Politics
Is Rishi just too rich for politics?
The obvious and perhaps only way out of this mess for Rishi Sunak was for his wife to pay double…
Rishi’s wife changes tack on tax
This evening Rishi Sunak’s wife Akshata Murty has announced that she will pay UK taxes on her overseas income, following a public backlash…
Why Russian tactics won't win the war
As the Russian invasion of Ukraine enters its second month, the war has settled into a largely attritional struggle –…
The battle for the Tory party’s soul
When news broke over the weekend that former minister Nick Gibb had become the 14th Tory MP to publicly call…
The day Boris tried to bribe me
It’s not every day that a future prime minister offers you a bribe, but that’s what happened to me 38…
A rather pointless PMQs lets Boris off the hook
Given the extraordinarily low expectations, Prime Minister’s Questions went reasonably well for Boris Johnson today. That is partly because it…
Robert Harris on Boris Johnson, cancel culture and rehabilitating Chamberlain
Nigel Jones talks to the writer Robert Harris about Blair, Johnson and Polanski, cancel culture and his quest to rehabilitate Neville Chamberlain
What really happened to Politics For All
Why was Politics For All shut down?
I’m sharing my boyfriend with 60,000 other people
The trouble with dating a social media star
The Colston verdict is the triumph of values, not law
The verdict is in on the case of the Colston statue in Bristol. Not guilty. Every one of the accused…
Why should I be 'cancelled' for arguing that biological sex is real?
‘I just get the impression she hates men’, said a wound-licking James Max, on TalkRADIO, after he interviewed me on Wednesday.…
British horse racing’s debt to the Middle East
A joyful Saturday at Ascot recently reminded me that when the old Hurst Park Racecourse (near Hampton Court Palace) closed…
Richard Needham takes a businesslike attitude to the Troubles
This memoir from Sir Richard Needham, 6th Earl of Kilmorey, businessman and former Northern Ireland minister, has a frank opening:…
The best podcasts about money
Stories about money are never about money. They are about pain, about family, about atrocity, about luck, about health, about…
'You should see some of the other scripts that come through': Robert Carlyle interviewed
Robert Jackman talks to Robert Carlyle about Begbie, playing a Tory prime minister and the merits of keeping your head down
Priti Patel strikes a bullish tone
The theme of Priti Patel’s party conference speech this afternoon was very much ‘large and in charge’. She devoted much…
We're living through eerie reminders of the 1970s
There are eerie parallels with 1970s at the moment, I say in the Times today. The inflation of that decade was…
Emma Raducanu’s amazing triumph does not belong to the left
It didn’t take long for the open-borders brigade to try and politicise the magnificent feat of British teenager Emma Raducanu…
Why isn't the vaccine UK approved for 12- to 15-year-olds?
This afternoon, the JCVI has essentially passed the buck on vaccinating 12- to 15-year-olds. It has declared that the health benefits…
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…
What do oven chips have to do with virtue signalling?
Why does virtue-signalling matter? It’s a fair question. After all, if people display virtuous behaviour, need we care about their…
The sweet smell of success: the story behind Chanel No 5’s popularity
This is a curious book, by turns profound and whimsical. Karl Schlögel, a professor of Eastern European history at Frankfurt,…
Why the Tories won’t let me display a local election poster
Being told by the Tories not to put a local election poster in my window because it will only remind…
How 20th-century artists rescued the Crucifixion
Two millennia ago, in the outer reaches of the empire, the Romans performed a routine execution of a Galilean rebel.…
Scottish Tories must be more than the angry party of no
Among the many challenges facing Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross has been the question of definition. It is difficult to…
