Tony Blair
Next time, David Cameron should pretend to support Bournemouth
Here’s an election-winning idea for Dave: forget about Aston Villa (or West Ham) and become a full-on Bournemouth fan. They…
Cameron led calls to remove Gaddafi. Why is he silent on Libya's drowning refugees?
One Friday, 28 people were rescued by the Italian coastguard when the boat on which they were fleeing Libya capsized in…
Why do politicians go potty for ‘passion’?
‘I long for spontaneous passion but I will never get it with my husband because I think he has Asperger…
Portrait of the week
Home Tony Blair, the former prime minister, opposed a referendum on membership of the EU. In a speech at Sedgefield…
Max Hastings’s diary: The joys of middle age, and Prince Charles’s strange letters
I am living in rustic seclusion while writing a book. Our only cultural outing of the week was to Newbury…
In defence of Christianity
Churchgoers face a tidal wave of negativity in modern Britain
Lord Freud: the man who saved the welfare system
Cameron was right about one thing: not sacking Lord Freud
Dominic Cummings (who ought to know) is not impressed by Michael Barber, Tony Blair’s former adviser and self-styled ‘delivery man’
In 2001, Tony Blair took Sir Michael Barber from his perch as special adviser in the Department for Education and…
Why Putin is even less of a human than Stalin was
LBC likes to tell us it’s ‘Leading Britain’s Conversation’, though in the case of weekday pre-lunch presenter James O’Brien you’ll…
Even the people who make political adverts aren’t sure they work
It is a common prejudice about modern politics that it is all focus groups and spin, all public relations and…
Blame Tony Blair for Labour’s new stupidity about wealth
Labour's attitude to wealth is sliding back into the 1970s - and Tony Blair's new career is one reason why
A major-general names the guilty men
The author of this primer to the long-overdue Chilcot report, a retired sapper (Royal Engineers) major-general, nails his colours to…
So the near collapse of A&Es around the country is all my fault?
Oh, I see. So it’s my fault. There I was, thinking that the general swamping and near collapse of accident…
The missed New Year opportunities I would have rowed the Atlantic for
Gstaad The very end of 2014 laid an egg, and an expensive one at that. I missed David Tang’s bash…
A beautiful speaking voice is a window to the soul
A beautiful speaking voice draws attention to the words spoken
Must MPs always vote before we go to war?
Jesse Norman was permitted three minutes for his speech to the Commons in last Friday’s debate. But the contribution from…
Tom Bower’s Diary: Resuming hostilities with Richard Branson
This week marks another milestone in my 15-year battle with Richard Branson. Ever since he unsuccessfully sued me in 1999…
You can't spin yourself into authenticity – as Ed Miliband is finding out
For a politician to draw attention to his own deficiencies is a desperate attempt to curry favour with the electorate…
Which party has the most MPs’ children in Parliament?
Commons inheritance Emily Benn, granddaughter of Tony and niece of Hilary, has won the right to stand for Labour in…
I like the look of this exciting new Islamic State. But why don’t they want Belgium?
There is something attractive about almost the whole of southern Europe being part of an immense and somewhat rigorous caliphate,…
The profitable delusion shared by Bill Clinton and Tony Blair
Tony Blair and Bill Clinton must be very happy about how they have fared since leaving political office, for each…
How the Westminster hawk became an endangered species
There is a slight whiff of the summer of 1914 to Westminster at the moment. The garden party season is…
Robert Harris’s diary: My accidental war with Tony Blair
To Paris, for the launch of the French edition of my novel about the Dreyfus affair. As we land, I…
Labour has proved that it speaks for London – and nowhere else
So, now almost all the votes have been counted — except for those in the Islamic Republic of Tower Hamlets, where…
The truth about being a politician’s child
It was a Friday morning in 1992, Britain had just had an election, and I was on an ice rink.…
