Energy
Has the gin craze reached its zenith?
The list of business leaders who have damaged their careers with a single word famously begins with Gerald Ratner, who…
Carbon – the stuff of life we’re shamefully ignorant about
‘I didn’t realise we were carbon,’ said a friend to whom I mentioned this book. She was the first of…
I recycle – then lie to myself that I’m saving the planet
‘I just want to say one word to you, just one word. Are you listening? Plastics.’ That iconic punch line…
Cheating German car-makers are good news for Brexiteers
It came as no great surprise to learn that the EU competition authorities are crawling all over the three major…
Despite rumours to the contrary, the high-speed loco has left the drawing board
There’s a lot of negativity around HS2, and I sniff a Brexit connection. You might think Leave campaigners whose aim…
The death of investment banking will lead to the rebirth of something better
Oh woe. Investment bank profits are evaporating after a disastrous contraction of trading revenues reflecting zero-to-negative interest rates, weak commodity…
The unlikely oilman
Former Spectator owner Algy Cluff on Margaret Thatcher, Robert Mugabe and Brexit
Long life
As we prepare in Britain for our momentous referendum in June, Italy has just had one. It happened last Sunday…
The Amber express
Energy Secretary Amber Rudd on ending green rackets, supporting Scottish oil and staying in the EU
Trudeau family values
Justin Trudeau has his mother’s good looks – and his father’s dodgy economics
Portrait of the week
Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, spent time in Brussels before a meeting of the European Council to see what…
Apocalypse now? Markets seem set on a self-fulfilling prophecy
All this talk of a new financial apocalypse, so soon after the last one, is starting to annoy me. Partly…
I told you so: the UK electricity gap looms wider than ever
Amid all the turmoil in global energy markets, we should not lose sight of the UK power programme that we’re…
The many fights over the Lord’s Prayer
Amen corner Digital Cinema Media, a company which distributes adverts to cinemas, refused to allow an advert which involves the…
Where there’s smoke…
A fixation on carbon emissions will produce many more scandals like the one that has shamed Volkswagen
Barometer
Available for parties Labour deputy leader Tom Watson said that leaving his party to join the Liberal Democrats would be…
The great British kowtow
Cameron and Osborne have a very clear China policy: do whatever China wants
The Living Wage is nifty politics – but let’s see more help for small business too
What is George Osborne’s Living Wage? Is it a ploy to shift cost from the taxpayer to the employer by…
Diary
During our annual odyssey around the Scottish Highlands, I read Tears of the Rajas, Ferdinand Mount’s eloquent indictment of imperial…
The clock that stopped: the victory of nuclear arms and defeat of nuclear power
‘I visited the black marble obelisk which marks the epicentre of the explosion, and I saw the plain domestic wall-clock…
Fracking Lancashire
That democracy is a superior form of government to any other goes without saying. But in order to function, it…
Contagion of a different kind as Greece wriggles off the hook
The clear winner in the Greek crisis is the author of The Little Book of Negotiating Clichés, whose royalties must…
Oh God, don’t let the Pope be a climate fanatic
In his latest encyclical Pope Francis will apparently describe global warming as a ‘major threat to life on the planet’.…
Shifting sands in Saudi
Why America’s once-cautious ally suddenly looks so skittish
Diary
Martin Williams, former head of the government’s air quality science unit, has declared that the reason we have a problem…
