Penny Mordaunt: I’m fired. Job done
I begin the week in Bamako, Mali, with a crackly telephone call to Commodore Dean Bassett, UK Maritime Component Commander…
Persia’s lessons for the PM
Stanley Johnson suggests his son, the PM, will easily deal with Iran because he is well acquainted with Persian history…
The need for a poll of the people
The Need For A Poll Of The People, 2 August 1919: ‘It is not to be wondered at that during…
Hot topic: How many of us own fans?
Growing fanbase A photograph of the Queen meeting Boris Johnson revealed that she uses a Dyson electric fan. How many…
What would you save, Marmite or the planet?
In his very long letter to Jeremy Corbyn about why, after all, he will stay out of the Labour party…
Boris may end up delivering Corbyn
Alastair Campbell has written a longish ‘open’ letter to Jeremy Corbyn, helpfully explaining why he has decided not to contest…
I’ve started talking like a hardline Leaver
Our involuntary responses know us better than we know ourselves. As I left King Charles Street in Whitehall last week…
All money is dirty – but it can still be used for good
Whitney museum: no space for profiteers of state violence // dismantle patriarchy // warren kanders must go! // supreme injustice…
Why Rishi Sunak is the one to watch in parliament
‘Turbocharging’: sounds exciting, doesn’t it? Two weeks ago, I noted that our incoming PM had deployed this power-word — with…
Who’ll blink first – Boris Johnson or the EU?
On Sunday, Boris Johnson’s cabinet ministers were summoned to a conference call for an update on his Brexit strategy. The…
Europeans have started to change their minds on Brexit
The conviction has been spreading among French people in recent days that les Britanniques have just elected Donald Trump. The…
Edible insects are not the future of food
I’ve lost track of the number of features I’ve seen joyfully hailing the edible insect revolution, entitled ‘Grub’s up!’ Barclays…
Labour can’t cope with Boris’s BAME cabinet
I’ve never voted Conservative and I never will. Having been raised in a working-class home, I can’t get past the…
There is a far better option than HS2 – and it already exists
Just 48 hours before the conclusion of the Conservative leadership contest, Allan Cook, chairman of HS2, wrote to the government…
Lebanon: the world’s best failed state
Look down from the mountains outside Beirut and, on most days, you’ll see a grey blanket of smog choking the…
Just do it: the advertising industry should embrace its right-wing roots
Am I allowed to mention Nigel Farage? Of course I am, this is The Spectator, and its readers enjoy analysing…
The grim magnificence of Gisborough Priory
Gisborough Priory was founded in 1119, although the gothic chunks which remain of it today — including the grimly magnificent…
Web of deceit: disinformation could prove the most powerful weapon of all
We could begin almost anywhere. But let’s start in Ukraine, with Babar Aliev. Babar is a former gang leader who…
Head to Berlin to hear nightingales sing
In a sense, the song of the bird in the title of this short, hugely thoughtful and fascinating book is…
The Orwellian horror of the Mr Men books
It is bad enough when we learn that Santa Claus doesn’t exist. But later in life there comes another trauma,…
Capers in crime: Life for Sale, by Yukio Mishima, reviewed
Few biographies are quite as impressive as Yukio Mishima’s. One of Japan’s most famous authors, he wrote 80 plays and…
Alas, poor Hamlet — now presumed to be overweight
Do you regard fat as a noun, a food substance all humans eat and need? Or as an adjective, denoting…
A picture of rural Kentucky: Stand by Me, by Wendell Berry, reviewed
Anyone picking up a book by Wendell Berry, whether it be fiction, essays or a collection of his lucid and…
How to interrogate a murderer
This is horrible. But it’s a book by Mark Bowden, who wrote Black Hawk Down and Killing Pablo, so it’s…
Will Robert Caro’s biography of LBJ ever be finished?
Robert Caro, at the age of 83, continues to work full-time on his grand inquiry into the nature of political…
