Boris Johnson
My father was the best of England
I always think of my father at this time of year. In particular, I go back to the summer of…
One damned thing after another: Britain’s crisis-ridden century so far
The Iraq war, the financial crisis, Brexit and Covid have seen many prime ministers blown off course. Will Keir Starmer be any luckier than his predecessors?
Why am I so unlucky in love?
One of my exes is trying to get me arrested. I discovered this when I received an email from the…
What’s really behind the Tories’ present woes?
Geoffrey Wheatcroft identifies two root causes: the disastrous revision of the leadership election procedure, and David Cameron’s turn to the referendum as a device to govern
Who decides which politicians are liars?
This week the Welsh parliament has been debating a law that would ban politicians from lying. Assuming it ends up…
Letters
Whose victory? Sir: Politicians are often accused of engaging in doublespeak, and I fear in the case of Boris Johnson’s…
Fish out of water
As a one-nation Tory, Rory Stewart was not a good fit in the party’s new incarnation. We discover how his desire to make the world a better place was always going to work against him
Should vintage comedy be judged by today’s standards?
A successful joke relies on rhythm, tempo, cadence, pause – so why does David Stubbs find comedy and music so antithetical, wonders Joel Morris
What, if anything, have dictators over the centuries had in common?
Simon Kuper finds little to connect the strongmen of the past and present apart from their contempt for their own supporters
How my brother-in-law Boris got me cancelled
How Boris made me a threat to Mexico
Boris Johnson’s peculiar conservative conversion
In his most recent column for the Mail, Boris Johnson fires a shot at, among other things, ‘the leftie twittersphere’.…
Portrait of the week: Boris locked out, mortgage misery and Titanic submarine search
Home Boris Johnson, the former prime minister, was ritually buried by the House of Commons voting by 354 to seven…
Is Boris Johnson a great man of history?
Boris Johnson has always been an enthusiastic proponent of the long unfashionable ‘great man’ theory of history. As he argued…
The Tories would be lost in opposition
It is widely observed that many Conservatives are preparing to lose power at the next general election. The Conservative Democratic…
My search for a Matt Hancock impersonator
I’m trying to organise an event in Westminster with the journalist Isabel Oakeshott and it’s proving a bit of a…
Why Boris Johnson might escape a partygate punishment
After several months of anticipation, two contentious legal submissions from Lord Pannick KC and a bumper 52-page witness statement, Boris…
The problem with Boris’s honours list
There are plenty of Boris Johnson hangovers to give Rishi Sunak a headache these days. The privileges committee investigation into…
Boris Johnson fires a warning shot to Sunak
Rishi Sunak is once again facing an unhelpful intervention from one of his predecessors. As the Prime Minister attempts to…
Boris: Tories must unite
To the Carlton Club, that Palladian monument to power. Last night it hosted the unveiling of Boris Johnson’s new portrait,…
If only Britain knew how it was viewed abroad
22 June 2024 9:00 am
If the country were a person, it would need its friends to sit it down and deliver it a few home truths about its damaging behaviour to itself and others, says Michael Peel