Brexit
Brexit means Boris
A few months before he died in 2007, Bill Deedes asked if I would come to see him at his…
The horror of post-Brexit Britain: Perfidious Albion, by Sam Byers, reviewed
Edmundsbury, the fictional, sketchily rendered town in which the action of this novel takes place, is part of a social…
Boris Johnson: Why we should chuck Chequers
Surely there is a bit of humbug in this outrage about the two remaining jihadi Beatles, Kotey and Elsheikh, and…
Why austerity is coming to an end
The last day of the parliamentary term is usually an occasion for the government to get a whole bunch of…
Ukip is back thanks to the Chequers backlash
The UK Independence Party might be about to make a comeback. Ever since Theresa May’s Chequers deal on Brexit, which…
The view from Paris: ‘Why are Brexiteers so stupid?’
‘Problème est masculin; solution est féminine,’ says Brigitte, the adored French teacher at the British embassy in Paris. Good way…
May’s Brexit plan has failed. She needs a new one – and fast
Handling Brexit was never going to be easy for Theresa May, given that the Tories have been fighting a civil…
The sense of betrayal feeds the demand for a no-deal Brexit. Watch this space
The collapse of Mrs May’s Chequers plan, followed by Tuesday’s failure of the Tory Remainers to defeat the government, creates…
Brexit is in chaos. It’s time to delay it – then stop it
Omissions can be as instructive as inclusions. I noted a curious example in a column Nick Timothy wrote last month…
In the end, the Remainers will win. The powerful always do
Before the referendum, I predicted behind closed doors that even if Leave improbably prevailed, Britain’s political establishment would ensure that…
Barry Humphries on Trump, transgender ‘rat-baggery’ and causing maximum offence
‘I’m an amateur,’ Barry Humphries tells me. The Australian polymath uses the word in its older sense of ‘enthusiast’ rather…
Watch out, London: I might be moving back
New York I am seriously thinking of moving back to London. The family insists on it. New York, they say,…
What Britain needs is a disruptor-in-chief like Donald Trump
It is appropriate that the 45th President of the United States has come to Britain this week on a working…
This is what happens when you put Brexit in the hands of unbelievers
Well, we did it. No, not Brexit, the World Cup or my (somewhat less) ambitious scheme at Legal & General…
Portrait of the week: Theresa May’s Brexit deal in doubt as Boris Johnson and David Davis resign
Home Boris Johnson resigned as Foreign Secretary the day after David Davis resigned as Brexit Secretary, both in reaction to…
Where does authority really lie in the UK? The ancients would have known
Forget David Davis, Boris, the cabinet, the commentariat. It’s time to concentrate on the big picture and the central question:…
Why did Theresa May ‘clear’ the EU deal with Merkel before consulting her colleagues?
Why do the British turn to the Germans in their moments of European trouble? It never works. When Jacques Delors…
This is Brexit in name only to keep the plebs happy
My wife has decided she likes Dominic Raab, the latest poor sap to be despatched from a hamstrung, spasticated government…
The lost art of patience
I’m losing my patience. Not so long ago I’d happily wait ten minutes for a bus, or even whole days…
Carmakers holding back investment in Britain is not just about Brexit
Technical issues Sir: Martin Vander Weyer’s supposition that car manufacturers are holding back investment due to Brexit seems to be…
There’s no going back on Brexit. But liberal policies are the way forward
This week Brexit reached its Somme. The government has been bogged down in votes on amendments inserted into its Brexit…
To reverse the Daily Mail’s Brexit stance would be editorial suicide
Awake to the Today programme and ordure being dumped on me by Polly Toynbee while the Mail’s legendary Dame Ann…
Justin Trudeau is far more pointless than Donald Trump
‘Trudeau or Trump?’ was a choice which Theresa May, with unusually ready wit, evaded in Parliament on Monday. No doubt…
Becoming German has helped me understand Brexit
In the end, after all the waiting, the document didn’t look like much — a sheet of A4 paper adorned…
This period of British history is like the first months of the second world war
A distinguished retired EU diplomat from a small EU member state sends me a thoughtful letter. He complains that Brexit…
