly seems really into you.…
Scott Morrison is right – Australia’s bushfires aren’t down to climate change
I have long since learned, not least from my interview with Al Gore published here in 2017 that the surest way…
