The Spectator’s Notes
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…
Should monuments to past Archbishops of Canterbury come down?
This week, the Church of England issued its document ‘Contested Heritage in Cathedrals and Churches’. It is guidance for what…
‘Religious literacy’ rules risk gagging the press
There should be more ‘religious literacy’. So says the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Religion in the Media, chaired by Yasmin…
The difference between private and public conversation
Like almost everyone else writing on the subject, I have no idea whether Boris Johnson told colleagues in October that…
The strangeness of Britain’s BLM mania
The conviction of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd makes last summer’s Black Lives Matter mania in British…
A word about Prince Philip and religion
The recent Sewell report on Race and Ethnic Disparities has been much abused and little read. It is full of…
Aintree is doing Rose Paterson proud
On Grand National Day at Aintree this Saturday, the Rose Paterson Trust will be launched. This time last year, Rose…
By banning what we dislike, we create a secular shariah
‘Interior silence’ is not a phrase I associate with Sarah Sands, until recently the editor of the BBC Today programme…
In defence of hereditary peers
As the former editor of a Sunday newspaper, I know their front pages can be rather confected. There is sometimes…
What happens when Facebook pays for news?
The recently departed head of MI6, Sir Alex Younger, wants to balance China’s ideological antagonism to the West with the…
Are Harry and Meghan legally married at all?
I have been slow in the uptake. When I saw the Duchess of Sussex complain in her interview clips about…
Emmanuel Macron’s vaccine muddle
In 2000, this magazine dipped its toe in murky Irish water. Stephen Glover wrote three articles, one provocatively entitled ‘The…
