The Spectator’s Notes
The curious case of Barry Gardiner
In May 2020, in the wake of the Barnard Castle story, Emily Maitlis delivered her famous Newsnight address to the…
My new nickname for Putin
According to the new Chief of the Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the Russians wish to ‘put at risk…
Why is Microsoft offended by ‘Mrs Thatcher’?
The interregnum between incumbents is a well-known and often elongated process in the Church of England. I have recently witnessed…
Lockdown has made poachers bolder – and more dangerous
One midnight last month, Jon Wiltshire, who lives in a cottage just outside our Sussex village, was woken by a…
Who will be the Democrats’ Gorbachev?
As this paper has argued since the time of the Tiananmen Square massacres, this country should offer Hong Kong people…
Peppa Pig’s conservative values
I like to think that Boris Johnson’s rambling performance at the CBI this week was a satire against the organisation…
National Trust members fight back
At the National Trust’s annual general meeting last week, the voting was much more unusual than the public will have…
The cold hard truth about heat pumps
When I went to Poland not long before Covid, I found a country more bitterly divided by a culture war…
Why the baby doomers are wrong
Rarely does a piece of journalism bring a tear to my normally cynical eye, but I did find this happening…
In defence of Angela Rayner
On the one occasion when I spent any time with Angela Rayner, she was funny, direct and friendly. We were…
The legacy of Stephen Toope
Stephen Toope, Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, has begun this academic year by announcing it will be his last in the…
Is the world we value falling apart?
From time to time, people get worried and ask one another: ‘Is the world falling apart?’ I imagine this is…
The BBC exaggerates Britain’s importance in Afghanistan
This week, the media pressure was on the British government to extend the deadline for the evacuations from Kabul airport.…
It is shabby of Biden to blame the Afghans
Q. Is a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan now inevitable? The President: No, it is not. Q. Why? The President: Because…
What ministers won’t admit about A-levels
The tale of A-levels shows how ministers can sometimes find themselves in a position when it is simply too dangerous…
Chris Packham’s suggestions to save the world
On Monday 2 August, the BBC Today programme offered its ‘Countdown to COP26’. For the rest of the month, Amol…
The West’s moralising over climate change will cost India
On Tuesday, I chaired a session at Policy Exchange addressed by Tony Abbott, the eloquent former prime minister of Australia,…
What Dominic Cummings gets wrong
Anyone who thinks Boris Johnson lacks statecraft should pay attention to Dominic Cummings’s attacks on him. They often to seem…
The rise of the robot lawnmower
A special animus is aimed at Priti Patel, perhaps because the combination of being Indian, female and firmly Tory is…
Should trains have mask and non-mask carriages?
In deciding whether or not to wear a mask after 19 July, I am sure Boris Johnson is right that…
‘Fear and bullying’ at the National Trust
Is Winston Marshall — guitarist, banjo player, composer of Mumford & Sons, and father of the west London ‘Nu-Folk’ music…
Why the BBC believed Martin Bashir
If it is true, as Lords Hall and Birt told a Commons committee this week, that Martin Bashir succeeded in…
Would you pay £80 for a video from John Bercow?
There is much to be said for meritocracy, and Adrian Wooldridge, in his new book, The Aristocracy of Talent, says…
The first step towards restoring the National Trust
It is poetically fitting that the resignation of the chairman of the National Trust, Tim Parker, was announced on the…
A tree is for centuries, not just for COP26
We are being urged — and, in some cases, paid — by the government to plant more trees. Actually, this…
