The human condition in a scuffed yellow line
My preferred route from the Times’s offices in Wapping on to the main road takes me across a precinct then…
Matthew Parris: Atheists deserve better opposition
I wish I were a religious conservative: the field’s wide open. It must be dispiriting for believers to encounter so…
Religious sceptics deserve better enemies
I wish I were a religious conservative: the field’s wide open. It must be dispiriting for believers to encounter so…
Matthew Parris: The Tories mustn't cuddle up to Ukip — just imagine if it happened on the left
Such is my respect for Spectator readers that I offer you a column whose subtext is in Latin. Ours is…
The Tories would be mad to cuddle up to Ukip
Such is my respect for Spectator readers that I offer you a column whose subtext is in Latin. Ours is…
Coalition with Labour would suffocate the Liberal Democrats
I write this in Glasgow, at the Lib Dem conference. Nick Clegg has invented a constitutional doctrine. The doctrine teaches…
Nick Clegg should stick with the devil he knows
I write this in Glasgow, at the Lib Dem conference. Nick Clegg has invented a constitutional doctrine. The doctrine teaches…
You can’t demand democracy in Syria but ignore it at home
After David Cameron’s decision to seek parliamentary approval for air strikes against Syria, two lobbies came charging in, banners aloft.…
The awkward truth about democracy in action
After David Cameron’s decision to seek parliamentary approval for air strikes against Syria, two lobbies came charging in, banners aloft.…
I don’t think it’s over in the Balkans
I returned last week from a short break in the Balkans; travelling by train in Serbia, walking from village to…
I don’t think it’s over in the Balkans
I returned last week from a short break in the Balkans; travelling by train in Serbia, walking from village to…
Gay civil partners should resist pressure to 'upgrade' to marriage
Apparently I’ve proposed to my civil partner. He claims that on BBC Radio 2, on the Jeremy Vine show (he…
Must we celebrate gay weddings twice?
Apparently I’ve proposed to my civil partner. He claims that on BBC Radio 2, on the Jeremy Vine show (he…
When party leaders depart from the script, all hell breaks loose
It is within the experience of even the humblest of MPs that those who oppose what you do will berate…
No one else will say it. But right now, both Milband and Cameron are heroic
It is within the experience of even the humblest of MPs that those who oppose what you do will berate…
Why partisan columnists (like me) are doomed
An email exchange with a Conservative-leaning friend this week left me feeling sheepish. But if shameful my behaviour be, I’m…
Columnists are still partisan. Our readers aren’t
An email exchange with a Conservative-leaning friend this week left me feeling sheepish. But if shameful my behaviour be, I’m…
If it’s a race that only one horse can win, am I wrong to want it to be mine?
Why is Christianity so unhelpful on the very ethical dilemma that most concerns ordinary people in our everyday lives? Why…
The day I awoke my inner predator
Gweru on the central Highveld of Zimbabwe used to be called Gwelo when I was there as a boy but…
Why Ukip is a party of extremists
Last Saturday I wrote for my newspaper a column whose drift was that it was time for the sane majority…
The wheat and the chaff of online comments
What’s to be done about the online comments sections in daily newspapers? These (for those estimable Spectator readers who have…
What do the innocent have to fear? Ask Google
Forgive me, but let’s go straight in. Readers of a sensitive disposition look away, but there’s a serious reason for…
