Politics
Low life
Saturday night we ate outside next to the floodlit rock face. Four adult guests came puffing up the path and…
Below the crisis, a question floats: ‘Where do we find purpose?’
Perhaps we are at least past the beginning of this crisis. The phase where the hunt for multipacks of loo-rolls…
Real Life
One of the many technological things I don’t understand is, how come I’m paying to watch television? I know why…
Oracles, perverts and the Dirtbag Left
For 500 years the State Oracle of Tibet has worked as a kind of angry immortal advisor to the Dalai…
Stranger things
Of all the many things I’ve learned from the radio so far this decade, the most deranging is that the……
Benjamin Disraeli — inventor of English political fiction
For our fractured times, the release of Disraeli’s Sybil in unabridged audio, narrated with the respect it deserves by Tim…
The Middle East for dummies
Gstaad The French have a saying: ‘Il n’y a rien de plus bête que le sourire du gagnant.’ In…
How the Conservative strategy is faring across the country
It’s the week of the election and Boris Johnson is to spend the final days of the campaign visiting every…
I’ve finally found out the truth about my horse-riding nemesis
She was a trade union activist, she told me. She wanted a second referendum. Well, they all do. I’m starting…
Dear Mary: What should I do about a Lib Dem friend who can no longer take a joke?
Q. I sent a WhatsApp message to a Lib Dem friend of 15 years. ‘How are you finding being a…
General de Gaulle’s advice to the young Queen Elizabeth
There were so many ear-catching moments in Peter Hennessy’s series for Radio 4, Winds of Change, adapted from his new…
Funny, short and cheap to stage, Hansard is an excellent bet for a transfer
Hansard is the debut play by actor Simon Woods, who enjoys a deep knowledge of his subject. The characters are…
I have no clue what’s going on, but can’t wait to find out: BBC1’s The Capture reviewed
How did the police ever solve any crimes before CCTV? That was the question which sprang to mind watching the…
Watching Stephen Fry was like being in the presence of a god
Stephen Fry lies prone on an empty stage. A red ball rolls in from the wings and bashes him in…
How did Richard Braine become Dick Braine?
Name calling Richard Braine was appointed leader of Ukip, leading to jokes about the party being led by a ‘Dick…
Let’s choose our politicians by random selection
Athens Standing right below the Acropolis, where pure democracy began because public officials were elected by lot, I try to…
Reshuffling ministers annually is no way to govern
‘Annual reshuffles are crazy,’ remarked one of the prime minister’s most trusted advisers in July 1999 as I hovered outside…
The death of free thought
Hold the presses, this is a world exclusive. A Boris ex I sat next to last week gave me the…
The silliness of ‘serious’ leaders
You would think it would be unarguable that ‘Serious times demand a serious leader’. This, with small verbal variations, is…
Backing Mrs Thatcher
From ‘Be brave’, 28 April 1979: We can think of a number of reasons why voters might feel reluctant to…
Was there no end to John Buchan’s talents?
John Buchan was a novelist, historian, poet, biographer and journalist (assistant editor of The Spectator indeed); a barrister and publisher;…
It’s vital to keep good relations with our EU allies – and we need a leader who’s up to the challenge
The European Union’s official goal — an ever-closer union of people — remains its single most attractive feature. Our continent…
For many artists being propagandists has become their raison d’être
If you want to lose friends and alienate people in the art world, try telling them you support Britain leaving…
The unbearable pointlessness of Parliament
Christmas books pages usually invite columnists to nominate their publishing event of the year. Well, here’s a corker: The Ties…
In defence of Nick Clegg
As I write, the sneering at Nick Clegg has started. The first cuckoo I’ve heard in this chorus is calling…
