Michael Gove
She could be a contender
Education Secretary Nicky Morgan thinks a woman should run to be the next Tory leader
Laying down the law
A great test of political leadership is how well you deal with vested interests on your own side. In his…
Portrait of the week
Home Tens of thousands took part in a demonstration in London against austerity, and thousands more in other cities. Russell…
In defence of Gove’s grammar
Few things are more likely to provoke the disapproval of the bien-pensant left than criticising someone’s grammar. The very idea…
A small majority means big challenges
In ancient Rome, when a general rode in triumph through the city, a slave would stand behind him whispering into…
Cameron’s great secret: he’s not a very good politician
This was a vital election. A Tory failure would have been an act of political treason. Five years ago, the…
Vote Tory
Five Spectator contributors on why they’re voting for Cameron (and one on why he isn’t)
Lefty myths about inequality
As a Tory, I’ve been thinking a lot about inequality recently. Has it really increased in the past five years?…
Michael Gove’s secret fan club
Meet the teachers who are (quietly) grateful to the former education secretary
School’s not out
For those who assumed that the removal of Michael Gove as Education Secretary marked the end of the Conservatives’ scholastic…
The silent victory
Schools are the one area where this government has made a real, positive difference – but it’s scared stiff of saying so
Ofsted in the dock
Sir Michael Wilshaw must revamp his power-crazed organisation
Cameron must reunite the Tories or lose next year’s election
No one goes to Birmingham to revive a marriage. But that is what David Cameron and the Conservative party must…
Diary
I knew that the historian Sir Richard Evans was a rather abrasive and quarrelsome man, but I was staggered by…
If the Tories win the election, the Gove gamble will have paid off
‘There’s no shame in a cabinet to win the next election,’ declared an exasperated senior No. 10 figure on Tuesday…
The Spectator’s Notes
This must be the worst reshuffle since Mrs Thatcher demoted Geoffrey Howe in 1989. Unlike that one, its errors are…
Farewell notebook
So we are all going to have to pay for fatties to have stomach bands and bypasses, are we? It…
Cameron was right to move Gove
I tried to reach Michael Gove on Tuesday shortly after the news broke that he’d been moved to the Whips’…
This ‘Islamist conspiracy’ is WMD all over again
I can remember where I was when Colin Powell presented to the United Nations his evidence for the existence of…
I love Israel, so I’m allowed at least one bad joke about it
I expect all of us have said something we regret at one time or another, but not everyone does so…
Tory wars, contd
Modern Conservatives seem to be allergic to success. Every time things are going right, the party spasms. Sir John Major’s…
Barometer
Escape committees An LSE/Institute for Government report estimated the cost of Scottish independence at £2.7 billion, a sum arrived at…
The pitfalls and privileges of being a politician’s child
It was a Friday morning in 1992, Britain had just had an election, and I was on an ice rink.…
Gove killed neither mice nor mockingbirds
I suppose I should be grateful that the liberal intelligentsia doesn’t bother to check any of the facts if an…
Letters
Why we need a free press Sir: As bereaved parents and (to borrow from some signatories of last week’s advertisement)…
