The sickness benefit trap
Now that I’m no longer editor of this magazine, I can admit that I spent the election night of 1997…
Reflections on 15 years in the editor’s chair
In the late summer of 2009, Andrew Neil invited me to his villa in the Côte d’Azur but didn’t say…
Michael Gove is the new editor of The Spectator
It’s a time of new beginnings here at The Spectator after Sir Paul Marshall’s historic £100 million bid for the…
A new chapter for The Spectator
For the past year or so, I’ve been involved in selling The Spectator as well as editing it. A long…
The Spectator’s new owner – and new era
After a year-long auction drama that involved sheikhs and moguls and even ended up changing the law, The Spectator has a new owner.…
In defence of Douglas Murray
Even by its own standards, Twitter has been an asylum of late, with a lynch mob going after our associate…
Rachel Reeves is right to cut the ‘winter fuel’ bung
A millionaire I know has a tradition every year: he buys a bottle of vintage wine with his Winter Fuel…
Is Rachel Reeves about to make the same mistake as Liz Truss?
How much can Rachel Reeves be trusted? A Chancellor’s credibility counts for a lot with the markets, who are asked…
Liz Kendall promises a game-changer on welfare
Seven Labour MPs had the whip suspended after voting against the two-child benefit cap, but this is a small taste…
Evan Vucci’s Trump photo will define (and perhaps shape) history
History was made in Pennsylvania last night as much by the attempted assassination of Donald Trump as by Evan Vucci…
Britain is still the world’s most successful multi-faith democracy
The swearing-in ceremonies in parliament this week have been rare in that more of them are filmed, posted on social…
Can Wes Streeting and Alan Milburn fix the ‘broken’ NHS?
For years, Wes Streeting has spoken about the need for NHS reform but it was never clear if he had…
Will James Timpson be a radical prisons minister?
The most interesting and unexpected appointment in Keir Starmer’s government is that of James Timpson, the CEO of Timpson, who…
Sunak’s perfect resignation
Rishi Sunak’s resignation speech was classy, generous and a model of the British system at its best. He started by…
Labour’s Potemkin landslide
So far, something pretty big is missing from Labour’s historic landslide: voters. Keir Starmer is set to win 64 per…
Boris and Gove give the perfect Tory requiem
The high point of the Tory rally last night were the superb speeches from Michael Gove and Boris Johnson. ‘Is…
How Nigel Farage became the left’s greatest weapon
Nigel Farage is about to turn British politics upside-down for a third time. His Ukip insurgency forced the Tories to…
Joe Biden’s debate disaster
The Democrats wanted and needed a compelling performance from Joe Biden last night: a rebuttal to the concerns about his…
The most important metric for judging the Tories
‘Handouts from the state do not nurture the same sense of self-reliant dignity as a fair wage,’ says Keir Starmer…
The Washington Post has missed out on a great editor
When Robert Winnett was named the new editor of the Washington Post, it made a lot of sense to me.…
Will Keir Starmer really hire 6,500 more teachers?
Perhaps Keir Starmer’s only solid election pledge is to use the money from VAT on private school fees to ‘hire…
The truth about the rise of the ‘far right’ in Europe
‘The rise of nationalists and demagogues is a danger for our nation but also for Europe,’ said Emmanuel Macron as…
Nigel Farage’s Tory manifesto
I’d say that Nigel Farage gave the best performance in last night’s debate. You might expect that: he’s a full-time…
Farage has taken his D-Day attack on Sunak too far
It didn’t take long for Nigel Farage to record the inevitable attack video. ‘Rishi Sunak pops into Normandy but omits…
On Sunak’s maths, Tories will lift taxes by £3,000 per household
My colleague Ross Clark has shown how the Tories cooked up that £2,000 figure. They worked out the total cost of what…
