Columns
Prime ministers can’t pick the crises that define them
In a non-Covid world, next week would be the Tory party conference. Boris Johnson would march on to the stage…
It isn’t always easy to give money away
I always felt sorry for my father, then president of a chronically strapped educational institution, for having ceaselessly to approach…
The memo Dominic Cummings never sent
There’s something about Dominic Cummings I will always like, and perhaps partly it’s the danger. I hardly know him well…
In defence of wokeness
We have been reading an awful lot about ‘wokeness’ recently. Nobody, I notice, seems to be much in favour of…
Who rules supreme in America?
Within hours of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death, Democrats and Republicans began fighting over how to fill her…
All protests are not equal in the eyes of the police
I’ve never been a great fan of public demonstrations. When I was at university, one of the great causes du…
Time for me to be more assertive
In the light of recent articles in The Spectator, I think it is vital I should point out here and…
Why No. 10 fears the second wave
The government is bracing itself for a second wave of coronavirus. Everyone knew the autumn and winter would be more…
JK Rowling’s fundamental mistake
I had my first doubts about Lord Hall, the former director-general of the BBC, when he addressed a group of…
The Covid hysteria is getting worse
Readers may recall a column last month that laid out powerful evidence for the proposition that the ethnic and racial…
The next generation of gay men will be far more boring
Last week we broadcast my BBC radio Great Lives episode on Kenneth Williams. The effervescent comedian and presenter Tom Allen…
The dark side of ‘cute’ culture
I have become allergic to ‘cute’, bad-tempered biddy that I am. Cuteness and the requirement to be cute have spread…
Falsehoods are running amok
I don’t know how much of a shock this will come to you as — perhaps none, because you are…
No. 10’s no-deal dilemma
Backbenchers are discussing when to give Downing Street a bloody nose, a former prime minister is on the warpath and…
Who would risk being a government adviser?
Poor Tony Abbott. It would seem being prime minister of Australia doesn’t bring you to the attention of the British…
How a lie becomes truth
Teachers were told to exclude children who made ‘inappropriate’ jokes about Covid when they returned to school this week. These…
To save the Union, negotiate Scotland’s independence
The first cabinet meeting of the new term and Boris Johnson’s summer holiday were both dominated by one concern: how…
The trouble with ‘taking back control’
I sympathised with Leave voters who yearned to ‘take back control’ of British borders. After all, if being a country…
Are liberal conservatives now history?
It was a luminous late August sunset, and we were in France, dining outdoors with some friends who have a…
Boris the builder mustn’t buckle over planning reform
The government will pass the test it has set itself: schools in England will return next week. Pupils may well…
Our Belarusian blind spot
I’d always rather liked the Finns, until I came across the conductor Dalia Stasevska. When I asked my mother what…
How progressive misogyny works
It happens a lot lately. Not just in a Twitter DM or an email but in real life. Someone tells…
Protestors are clearing a path for Trump
‘This city is not going to stop burning itself down until they [the protestors] know that this officer has been…
Brits aren’t idiotic – but our institutions are
Two headlines from the same news-paper, less than three weeks apart. So, the Guardian on 31 July: ‘The Guardian view…
The importance of Gavin Williamson
When Boris Johnson tried to call a general election in September last year, everyone around him assumed that Jeremy Corbyn…
