A metaphor by any other name…
When did metaphors become offensive? Seriously? American billionaire and investment analyst, Ken Fisher is in deep shit for remarks he…
Is a deal really possible?
It is one of the most remarkable turnarounds in recent political history. On Wednesday afternoon, the Brexit talks seemed pretty…
When Jacob Rees-Mogg met Extinction Rebellion
I walked down Villiers Street to Embankment Tube station. In front of me were two Extinction Rebels, a mother and…
How dare he!
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali has stolen even more of Greta Thunberg’s childhood by winning this year’s Nobel Peace…
Boris needs to be explicit: it’s the UK’s offer or no deal
The past few months have been characterised by weeks of high drama which, for all the excitement, have resolved nothing.…
Portrait of the week: Brexit approaches, Extinction Rebellion protests and Donald Trump tweets
Home After a telephone conversation between Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, a Downing Street…
Even Donald Trump is tweeting about Spectator USA
We’ve just launched the US edition of The Spectator and the reaction so far has been great. Americans can be…
A slice of history: how did Britain’s pizza industry begin?
A slice of history Pizza Express is to undergo financial restructuring, leading to fears that it could go under. How…
Extinction Rebellion proves Aristotle was right about the follies of youth
Extinction Rebellion is blocking the streets again, foolishly demanding the impossible on a very important issue. But what does one…
Letters: Remainers lost – and Richard Dawkins needs to accept that
Deny Remainers oxygen Sir: Your correspondent Richard Dawkins seems to have a very tenuous grasp of logic for an academic…
We selfish gits must wear the name with pride
I walked down Villiers Street to Embankment Tube station. In front of me were two Extinction Rebels, a mother and…
How the BBC can achieve real diversity
Exciting news from the BBC, where every employee has just received a flyer from the Director-General, Lord Hall, informing them…
Asians are doing too well – they must be stopped
Riddle: when is discrimination against a historically disadvantaged racial minority perfectly legal? Answer: when they do too well. The first…
All ages are gullible – including our own
In the great days of the Daily Telegraph’s Peter Simple column, when I was a youth, that acid but hilarious…
Are Boris’s hedge-fund pals conspiring to ‘short the UK’? I doubt it
Minding my own business at 67 Pall Mall — the private members’ club favoured by oenophile West End hedge-fund managers…
There’s no deal – so what next?
There will be no last-minute deal. The talks between the UK and the EU have effectively broken down. It isn’t…
The commercialisation of shooting may kill the whole sport
A few years ago I was sitting on the sofa at Sandringham enjoying a ham sandwich with the Queen’s then-head…
Germany’s ailing economy can’t afford a no-deal Brexit
The UK was the ‘sick man’ when we ‘joined Europe’ in 1973. Now, with Britain on the cusp of leaving,…
Could this self-made billionaire become France’s first Muslim president?
The French writer Michel Houellebecq has a disconcerting habit of correctly predicting unsettling events. In 2001 in Plateforme he predicted…
Why do we keep pretending that children are wiser than adults?
We’ve begun to behave as if young people are special; more virtuous and wiser than adults. It’s wrong and it’s…
To solve Britain’s social care crisis, follow the Dutch example
More than a decade ago, four Dutch nurses decided something needed to be done about their country’s care in the…
The lessons I learned at my Oxford gaudy
I went to a gaudy last weekend. Several British universities now host these splendid events; mine was at Worcester College,…
Three remarkable sisters at the heart of 20th-century Chinese politics
In their lifetime, and afterwards, the Soong sisters from Shanghai seemed like figures from a Chinese fairy tale. There were…
David Cameron’s For the Record ends where the sorriest three years in modern British history begins
It’s fun to look for what’s missing in a memoir; the forgotten egos, the policy howlers buried for posterity. Some…
A work of art in more ways than one
Neil Hegarty’s new novel, The Jewel, is a mass of contradictions. It’s about an art heist, but it’s not fun.…
