Columns
Can Reform reform?
Of all the uses to which Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne might put their money, there are few more innocent…
America is not our friend
Imagine, if you will, King Charles in the Deep South. The aesthetics are easy enough: it doesn’t take much to…
Who exactly can wear a face covering?
I’m trying to work out what the new rules are in this country. I think I’m getting there, though any…
The real reason children no longer enjoy reading
At the tail end of the summer holiday, my son and I had a shouting match in King’s Cross station.…
How to defeat Reform on immigration
It’s now 24 years since I started writing about the urgent need to reform or quit the asylum provisions of…
Meet the most powerful woman in Britain
Some years ago Antonia Romeo, now the Cabinet Secretary, was stuck in a boring meeting about civil service reform. She…
Would Sadiq Khan back a rave in a mosque?
I must return, regrettably, to the subject of the Church of England. Readers with long memories may recall the year…
Long live death’s dark humour
One of the things people don’t tell you about grief is the humorous side of it. Many will warn that…
Don’t sympathise with Lindsay Clancy
The declaration of a mistrial in the filicide case of Lindsay Clancy coincides, for me uncomfortably, with a new UK…
Who will remember Keir Starmer?
I am starting to think that Keir Starmer might have been in it for himself. In saying that, I am…
The young men of Middlesbrough just don’t care
No one looking back on the last fortnight could say that Middlesbrough didn’t make the most of its time in…
The Greens are coming for north London
When Sir Keir Starmer announced that he was standing down as an MP on Tuesday, jubilation erupted among Green activists.…
Time’s up for Burnham’s happy thoughts
Kemi Badenoch, headlines my newspaper, ‘prepares Tories for early general election’ with her big reshuffle this week. I do not…
Is Andy Burnham ready for the world stage?
If Andy Burnham has a golden rule, it seems to be this: do the opposite of Keir Starmer. The new…
Harry and Meghan deserve a second chance
A little while back I came across a copy of Ted Hughes’s Laureate poems which had an inscription to some…
Call me a cripple
In case you missed it (well done, if so), last week Will Self wrote an extraordinary rant on Substack attacking…
We are ignoring the biggest threat the world faces
In my mid-twenties, my one-bedroom in Astoria, Queens, developed a roach problem. I don’t mean the odd single scurry disappearing…
Middle England is finally waking up to the migrant crisis
I don’t know how familiar readers are with the term ‘accelerationism’. It is generally used to describe a tendency on…
Baby Gabriel-Rumi is the latest victim of the global surrogacy business
On Tuesday, a court in Dallas, Texas will convene to decide the fate of a small baby called Gabriel or…
I love Cape Town – but it’s not Africa
There can be few foreign cities where the Spectator, Times and Telegraph are more widely read than Cape Town. In…
Bond’s identity crisis mirrors Britain’s
Sometimes I wake up in the night disturbed by dreams of James Bond. Surely, you might say, that’s the point…
Politicians’ contempt for the press is contempt for the public
I was hacked by the Chinese a few years ago. Security at News UK, where I was employed on the…
How I learnt to stop worrying and love pessimism
I was on friendly terms with Rod Liddle for quite a few decades. He applied for the job I got…
Don’t blame supermarkets for your expensive shop
I’m sufficiently nostalgic for the British supermarkets I left behind in 2023 that on visits to the UK I run…
The mawkish madness of Dobby’s ‘grave’
I don’t know how many readers have visited the grave of Dobby the house-elf, but any who have should immediately…
