America
Portrait of the year: Subpostmasters scandal, Rishi in the rain and Syrian rebels topple regime
January After an ITV drama, the government suddenly proposed to do something about the unjust prosecution of sub-postmasters. Junior doctors…
Elon Musk is wrong about the Roman Empire
I was in Washington D.C. during The Election, living halfway between the Capitol and White House. Concerned friends suggested I…
Why does James Baldwin matter so much now?
The rise of Queer Studies and Black Lives Matter has led to renewed interest in Baldwin – who was exasperated in life with being categorised by colour or as ‘gay’
Portrait of the week: Labour’s ‘plan for change’, falling productivity and 20,000 wolves in the EU
Home The Labour government announced a ‘Plan for Change’ that it refused to call a reset. Sir Chris Wormald was…
What Scott Bessent’s appointment means for Trump 2.0
How rare it is to be given a second chance. That’s what the American people have handed Donald Trump. His…
Musical chairs at Mar-a-Lago
Welcome to the United States of Disruption. From his ‘Winter White House’ in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, Donald Trump has been busy…
Welcome to life on Planet Elon
On 13 July this year, an assassin’s bullet grazed the ear of Donald Trump as he turned his head on…
Why Trump changed his tune on crypto
This column comes to you from Atlanta, Georgia, where but for one giant ‘Trump Stands Up For Families’ billboard and…
How to process your Trump trauma (with orange soup)
It’s amazing how many people have responded to what they think of as the shattering catastrophe of Donald Trump’s victory…
Not even close: how Trump confounded the pundits
It was supposed to be close. On the eve of election day, Donald Trump was up just 0.1 per cent…
American titan: Inside Donald Trump’s remarkable political comeback
Palm Beach, Florida Donald Trump’s bid to take back the White House has been triumphant. It is a decisive victory…
What Britain can learn from Donald Trump’s victory
This has been the year of ejection elections. Across the democratic world, incumbents have been thrown out and insurgents have…
Reality check: why the Democrats lost
For the past decade, Donald Trump has been the most famous and influential man on the planet. But he had…
The real test for the republic
It’s always intimidating to write for a readership more clued up than you are. I file this on the very…
In defence of the liberal elite
You can hear it already. Rising from the tents of the dejected Democrat camp comes the whimper of self-reproach. It’s…
Stalemate over Taiwan is the best we can hope for
A good outcome is the tacit recognition on all sides that we currently lack the means to solve this intractable problem, says the former diplomat Kerry Brown
Team Trump: who’s in – and who’s out?
If Donald Trump wins back the White House next week, adopt the brace position. His opponents will go beserk, inevitably,…
How quickly would Trump wash his hands of Ukraine?
For American politicians, all wars are two-front wars. There is a hot battlefield somewhere in the Middle East or the…
Who do US psychics predict will win the election?
A week away from the American election, and the polls cannot tell us who will be president. But can they…
America’s last undecided voter
This is the last column I’ll file before the American presidential election, and I’ve dreaded writing it for months. (The…
A British First Amendment wouldn’t save free speech
Does the United Kingdom need a First Amendment? That’s a question I’ve been thinking about a lot recently, given the…
Why the young are fleeing to Portugal
The legendary music producer Rick Rubin once asked me why I had never moved to the United States. The answer,…
The magic of The Spectator
Not since South Park Elementary’s election campaign between a Giant Douche and a Turd Sandwich has an election bedevilled me…
What does ‘victory’ for Ukraine look like?
This week in New York Volodymyr Zelensky will present Joe Biden with a ‘Victory Plan’ for Ukraine. But how to…
Are the Tories brave enough to be conservative?
The Conservative party is out of power – and that’s not easy if you’ve been in power for more than…
