Boris Johnson
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,…
A long winter
The ‘worst-case scenario’ for Covid
The madness of crowds
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
Home ‘The weeks and months ahead will continue to be difficult and will test the mettle of this country,’ Boris…
Who speaks for Boris?
A spokeswoman has been appointed ‘to communicate with the nation on behalf of the Prime Minister’. He apparently needs ‘a…
Portrait of the week
Home Coronavirus was on the increase. At the beginning of the week, Sunday 4 October, total deaths (within 28 days…
Boris’s second wind
The centrepiece of Boris Johnson’s speech to Tory party conference this year was his Damascene conversion to the merits of…
Why Boris has his hopes pinned on spring
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
Home More than a quarter of the population of the United Kingdom (three-fifths of the Welsh, a third of the…
Diary
I have been in Istanbul, partly to research a French-born collateral ancestor of mine, Aimée Dubucq, who, according to legend,…
Letters
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
Disastrous decisions Sir: In his otherwise excellent analysis of Boris Johnson’s premiership (‘The missing leader’, 19 September), Fraser Nelson suggests…
In and out of the magic circle
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…
A Churchillian task
How Boris can get Britain’s Covid fight back on track
Nothing special, nothing new
I have a book of essays from 1986 by a group of British and American scholars called The Special Relationship.…
Boris’s critics were right all along
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…
Diary
It’s never a good sign when you’re watching a scene of street terror in yet another gut-churning YouTube video and…
A question of competence
This week was built up by the Prime Minister to be the moment that would mark the return of economic…
To save the Union, negotiate independence
The first cabinet meeting of the new term and Boris Johnson’s summer holiday were both dominated by one concern: how…
