What republicans understand about monarchy
What ridiculous figures we republicans must seem on the eve of Elizabeth II’s funeral. We sound like desiccated rationalists who…
Could Putin still trigger nuclear war?
The world is facing the prospect of its first nuclear attack since the US Air Force dropped atomic bombs on…
Boris Johnson was a terrible strongman
The ejection of Boris Johnson from Downing Street today proves that the UK has not gone the way of Donald…
Liz Truss doesn't frighten Labour
Labour will attack the new prime minister from the left and the right. From Liz Truss’ exposed left flank, Labour…
Is Liz Truss the British Trump?
Readers must understand how the jargon of political chicanery has corrupted journalism if they are to make sense of the…
Would Russia change if Putin died tomorrow?
Suppose Vladimir Putin drops dead tomorrow – he has to drop dead one day, after all. Will a chastened Russian…
The Conservative party is a void
Like the winter of discontent, the summer of 2022 is a season that will burn itself into the national consciousness.…
Is Keir Starmer a populist?
No one thinks of the careful, polite Keir Starmer as a populist hero. But his intervention in the fuel crisis…
Salman Rushdie overcame his fear
After Ayatollah Khomeini ordered Muslims to kill him for publishing The Satanic Verses in 1989, Julian Barnes gave Salman Rushdie…
Is Liz Truss sowing the seeds of her own downfall?
Liz Truss looks to be winning a decisive victory for cold-eyed conservatism. A victory for I went to the school…
Truss and Sunak are blind to the coming crisis
In times of crisis in the 20th century, voters called for politicians from opposing parties to put aside their differences…
Liz Truss's critics are making the same mistakes as Reagan's enemies
Admirers of one of America’s great modern historians sat up and paid attention when Liz Truss told the Times in…
Sunak and Truss have no answer to the big problem facing the West
You will never measure the depth of our troubles if you listen to the contenders for the Tory leadership. Rishi…
'Taking back control' will end up biting the Tories
Unfriendly commentators can recite insults against the Conservative party in our sleep. It is a rolling shambles, populated by backstabbing…
Cakeism is Boris Johnson's true legacy
The smirk on the faces of politicians and journalists when they talk about ‘cakeism’ shows how Boris Johnson degraded public…
Is Russia Today finished?
As the British authorities debate whether to ban the propaganda channel of a savage imperialist power, Russia Today is making a…
Boris is dragging the Tories down with him
Tories occasionally like to pretend that they are not wasting their talents and lives defending a bottom-feeding demagogue. They lecture…
The Tories hold themselves in contempt
If by the end of today 54 members of the parliamentary Conservative party have not handed in the letters required…
What does Neville Chamberlain have in common with Brexiteers?
The false notes in Netflix’s adaptation of Robert Harris’s Munich come in the final scenes. Jeremy Irons, who has been…
Rishi Sunak's new age fantasy and the great Tory con
Failure corrupts as much as power does, and when the powerful fail they make others pay for their disappointment. To…
Why does Boris Johnson keep on winning?
For his critics, Boris Johnson offends the notion that the British are a sensible people so deeply we feel we…
The mendacity of Priti Patel’s immigration Bill
You are a journalist, a satirist, a campaigner, an opposition politician. For years you work to create the flash of…
How the far left killed itself
The Labour right is as happy as I have seen it in a decade. It thinks it has its party…
China’s obsessive attempts to subvert the West
Most people who think themselves well informed know little or nothing about China. They – or I should say ‘we’…
Even Tories should be wary of Gove's election stitch-up
Conservative politicians appear willing to revolt on every issue: tax rises, China, lockdowns. But on the accumulation of power by…
