Margaret Thatcher

The SAS explode from the shadows in six days that shook Britain

21 September 2024 9:00 am

The siege of the Iranian embassy in London in the spring of 1980 achieved nothing for the terrorists. But the previously reclusive elite army unit soon became the stuff of legend

The trivial details about royalty are what really fascinate us

31 August 2024 9:00 am

Craig Brown’s focus on specifics that other biographers would consider beneath them brings rich rewards

I will miss my vote

6 July 2024 9:00 am

I feel as if I first took part in a general election even before I was born. My father was…

The atmosphere of a historic country house cannot be bought

29 June 2024 9:00 am

Paintings, books and treasures collected by the same family over centuries give a historical depth that no modern plutocrat can recreate

The costly legacy of Margaret Thatcher’s monetarism

15 June 2024 9:00 am

As Thatcher’s economic private secretary in the first years of her government, Tim Lankester is well qualified to analyse the controversial policy and its effects

There’s much to be said for nostalgia

11 May 2024 9:00 am

Instead of condemning it as dangerous fantasy, two new books argue that we should welcome nostalgia as ‘emotional armour’ in a fast-changing world

Why the fuss over The Spectator’s sale?

30 March 2024 9:00 am

This diary is late. Two months late. The columnists who missed my Evening Standard deadlines often had elaborate excuses. Mine…

How much does Britain still ‘love’ the NHS?

2 September 2023 9:00 am

Three books examining the health service in its 75th year find it at its nadir today – with 500 people dying weekly due to delays in urgent and emergency care

Is Gary Neville following in the footsteps of Thatcher – or Trump?

1 July 2023 8:53 pm

A video loop on the homepage of Gary Neville’s new website shows the ex-Man Utd captain turned businessman, broadcaster and…

Is Margaret Thatcher ultimately to blame for the current social housing crisis?

24 June 2023 9:00 am

Her 1980 ‘Right to Buy’ policy, though popular at the time, led to the serious erosion of social housing stock and today’s itinerant population, says Kieran Yates

So ancient, so new

17 June 2023 9:00 am

Its industrial new towns have nothing in common with its picturesque villages and lonely estuaries – but a refusal to conform still unites this deeply schizophrenic county

Thatcherism is a cult the Tories should not follow

21 August 2022 3:00 pm

Friedrich Nietzsche may not be the most fashionable member of the conservative canon, but doubtless he wouldn’t care much. He…

State-building is a Tory tradition. It’s time to rediscover it

13 August 2022 9:00 am

It’s time for some old-fashioned Tory state-building

Solving the mystery of mass almost ruined Peter Higgs’s life

6 August 2022 9:00 am

In 1993 William Waldegrave, the science minister, was looking into a project being planned on the continent. Cern, the European…

Liz Truss is no Margaret Thatcher

23 July 2022 9:00 am

The late Senator Lloyd Bentsen was 26 years older than the young Senator Dan Quayle when in 1988 they crossed…

Inflation is a social evil, so why don't our leaders care?

22 June 2022 9:32 pm

It was a ‘destroyer of society’, a ‘tax on ordinary people’s savings’ and a threat to social order. You don’t…

Has liberalism destroyed itself?

14 May 2022 9:00 am

According to Vladimir Putin, liberalism is an ‘obsolete’ doctrine, a worn-out political philosophy no longer fit for purpose. In this…

How Britain was misled over Europe for 60 years

16 April 2022 9:00 am

Just as one is inclined to believe Carlyle’s point that the history of the world is but the biography of…

Spies shouldn’t be political

9 April 2022 9:00 am

Now that events in Ukraine are restoring a sense of proportion about the difference between aggressive autocracies and free countries,…

What would have happened in the Falklands if Thatcher had been a man?

2 April 2022 9:00 am

Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands 40 years ago. I had joined the Daily Telegraph as a reporter in 1979 and…

What I really said to Gordon Brown: Field Marshal Lord Guthrie sets the record straight

11 December 2021 9:00 am

A headline in the Mail on Sunday, taken up eagerly by the BBC’s Todayprogramme, claimed recently: ‘The SAS is getting…

Wrapped up in satire, a serious lesson about the fine line between success and scandal

2 October 2021 9:00 am

Have you heard of champing? Neither had I. Turns out it’s camping in a field beside a deserted church. When…

A dutiful exercise carried out in a rush

4 September 2021 9:00 am

The final volume of Peter Ackroyd’s History of England feels like a dutiful exercise carried out in a hurry, says Philip Hensher

Margaret Thatcher vs everyone else: the making of the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement

21 August 2021 9:00 am

Diplomatic negotiations are rarely fully described by their participants in books, for two reasons. They are usually secret until much…

This play is a wonder: Bach & Sons at the Bridge Theatre reviewed

10 July 2021 9:00 am

Bach & Sons opens with the great composer tinkling away on a harpsichord while a toddler screeches his head off…