Brexit
Nick Thomas-Symonds: ‘The Brexit architects essentially ran away’
With his owlish expression and affable manner, Nick Thomas-Symonds looks more like the academic that he was, rather than the…
I regret my intolerance over Brexit
Cannabis smoke lingering along the sidewalks of Washington D.C. was the most palpable fruit of liberty since my last visit…
The new power players running the world
An Italian former political adviser warns of the tech bros and autocrats upending the international order while our elected leaders appease and procrastinate
Relations with Europe provide the key to British postwar politics
Tom McTague shows how the two most consequential decisions for Britain over the past 80 years have been entering the European Union in 1973 and leaving it in 2020
Don’t bring back British Rail
The theme of my holiday reading has been the insidious ways in which the vanities and fetishes of rulers harm…
Farage, flags and the forgotten English
The flag-raisings in towns and cities across the country are an inevitable consequence of elites’ seeming preference for every flag…
Letters: Britain sold its fishing industry down the river
Hard reset Sir: Once again we must debate Brexit (‘Starmer vs the workers’, 24 May). The ‘reset’ agreement does give…
Starmer vs the workers: the real Brexit betrayal
Keir Starmer looked blank. The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, seemed confused. Only the old Stalinist Seumas Milne seemed really to…
Labour must learn to love Brexit
The problem with Keir Starmer’s approach to Brexit is that it fundamentally misunderstands the country. It isn’t that the Leave-voting…
The battle over fishing is a sideshow
So far, so routine. Labour wants to update and if possible upgrade the United Kingdom’s arrangements with our immediate neighbour…
Britain is enjoying another Brexit dividend
Has there ever been a day when Brexit seemed such a good idea? The story of Brexit began to change…
Should you be arrested for reading The Spectator?
Regular readers will know that I have an obsession with home burglaries. Specifically those occasions when a burglar goes into…
Why don’t we know how many people are in Britain?
How many people live in Britain? You would think there would be a straightforward answer, but it eludes some of…
Britain is losing friends – and making enemies
Whatever way you voted in 2016, I suspect that many of us have the same image of post-Brexit Britain. It…
Is Europe really faring better than Britain?
Five years ago this week, Boris Johnson was celebrating the achievement of leaving the European Union and wondering how he…
I hope you didn’t sign that petition
Did you sign it, then? And if so, what were your expectations? That Sir Keir Starmer would look at the…
A post-Brexit entertainment: The Proof of My Innocence, by Jonathan Coe, reviewed
A satire on radical economic libertarianism combines with a cosy Cotswold murder mystery in an ingenious series of stories within stories
In defence of the liberal elite
You can hear it already. Rising from the tents of the dejected Democrat camp comes the whimper of self-reproach. It’s…
Familiar scenarios: Our Evenings, by Alan Hollinghurst, reviewed
There’s a certain pattern to an Alan Hollinghurst novel. A young gay man goes to Oxford. He’s middle class and…
How can Ireland survive the seismic changes of the past three decades?
Historians in Ireland occupy a public role – unlike in Britain, where those with an inclination towards the commentariat usually…
Politics as Ripping Yarns: the breathless brio of Boris Johnson’s memoir
Like a cross between Aeneas and Biggles, our intrepid hero travels the world, endures a thousand ordeals and makes himself father of the world’s greatest city
Six politicians who shaped modern Britain
The members of Vernon Bogdanor’s select gathering may not always have succeeded in their aims, but by sticking their heads above the parapet they made the political weather
Keir Starmer’s plans to soften Brexit
Anew political bromance is brewing on the continent. Keir Starmer has met Olaf Scholz, his German counterpart, three times since…
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?
The danger of a Labour supermajority
We are witnessing what could well be the last few weeks of a constrained Labour party. Sir Keir Starmer is…
