Open Season
Farage and The Times
Does Rupert Murdoch know about his paper’s vendetta against the UKIP leader?
The Modernisers’ Mistake
Why, with UK growth picking up faster than anyone predicted, isn’t Labour collapsing in the polls? Why does Labour win approval for policies that are clearly incompatible with running a successful free market economy? And what should the Conservatives do about it? The Chancellor, as he prepares his Budget, would be well advised to reflect on more than the Treasury forecast or ephemeral party polling data as he seeks an answer.
Mandela and Mrs T
‘Although Mandela is an incomparably more important figure than Princess Diana, the process by which the real person is replaced by a fantasy is no more edifying this time’
A Conservative Convention
‘The European Convention on Human Rights is to a substantial degree a Conservative document. Withdrawal is a bad idea’
Offshore Stiffed
‘Tax havens are distant and mysterious, and presumably up to no good. What better scapegoats could there be?’
Parties Over?
‘Are we seeing the disintegration and potential death of the party system?’
The Lady Was For Leaving
‘I was left in no doubt of Lady Thatcher’s conviction that EU membership was fundamentally at variance with British interests’
Tombstone Stories
‘An everyday ramble round a graveyard subliminally corrects any tendency to assume ourselves immortal’
No One’s Laughing
‘British comedy has gone from laughing with to laughing at: comedians no longer try to endear themselves to their audiences’
Burns Bridges
‘Would Robert Burns have supported independence for Scotland? His politics are hard to pin down’
Why Remoaners should back Boris
“Boris, ironically, now offers Remoaners the best chance of a soft Brexit, or at least a sensible one. And to those who want a second referendum—’the people’s vote’—there may even be a chance of that too.”
On the road
“In the summer of 1980, in the grip of some Kerouac-ish fantasy, I opted to hitch-hike from Laredo to New York”
Discovering the Great War of China
A third of a million Chinese labourers helped the Allies defeat the Kaiser, but their huge unsung contribution ended in betrayal