Margaret Thatcher
Why the fuss over The Spectator’s sale?
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?
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?
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?
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
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
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
It’s time for some old-fashioned Tory state-building
Solving the mystery of mass almost ruined Peter Higgs’s life
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
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?
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?
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
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
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?
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
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
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
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
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
Bach & Sons opens with the great composer tinkling away on a harpsichord while a toddler screeches his head off…
My voyage back through the landmarks of my life
I was looking forward to my dinner at Daquise in South Kensington, a Polish restaurant that’s been there for ever…
Confessions of a lifelong bitch
The return of the bitch is long overdue
The greatest threat to Boris's legacy
The government is starting to have an opinion poll problem, but it has nothing to do with any great threat…
Social mobility has become a meaningless mantra
‘Whatever your background,’ Margaret Thatcher told the Sun’s readers in 1983, she was determined that ‘you have a chance to…
My memories of Sir David Barclay
Even with its 27 amendments, the US Constitution is only 7,591 words. I keep it beside me, and find in…
The politics of handbags
‘Of course, I am obstinate in defending our liberties and our law — that is why I carry a big…
