EU
The questions you don’t ask at the BBC
There was a remarkable scene in one BBC Today programme morning meeting in about 1995, as all the producers gathered…
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…
If Merkel shrugs…
Grexit would be worse for Germany than for Greece
Ten myths about Brexit
Don’t believe the scare stories about leaving the EU
The invasion of Italy
More than 50,000 boat people have arrived already this year, with many more expected
Portrait of the week
Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said of the EU referendum: ‘If you want to be part of the government,…
Barometer
Forty years on The forthcoming EU referendum has rekindled memories of the in-out Common Market referendum of 1975. But it…
A warrant for exit
The European Arrest Warrant is incompatible with our tradition of justice
High life
There’s nothing to add to Martin Vander Weyer’s item about Hellas of two weeks ago in these here pages except…
Diary
For the first time since the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team six years ago, a Test match side…
The Spectator’s Notes
We in the West all hate Sepp Blatter, so we pay too little attention to the manner in which the…
Portrait of the week
Home A Bill to enable a referendum on whether voters wanted Britain to ‘remain’ in the European Union figured in…
Barometer
Steam privatisation Cunard celebrated its 175th birthday by sailing three liners down the Mersey. The formation of the Cunard Line…
Which behaved worse: callous Thomas Cook or cynical Barclays?
Which is worse, morally and reputationally — to be Thomas Cook, shamed by its refusal to show proper human concern,…
Cameron’s friend in Brussels
Hungary’s Viktor Orban could be the PM’s most influential ally in EU renegotiations. So what does he want – and what can he get?
Portrait of the week
Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, soon got used to the surprise of the Conservatives being returned in the general…
The people from the sea
Encounters with those who have risked their lives to cross the Mediterranean
The other union
The election campaign is becoming increasingly dominated by a small party whose raison d’être is to preach independence from membership…
Did the £20 million Norwegian’s pay row make BG cheaper for Shell?
Helge Lund was widely expected to go into domestic politics when he ended his successful tenure as head of Statoil,…
A truly radical review of business rates is worth more than all the Budget spin
Of all the measures talked up ahead of the Budget, the reannouncement of a ‘radical’ review of the business rates…
Exit, pursued by a bear
In the 1984 US presidential election, Ronald Reagan came up with an effective way of embarrassing his rival Walter Mondale…
The empire-builders
For Nato and the EU as much as for Putin, Ukraine is a question not of virtue but of power and land
Worthy of Riefenstahl
My favourite bit of The Great European Disaster (BBC4, Sunday) was the lingering shot that showed golden heads of corn…
Diary
It’ll be a Skype interview, says the producer from Greek television, and not live. In TV-speak that usually means not…
My dad saved the pound
If you’re grateful not to be in the euro, it’s James Goldsmith and his ‘rebel army’ you should thank
