Columns
The hijacking of Ann Widdecombe’s death
I don’t know if you remember that old saw: ‘Always speak ill of the dead.’ I don’t recall being brought…
I was targeted by a killer – but I’m still against more security for MPs
Reason, David Hume noted, is a slave of the passions. Arguments, especially political crusades, are often rooted in emotional responses,…
It’s time the Tory party got properly nasty again
In the 2024 American and British national elections, it was no mystery why the incumbents lost. Both the Democratic and…
Labour politicians make the pilgrimage to St Andy
Warm wine, small talk and curling canapés have long defined the Westminster summer scene. But regime change has added a…
How can we de-programme the police?
I’m not sure why I started following the photographer Alastair Hilton on X. He’s right-ish politically, so perhaps the algorithm…
What Farage can learn from the anti-Trump playbook
In January this year Dominic Cummings – once of this parish – warned The Spectator’s editor and assistant editor that…
We should fear drones, not invasion
A stray thought of my own while watching Iranian drones tracing fiery paths over the Gulf, a stray quote from…
Reform is right to fear the return of Boris
The man from Reform had barely sat down at our table at the French bistro when he leant forward conspiratorially…
The confessions of J.D. Vance
There were many reasons why 2016 was a strange year. One of them was the halfhearted effort by people on…
I can’t remember when I was last so disgusted with Trump
You’d think when your country goes to war you’d want it to prevail, but these are topsy-turvy times. Thus the…
Non-hunting people will never understand the lose of a horse
My favourite hunter has died and I am bereft. No disrespect to the myriad other horses I have known and…
How the right can fight Burnham
Andy Burnham has not yet entered No. 10, but the Conservatives and Reform are already preparing for the possibility of…
Burnham’s worryingly vague vision for Britain
Once again the question occurs: ‘Why do they want it?’ Keir Starmer held a very important role in the legal…
The death of two-party politics has been greatly exaggerated
Every twist in the winding road of our politics brings a latest thing to say. These wisdoms usually survive a…
‘It’s going to make Liz Truss look like a savant’: Are you ready for Burnham’s first Budget?
If I were Andy Burnham, I’d be terrified about the inheritance Keir Starmer has left. Yet instead of stepping gingerly…
Will the Iran deal destroy J.D. Vance?
When it comes to foreign policy, Donald Trump is neither hawk nor dove. He’s a dealmaker who plays differing sides…
Revealed: the Green plot against Zack Polanski
As Keir Starmer struggles to keep his crown, another leadership battle is raging. Away from the media spotlight, there is…
The radical left will regret embracing political violence
What are the circumstances in which it is right to smash up a building? When might one justifiably destroy an…
The New York Times’s twisted reporting of Henry Nowak’s murder
Last week’s headline in the New York Times was obfuscating: ‘In the UK, a Violent Cycle: Hateful Attacks, Right-Wing Agitation…
‘Rupert Lowe turns up for work; Nigel Farage doesn’t’: an interview with Kemi Badenoch
There was a moment backstage, before I interviewed Kemi Badenoch for a Spectator event this week, when I felt like…
In defence of two-tiering
What has been remarkable about Henry Nowak’s case was not the story itself, tragic though it is, but the potency…
Beware the ‘matrescence’ con
Every so often, a fashionable new concept is born. Witness the arrival of ‘matrescence’, which, for the uninitiated, is a…
Are we allowed to feel angry yet?
I get the sense that the political and media class badly miss Katie Hopkins. Back when the reality TV star…
Save us from the Gospel according to Grok
The Rt Revd Martyn Snow, the handsome and up-to-date Bishop of Leicester, has decided that it’s OK, even admirable, for…
Revealed: the missing Mandelson messages
Darren Jones has become the government’s Walter Model, the general known during the second world war as ‘the Führer’s fireman’…
