Features
The myth of the ‘trustworthy’ Scottish accent
There was once a belief that for TV and radio commercials, a Scottish voice was more ‘trustworthy’. This was particularly…
Why becoming an MP can ruin your life
It takes seven years to know your way around Parliament. That’s what I was told when I arrived in the…
Ten years on: the world the crash made
With September marking a decade since the Lehman Brothers implosion, stand by for a slew of economic retrospectives. Any meaningful…
Did the crash create populism? If only it were that simple
We often hear it said that the financial crash created populism. It is now a familiar story: that the Lehman…
How Nike turned a protest about racial injustice into advertising
Every so often sport bursts its banks, spills from its usual courses and goes flooding incontinently onto the news pages.…
Tales of UFOs and mysterious big cats come as standard in Cannock Chase
Cannock Chase is the long, low range of hills that’s visible to your right as you drive north up the…
The people vs Brexit: a very elite insurgency
The very best impressionists do not simply mimic the mannerisms, speech patterns and facial expressions of their targets — they…
The People’s Vote have one big advantage: their opponents are in disarray
It may seem odd that a cabal of politicians, celebrities and millionaires can successfully present themselves as a great democratic…
Sweden’s political panic attack
Uppsala, Sweden When I dropped off my kids at school early last week, I noticed that -another parent’s car was…
Why I’m a Muslim
When Muslims make headlines, it’s invariably for the wrong reasons. The fuss over Boris Johnson’s burka joke is a case…
The great British train wreck
A couple of weeks ago I met David Grime and Alan Noble, members of the Lakes Line Rail User Group,…
The Democrats’ dilemma: should they impeach President Trump?
Washington, DC The Democrats will face a dilemma if they win control of the House of Representatives in November’s midterm…
Remembering Soho: A conversation on debauchery, drunks and Francis Bacon
Christopher Howse has just written a book about Soho. He drank there regularly with Michael Heath, The Spectator’s cartoon editor,…
Douglas Murray: I can’t think of a time when more people have lost their minds
Whenever I visit a country I try to pitch high and meet the president or prime minister. In Australia this…
Battersea Power Station deserves its glossy makeover – but I’ll miss its crumbling glamour
Battersea Power Station once generated nearly a fifth of London’s power. It must have hummed and clanked almost as much…
Venezuela’s great socialist experiment has brought a country to its knees
Imagine if Theresa May suddenly announced that her government was going to devalue the pound by 96 per cent; increase…
Trumpworld is spinning out of control
Donald Trump’s Twitter feed was oddly silent as the news came that his former campaign manager and his former lawyer…
Our jails crisis is even worse than we’ve been told
You need a strong stomach to be Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons, as a letter from Peter Clarke —…
Sperm donors and the incest trap
It is hard to think of a code of behaviour which is common to all societies on earth, let alone…
Rory Bremner: Why comedians are getting political
The brilliant Irish comedian Andrew Maxwell describes doing stand-up at the Edinburgh Fringe as ‘exams for clowns’, and even though…
Stop calling me ‘a privileged white man’ – I’m more than that
I got some bad news this week. I discovered that I’m a ‘privileged, white male’. It was my agent who…
Freedom of movement isn’t an EU invention. Victorian London thrived on it
Here’s a bracing lesson from Victorian history that might possibly help to slice some impossible Brexit knots. In the 19th…
The highs – and lows – of learning to fly a kite
I’ve flown only three kites in my life. My stepfather bought me the first. I remember seeing him from a…
The bluffocracy: how Britain ended up being run by eloquent chancers
Any time we see a politician fail, or an idiotic policy collapse as it passes through parliament — which these days…
War of words: my battle to correct Wikipedia
How can you be attacked by an encyclopaedia? Until last week I would have thought the idea as absurd as…
