Boris Johnson
Alas, ‘alas’ is losing its irony
Boris Johnson looked unhappy, as well he might, standing at his indoor lectern last Saturday to announce the new lockdown:…
This lockdown comes at a high political cost
Keir Starmer has his first attack line of the next general election campaign. He will say that England’s second lockdown…
No one has made a clear and logical case for this lockdown
The benefit of having a lockdown announced some days in advance is the ability to savour what is about to…
Boris's 'Captain Hindsight' attack backfires
Boris Johnson may be able to explain his U-turn on imposing a second national lockdown on England in policy terms,…
The long winter – why Covid restrictions could last until April
The ‘worst-case scenario’ for Covid
Boris Johnson needs to face down his own people
To beat the virus, the government is asking us to keep to simple hands-face-space guidelines. When these are not followed,…
Boris Johnson is fighting on too many fronts
When Boris ran to become leader of the Conservative party – and again when he campaigned in December’s general election…
Portrait of the week: new alerts, birthday honours and fires on Kilimanjaro
Home ‘The weeks and months ahead will continue to be difficult and will test the mettle of this country,’ Boris…
Boris’s hero Pericles didn’t need a spokeswoman
A spokeswoman has been appointed ‘to communicate with the nation on behalf of the Prime Minister’. He apparently needs ‘a…
Portrait of the week: Boris’s wind power pledge, Trump catches Covid and James Bond kills Cineworld
Home Coronavirus was on the increase. At the beginning of the week, Sunday 4 October, total deaths (within 28 days…
Now the Tories must make it their mission to repair the country
The centrepiece of Boris Johnson’s speech to Tory party conference this year was his Damascene conversion to the merits of…
Prime ministers can’t pick the crises that define them
In a non-Covid world, next week would be the Tory party conference. Boris Johnson would march on to the stage…
Portrait of the week: Curfew street parties, Trump’s taxes and a bone-eating vulture
Home More than a quarter of the population of the United Kingdom (three-fifths of the Welsh, a third of the…
Petronella Wyatt: My food fights with Boris
I have been in Istanbul, partly to research a French-born collateral ancestor of mine, Aimée Dubucq, who, according to legend,…
Letters: Lessons for Boris from the classroom
Lessons for the government Sir: James Forsyth suggests that the Prime Minister wishes to avoid sounding as if he is…
The memo Dominic Cummings never sent
There’s something about Dominic Cummings I will always like, and perhaps partly it’s the danger. I hardly know him well…
Paul Dacre and Boris Johnson: 'the Boston strangler' and the 'alley cat'
Paul Dacre, the former editor of the Daily Mail, has reportedly been asked by the Prime Minister to chair the…
Letters: It’s too late for Boris
Disastrous decisions Sir: In his otherwise excellent analysis of Boris Johnson’s premiership (‘The missing leader’, 19 September), Fraser Nelson suggests…
Blonde with a bombshell: Sasha Swire’s revelations about the Cameroons
Ten years ago, reviewing Alastair Campbell’s diaries for The Spectator, I concluded as follows: Who will be the chroniclers of…
Time for me to be more assertive
In the light of recent articles in The Spectator, I think it is vital I should point out here and…
It’s time for Boris to channel Churchill
How Boris can get Britain’s Covid fight back on track
The Special Relationship was never very special
I have a book of essays from 1986 by a group of British and American scholars called The Special Relationship.…
I admit it: I was wrong to back Boris
A friend emailed me earlier this week in despair about the Prime Minister. ‘Boris reminds me of a hereditary king…
Is Britain a nation in fear of safetyism?
It should come as no surprise that Britain’s city centres remain, in the words of CBI chief Carolyn Fairbairn, ‘ghost…
Can Simon Case restore stability to the heart of government?
Boris Johnson does not get everything wrong. The appointment of Simon Case to be head of the civil service at…
