Margaret Thatcher
Moving swiftly on
Her 1980 ‘Right to Buy’ policy, though popular at the time, led to the serious erosion of social housing stock and today’s itinerant population, says Kieran Yates
So ancient, so new
Its industrial new towns have nothing in common with its picturesque villages and lonely estuaries – but a refusal to conform still unites this deeply schizophrenic county
Thatcherism is a cult the Tories should not follow
Friedrich Nietzsche may not be the most fashionable member of the conservative canon, but doubtless he wouldn’t care much. He…
Construction works
It’s time for some old-fashioned Tory state-building
Making scientific history
In 1993 William Waldegrave, the science minister, was looking into a project being planned on the continent. Cern, the European…
Liz Truss is no Margaret Thatcher
The late Senator Lloyd Bentsen was 26 years older than the young Senator Dan Quayle when in 1988 they crossed…
Inflation is a social evil, so why don’t our leaders care?
It was a ‘destroyer of society’, a ‘tax on ordinary people’s savings’ and a threat to social order. You don’t…
The threat from within
According to Vladimir Putin, liberalism is an ‘obsolete’ doctrine, a worn-out political philosophy no longer fit for purpose. In this…
A festering wound
Just as one is inclined to believe Carlyle’s point that the history of the world is but the biography of…
The Spectator’s Notes
Now that events in Ukraine are restoring a sense of proportion about the difference between aggressive autocracies and free countries,…
The Spectator’s Notes
Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands 40 years ago. I had joined the Daily Telegraph as a reporter in 1979 and…
A principled pragmatist
A headline in the Mail on Sunday, taken up eagerly by the BBC’s Todayprogramme, claimed recently: ‘The SAS is getting…
A slippery slope
Have you heard of champing? Neither had I. Turns out it’s camping in a field beside a deserted church. When…
A thankless task
The final volume of Peter Ackroyd’s History of England feels like a dutiful exercise carried out in a hurry, says Philip Hensher
Margaret Thatcher vs everyone else
Diplomatic negotiations are rarely fully described by their participants in books, for two reasons. They are usually secret until much…
Bach to basics
Bach & Sons opens with the great composer tinkling away on a harpsichord while a toddler screeches his head off…
A boat trip back through time
I was looking forward to my dinner at Daquise in South Kensington, a Polish restaurant that’s been there for ever…
Mean girls
The return of the bitch is long overdue
The greatest threat to Boris’s legacy
The government is starting to have an opinion poll problem, but it has nothing to do with any great threat…
No room at the top
‘Whatever your background,’ Margaret Thatcher told the Sun’s readers in 1983, she was determined that ‘you have a chance to…
The Spectator’s Notes
Even with its 27 amendments, the US Constitution is only 7,591 words. I keep it beside me, and find in…
It’s in the bag
‘Of course, I am obstinate in defending our liberties and our law — that is why I carry a big…
What if Thatcher won the 1990 leadership challenge?
Thirty years ago today, Margaret Thatcher was in 10 Downing Street. For almost eleven and a half years, it had…
Why academics hold Thatcher and Trump in such contempt
‘Has that orange baboon gone yet?’ asked a senior professor in the teacher’s room at my university yesterday. The remark…
The Spectator’s notes
This week in 1989, the Chinese authorities massacred protestors in Tiananmen Square, Beijing. I was editing this paper. It struck…
