Nigel Farage
Why ostracism beats Ukip
For all Nigel Farage’s appealing bluster, he is never going to be in a position to get us out of…
Learning compromise the hard way
I’m often asked by other free school proposers what lessons I’ve learnt over the past five years. Any pearls of…
If Labour wins the general election, Ukip’s rise will be unstoppable
British politics is rather like one of those playground games of football where one match is being played lengthways and…
Ukip has turned itself into a confidence trick
I think I’ve cracked it. If you want to springboard your minor political party into the mainstream and take British…
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…
Will Osborne’s tilt against Double Dutch tax dodgers play into Farage’s hands?
George Osborne’s promise to crack down on multinational companies’ avoidance of UK taxes by the use of impenetrable devices such…
Nigel Farage’s class war
I initially thought Nigel Farage had made a mistake in unveiling Mark Reckless on the final day of his party…
A bacon bap isn’t Miliband’s problem. We are
That bacon bap earlier this month was not the cause of Ed Miliband’s unpopularity. Ed Miliband’s unpopularity was the cause…
Cad of the Year 2014
A selection of nominations from Spectator writers and others
Caesar and Farage
Our politicians are desperately keen to turn the toast of the people, Nigel Farage, into toast himself. But is that…
Farage the moderniser
There are many words that you might associate with Nigel Farage, but moderniser probably isn’t one. Yet the Ukip leader…
Ukip needs an ‘-ism’ – and I know just the one
I’m worried about Ukip. It’s possible that my concerns are entirely misplaced but let me give you some examples of…
The lives of others
Tucked away in the schedules, just before midday, just after midweek (on Thursday), just four lines in the Radio Times,…
Diary
I feel an intense antipathy for Vladimir Putin. No one on the international scene has aroused in me such dislike…
Diary
I am back in the UK for work. Great time to turn up — after the grim, grey grind of…
Ukip isn’t a national party. It’s a Tory sickness
It can happen that something ought to feel wrong yet somehow doesn’t; and you wonder whether this means that in…
Diary
What a week! I was thrilled to have a chance to confront Nick Clegg but my excitement was tempered with…
The class that got left behind
In the 2010 general election, Ukip gained nearly a million votes — over 3 per cent — three times as…
Death does not become us
Shortly after Bob Crow’s death was announced on Tuesday, Nigel Farage sent the following tweet: ‘Sad at the death of…
Portrait of the week
Home Moazzam Begg, a former Guantanamo detainee who won substantial compensation after suing the British government, was arrested in Birmingham…
Cameron’s mission for 2014: stay out of third place
European elections are normally an afterthought in British politics. As even David Cameron admits, most of us struggle to remember…
Truths and fallacies
Immigration. Were you aware that this has become a bit of a problem these past ten years? I wasn’t, obviously,…
High life
Gstaad The Swiss canton of Ticino is holding a referendum on a burka ban, and it is about time, too.…
Name of shame
The importance of not being Nigel
