William Atkinson

Badenoch must explain why the Tories deserve power

3 November 2024 3:21 am

Kemi Badenoch’s victory was not overwhelming. Her margin of victory was smaller than of any of her Tory predecessors since…

Is Kemi Badenoch scared of Robert Jenrick?

15 October 2024 5:22 am

Is Kemi Badenoch running scared? It’s not an accusation often levelled at the shadow housing secretary, who is usually criticised…

Why Priti Patel will struggle to win the trust of Tory members

19 July 2024 3:30 pm

Jonathan Gullis is a happy man. ‘Good news!’ the ex-Tory MP for Stoke-on-Trent North wrote following reports that Priti Patel,…

London’s nightlife is getting even more embarrassing

16 July 2024 1:05 am

In the end, there was little reason why England fans might have wanted to hang around after yesterday’s Euros final,…

Rishi Sunak should do the honourable thing – and stay put

5 July 2024 6:21 pm

A record number of cabinet ministers gone. A wipeout in Wales. Only 22 per cent of the vote, with Reform…

The Tories don’t deserve my vote – but they’ll still get it

4 July 2024 10:24 pm

Sometimes I feel like the only person in Britain who is intending to vote Conservative. I know this can’t be…

The betting ‘scandal’ has gone too far

26 June 2024 11:12 pm

Thomas Macaulay, the 19th-century historian, said there is ‘no spectacle so ridiculous as the British public in one of its…

Who can blame Boris Johnson for feeling smug?

4 May 2024 5:00 pm

The real victor of these local elections? Boris Johnson. According to Oscar Wilde, the only thing in life worse than…

Tory MPs – not members – should elect the party’s next leader

1 May 2024 2:54 am

Since first becoming Chairman of the 1922 Committee in 2010, Graham Brady has overseen the election of three Conservative leaders…

Why is the BBC censuring Kenneth Clark’s ‘Civilisation’?

26 April 2024 3:11 am

‘What is Civilisation? I don’t know. I can’t definite it in abstract terms – yet. But I think I can…

What’s wrong with Tory MPs supporting Trump?

6 February 2024 4:15 am

Asking Liz Truss for advice on how to make conservatism popular seems as wise as consulting Paula Vennells on how…

Will expat voters really help the Tories at the next election?

31 January 2024 7:49 pm

With opinion polls predicting an oncoming electoral shellacking for the Conservatives, it is unsurprising that Rishi Sunak is hoping to…

Is it time to scrap the Covid inquiry?

1 June 2023 1:51 am

Why do we have inquiries? The late Geoffrey Howe suggested six principal reasons: to establish the facts, to learn from…

Is it time to ban George Osborne?

4 May 2023 4:00 pm

George Osborne has taken a break from his myriad jobs to give his thoughts on health policy. Orange juice should…

We should support Oxford’s crackdown on motorists

28 March 2023 10:56 pm

Now that Morse has cracked his final case, Oxford’s streets will be freed from the annual disruption caused by successive Jaguars…

Oxford students should resist these medieval trigger warnings

18 February 2023 8:46 pm

In 1408, the Archbishop of Canterbury convened a synod in Oxford to prohibit the reading of John Wycliffe’s English translation of the…

The Oxford-Cambridge arc shows why the Tories don’t get it

26 January 2023 5:52 am

Rishi Sunak has long sought to give Britain its very own Silicon Valley. Partially because pseudo-Californian beaches would provide respite…

Scrapping university personal statements is a mistake

14 January 2023 4:22 am

The decision to scrap personal statements shows up our university system for what it really is: the priority is no…

Oxford's Oriental name change is a mistake

21 September 2022 11:08 pm

Oxford’s Faculty of Oriental Studies has had a name change: it will now be known as the Faculty of Asian and…

Boris Johnson should quit now to save his career

8 June 2022 3:30 pm

The greased piglet will soon be sausages. That, at least, seems the obvious outcome of this week’s Tory party confidence…

Studying history isn't what it used to be

12 May 2021 5:30 pm

Is history in danger of becoming a thing of the past on campus? In recent weeks, Aston in Birmingham announced a consultation on…

Zoomers like me don't realise how lucky we are

28 March 2021 5:30 pm

For millennials like me, talkin’ ’bout our generation usually involves complaining. We Generation Zs – or zoomers – can’t seem…

Rhodes shouldn't fall but Clive had to go

24 January 2021 5:45 pm

Tearing down statues and renaming places is all the rage. But acting in this way isn’t always a mistake. Take…