Invented female characters are a betrayal of history
The popular historian Ben Macintyre is a fortunate fellow. No sooner has the BBC’s acclaimed adaptation of his account of…
How revolutions begin, and how they can end
Across China, the world’s most populous nation and its second largest economy, scenes unprecedented since the Tiananmen Square massacre of…
Can Boris Johnson’s Charles de Gaulle act pay off?
It is only a month since Boris Johnson gave up his dramatic attempt to regain the Premiership he reluctantly surrendered…
Just how low can our political class sink?
Observe, this dark weekend, a contrast. On Whitehall, the centre of British government, the Royal Family and leaders of our…
Biden vs Trump is a contest in which we all lose
Overnight President Biden announced that he intends to run again for the White House in 2024 and beat Donald Trump…
The Biden elephant in the room
Let us face an unpleasant fact that many seem curiously reluctant to report or discuss. President Joe Biden appears to…
The Tory wars haven’t gone away
Rishi Sunak told the Tories to ‘unite or die’ as he took office this week. Some of his party colleagues…
Don’t bank on a better Boris
In the past century, only four British prime ministers have returned to 10 Downing Street after being ejected from office.…
Is this the end of the Conservatives?
Nothing, not even the world’s oldest and most successful political party, lasts forever. So could the current crisis convulsing the…
A brief history of Tory rebellion
One hundred years ago, on 19 October 1922, Conservative MPs gathered at the Carlton Club. There was only one subject…
Rishi Sunak lost. Get over it
The WhatsApp message doing the rounds in Westminster yesterday was succinct: ‘Rishi PM. Hunt Chx. Penny FS. It’s a done…
What the Queen’s funeral tells us about Britain
State funerals say a lot about the country in which they take place – and one of the things in…
The nondescript house that determined the outcome of the second world war
Sometimes the struggle for a single small strongpoint can tip the whole balance of a greater battle. One thinks of…
A divided Tory party is destined to lose the next election
I think that I may be able to claim credit for being the first writer to question the once universal…
Is Putin using a body double?
Ever since his invasion of Ukraine in February, the world’s media has been awash with rumours that Vladimir Putin is…
Is the death penalty making a comeback?
It’s been a busy week for hangmen. In Japan, Tomohiro Kato, a 39-year-old man, was hanged at a Tokyo prison…
Is Putin really in good health?
Soon after Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine in February a rash of stories appeared in the western media…
Boris Johnson is irreplaceable
It has been less than a fortnight since Boris Johnson’s premiership exploded so spectacularly just three short years after his…
Do Tory MPs still represent their members?
As the Tory party leadership race enters its next stage this weekend, one thing is becoming very clear: the two…
Boris's Tory assassins have learnt nothing from Thatcher's downfall
John Stuart Mill once dismissed the Tories as ‘the stupid party’. When a reader queried the insult, Mill qualified it, but…
Keir Starmer has got the Zzzz...Factor
Is it a fatal handicap for a politician to be dull? Since he became Labour leader two years ago, there…
Boris looks doomed, but can he escape the inevitable?
Is Boris Johnson’s government about to fall apart? Twice since World War Two, Tory governments have broken up after a…
Is this the week Boris Johnson's luck finally runs out?
‘Is he lucky?’ Napoleon demanded to know of one of his generals. When Sue Gray’s partygate report is released in…
Pestminster's return spells trouble for Boris
Some male MPs behave ‘like animals’. In the wake of the recent spate of bad behaviour among our lords and masters, Attorney…
Putin, Bucha and a tale of two Russias
The scenes of butchery and barbarism in the liberated Ukrainian towns of Bucha and Irpin and nearby villages – civilians…
