To fix this failing government make Gove the CEO and keep May as chairman
Chairman May Sir: Theresa May is the only politician with a mandate to lead, yet doesn’t seem capable of leading…
Let’s hear more of Parliament and less of pundits
Although we all see rather too much of the present Mr Speaker, it was a good innovation that he and…
The Tories urgently need a boost from Philip Hammond’s Budget
The Budget this Wednesday represents this government’s best, and perhaps its last, chance to regain the political initiative. Ever since…
Security overkill is terror’s real triumph
The moment the news broke on Halloween that an Uzbek in a rental truck had just killed eight people on…
Why oh why didn’t I buy more Bitcoin?
Every time I write about Bitcoin you can probably take it as a major sell signal. The last time I…
Armageddon is coming – how real-life employers are preparing for life under Corbyn
Numerous readers told me they liked my recent tale — offered as an antidote to ‘media sniping at corporate capitalism’…
Corbyn knows elections are won on social media but the Tories have barely logged on
There is a naive belief at the top of government that because the Tories are only a fart’s yard behind…
The left-liberal media won’t admit it, but Donald Trump has global reach
It’s been a miserable two weeks for our Foreign Secretary. Not only did Boris Johnson trip up over the British…
Real democracy or a tribal bloodbath? Zimbabwe is on the brink
History will curse Robert Mugabe. When he took over as prime minister in the wake of the Lancaster House agreement…
Jeffrey Archer: Jeremy Corbyn will be PM because the voters are sick of us Tories
Always go to a storyteller if you want a sparky answer to a question. What does Jeffrey Archer, bestselling author,…
Kevin Spacey is a nasty piece of work but is it right to expunge him from history?
There are many wonderful scenes in the film version of David Mamet’s play Glengarry Glen Ross, but my favourite comes…
Is Prince Charles so fond of Islam because he distrusts Jews?
It has long been my belief that whereas the quality of gentiles drawn to Judaism is very high (Marilyn Monroe,…
What if the first world war had ended a year earlier?
One hundred years ago this month, my great-great grandfather sat down to compose a letter which would finish a long…
Which town directly inspired the revival of the Olympics? Clue: it’s not in Greece
There were two mascots for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. One was called Mandeville, obviously because Stoke Mandeville’s games…
More books of the year
Daniel Swift I spent too much of this (and last) year reading anaemic updatings of Shakespeare plays: pale novels which…
How can I prevent my husband from burning all my post?
If you don’t yet watch Gogglebox on Channel 4, start doing so now. Far from making you despise our couch-potato…
Writer’s Letters: Elizabeth Gaskell on Dante Gabriel Rossetti
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Holy mackerel! Civilisation begins with fishing
Fish. Slippery, mysterious creatures. They are mysterious because of where they live, in vast waters, and because they elude the…
Sex and sycophancy at Rolling Stone
Many moons ago, I worked at the New Musical Express magazine, which transformed me from virgin schoolgirl to the fabulous…
The great Tudor catfight
Apart from glorying in a memorable name, Lettice Knollys has chiefly been known for her connections — with her second…
The 67 words that ensured endless bloodshed
If books about the Israeli-Arab conflict were building blocks, the Palestinians would have their own state already and then some.…
Horatio Clare breaks the ice with the taciturn Finns
In this slim travel book Horatio Clare voyages as a guest on the Finnish icebreaker Otso (Bear), ‘mostly in darkness,…
Menus on the wild side
The terroir of the Kentish coast is faultlessly represented in The Sportsman (Phaidon, £29.95), a book of recipes from an…
Susie Boyt neatly skewers the self-help trends
Grief is not being able to eat a small boiled egg. ‘Could you face an egg?’ the widowed Jean asks…
More menace – and magic – on the moors
Andrew Michael Hurley’s The Loney was one of the surprise stand-outs of last year, and a worthy winner of the…
