General election 2015
Athenians didn’t need coalition negotiations. We should learn from them
Whatever the result of the election, it has become clearer by the day that our ‘democracy’ is run by politicians…
Spectator letters: Why not vote like Belgians?
Bees vs Belgians Sir: To answer Rory Sutherland and Glen Weyl’s question: yes, everyone should vote and no, just because…
The election when first past the post lost
The defence of the Westminster first-past-the-post voting system is that while it’s certainly unfair, it delivers decisive results. A relatively…
After Miliband’s ‘tablet of stone’ stunt, I may just spend election day in the pub
You have the advantage over me. You know the result of the general election, whereas I do not — a…
Why Yanis Varoufakis is my politician of the year
After the heat of battle: the accolades, the recriminations, the telling of history by the victors. It’s six months early…
Reflections on the revolution in Scotland
This was the Scottish election. Where next for the Union now?
The year that Scotland learned to hate
If the SNP isn't about Scottish purity and hating the English, why do so many of its supporters behave as if it is?
What opinion polls feel like from the other end of the line
What opinion polls feel like from the other end of the line
Satire is dying because satirists are too successful
I appeared on Radio 4 a couple of weeks ago to discuss the age-old question of whether political satire is…
The Tories are now the party of the many — Labour is the party of the few
When election day dawns, it’s worth bearing in mind that two million more people will be going to work than when…
Portrait of the week
Home The British economy grew by 0.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2015, the slowest quarterly growth for…
Nigel Lawson’s diary: Escaping election tedium in la France profonde
I have escaped this rather depressing election campaign by retreating to my home in la France profonde — to be…
Spectator letters: What has happened to the instinctive Tory faith?
An instinctive Tory faith Sir: For once Bruce Anderson does not exaggerate: David Cameron did indeed win golden opinions for…
Here’s everything Islamophobic that I have to say, all at once
A couple of weeks back I wrote an article headed: ‘Call me insane, but I’m voting Labour.’ Among the many…
This election has made me understand how it felt to be a lefty under Thatcher
On the weekend of 25 April 2015 I started to believe that the party I supported might not win an…
Russell Brand’s heart is in the right place – but it’s not the place he talks out of
I write at a difficult time. The balls are in the air, but we know not where they will land.…
Why David Cameron is best placed to win the crucial Ikea vote
If Ikea were a constituency, it would be a three-way marginal. That was my thought one morning last week as…
Welcome to Miliband country: how Labour would wreck rural life
A ‘progressive alliance’ would be a profound threat to rural life
Five arguments for voting Tory (and one for anything but)
Five Spectator contributors on why they’re voting for Cameron (and one on why he isn’t)
I don’t want to be a mansion tax migrant
The super-rich can shrug off Labour’s big tax idea. People like me will be forced out
Humans are doing democracy wrong. Bees are doing it right
What the hive knows about democracy that humans have yet to learn
My Brasenose college reunion was great (even if David Cameron didn’t turn up)
A couple of weeks ago I returned to my old Oxford college for a ‘gaudy’ — posh, Oxford-speak for a…
The Portrait restaurant: a secret glade of stone and brick, suspended above Trafalgar Square
The Portrait Restaurant lives at the top of the National Portrait Gallery, London. It is fiercely modern, but likeable. You…
Cameron is the only leader who can deliver an EU referendum. Why is he ashamed to say so?
The election campaign is becoming increasingly dominated by a small party whose raison d’être is to preach independence from membership…
Portrait of the week
Home The prospect of a parliamentary alliance between Labour and the Scottish National Party injected an element of fear into…