Politics
Be different, be original: that’s what makes a popular politician
I sometimes try to imagine what it would be like being a political leader. I find this difficult because I…
Another enemy within: Thatcher (and Wilson) vs the BBC
In a ‘Dear Bill’ letter in Private Eye, an imaginary Denis Thatcher wrote off the BBC as a nest of…
Why Putin is even less of a human than Stalin was
LBC likes to tell us it’s ‘Leading Britain’s Conversation’, though in the case of weekday pre-lunch presenter James O’Brien you’ll…
UKIP: The First 100 Days, Channel 4, review: a sad, predictable, desperate hatchet job
Just three months into Ukip’s shock victory as the party of government and already Nigel Farage’s mob are starting to…
The Heckler: how funny really was Spitting Image?
Hold the front page! Spitting Image is back! Well, sort of. A new six-part series, from (some of) the team…
National Theatre’s 3 Winters: a hideous Balkans ballyhoo
A masterpiece at the National. A masterpiece of persuasion and bewitchment. Croatian word-athlete Tena Stivicic has miraculously convinced director Howard…
Let’s appoint a Ministry of Scandalous Ideas
My children have a phrase called ‘fomo’ — which stands for ‘fear of missing out’. It is a constant, mildly…
Scotland needs Jim Murphy (even if he doesn’t want to go back there)
There should, by rights, have been a stampede of candidates to replace Johann Lamont as the leader of the Scottish…
Ukip's logo is quite successful – in communicating a spirit of gung-ho crapness
Now that the conference season is over, we can compare not just the party policies, but their logos too. Last…
We're still repeating the mistakes of the first world war
The time-honoured saying that England’s great battles have been won on the playing fields of Eton is a lot of…
Boy, can Alan Johnson write
Alan Johnson’s first volume of memoirs, This Boy, is still in the bestsellers’ list, but the Stakhanovite postman has made…
Is America headed for tyranny? It is when the other side's in charge...
For the last 50 years Americans have been decrying the increase of presidential power whenever the party they oppose is…
Spectator letters: In defence of women ministers, Handel and lefty sex
Give the women a chance Sir: Melissa Kite’s article about the reshuffle seems downright unfair (‘A misogynistic reshuffle’, 19 July). Whatever…
The many lives of Richard Nixon
Winston Churchill once said of politics that it’s ‘almost as exciting as war and quite as dangerous. In war you…
The truth about 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.…
Is full employment just another of George Osborne’s political stunts?
‘Full employment’ usually means the lowest achievable rate of unemployment — somewhere south of 5 per cent compared with 7.2 per…
Was Roy Jenkins the greatest prime minister we never had?
Roy Jenkins may have been snobbish and self-indulgent, but he was also a visionary and man of principle who would have made a good prime minister, says Philip Ziegler
Witnesses in the heart of darkness
When presented with a 639-page doorstopper which includes 82 pages of closely-written sources, notes and index, most of us feel…
Lawlessness, corruption, poverty and pollution: the city where we're all headed
India’s vast polluted capital, where brutality, corruption and ruthless self-seeking are endemic, could be the blueprint of the future, says Peter Parker
Death brings out everyone’s inner Mary Whitehouse
Shortly after Bob Crow’s death was announced on Tuesday, Nigel Farage sent the following tweet: ‘Sad at the death of…
Why Boris is wrong to say that the children of jihadis should be taken into care
Do your children have a bleak and nihilistic view of the world? It’s hard to tell, really, when they spend…
I’m scared to admit to being a Tory in today’s C of E
Believe me, it’s not easy to be a Tory in today’s C of E
From Nasser to Mubarak — Egypt's modern pharaohs and their phoney myths
Jonathan Rugman is foreign affairs correspondent for Channel 4 News.
Hope for one of the most turbulent, traumatised regions in the world
John Keay’s excellent new book on the modern history of South Asia plunges the reader head first into some wildly…
The 'semi-detached' member of Margaret Thatcher's cabinet
John Biffen was mentally ill. This is the outstanding revelation of Semi-Detached, a memoir which has been assembled from his…
