Immigration
What Merkel wants
The German Chancellor has a lot in common with David Cameron – which is why she can’t afford to help him very much
Ukip’s third man
Patrick O’Flynn praises ‘genius’ Nigel Farage, and puts Douglas Carswell in his place
How to fight Ukip
In the 2005 general election this magazine supported the Conservatives, with one exception — we urged voters in Medway not to…
It’s not just Ukip that’s changing Cameron’s mind about immigration
It is easy to mock David Cameron on immigration. Under pressure from the public and from Ukip, he’s having to…
Barometer
How to deal with a troll In Scandinavian mythology, trolls were shady creatures who lived below ground and varied in…
Mondeo Man votes Ukip now
An opinion poll to be published next week will reveal that Labour leader Ed Miliband is slightly less popular with…
Barometer
Paisley power Paisley pyjamas were in the news. While associated with the town in Renfrewshire, whose mills produced the patterns from 1805,…
Day by day, we should keep an eye on the trouble spots of European banking
‘1914: Day by Day’, the Radio 4 series by the historian Margaret MacMillan, is a gripping reminder that significant global…
Welcome to the club
Writing frankly about Jamaica has made me nervous of invitations from strangers. How would this one turn out?
How long can our MPs ignore what’s in their backyard?
It is surely only a matter of time before someone with a mischievous glint in their eye invites the Labour…
Farage the moderniser
There are many words that you might associate with Nigel Farage, but moderniser probably isn’t one. Yet the Ukip leader…
Labour has proved that it speaks for London – and nowhere else
So, now almost all the votes have been counted — except for those in the Islamic Republic of Tower Hamlets, where…
Mockers and moaners
Books by bellicose columnists with the initials R.L. are like buses — none comes along for ages, then two come…
Letters
Why girls do better Sir: Isabel Hardman notes that girls now outperform boys at every level in education (‘The descent…
We optimists aren’t always wrong but I’m keeping watch for black swans
A reader likens me to Dr Pangloss, the quack philosopher in Voltaire’s Candide who insisted that ‘all is for the…
Looking for racism
Britain has less prejudice than the countries where I’ve lived before – and more people taking offence
Labour’s immigration nightmares
Victor Spirescu came to Britain last week looking for work washing cars, but seems to have landed himself with a…
Truths and fallacies
Immigration. Were you aware that this has become a bit of a problem these past ten years? I wasn’t, obviously,…
Retrofitted arguments
Some people are gay. Get over it’ — this was the slogan for a campaign against homophobia. A series of YouTube…
The man who broke the silence
How Professor Paul Collier has bypassed the liberal taboo on discussing immigration
What do we call the people who abducted Maria? It’s a minefield
How should we describe the people who allegedly abducted that little girl in Greece, after a neighbour claimed that they…
Long life
The Italian shop assistant accused by Oprah Winfrey of showing racial prejudice towards her in a shop in Zurich has…
