17.01.2021
The trashing of the British brand puts the Union in jeopardyUnionists can't just keep saying no. It is time for a new constitutional settlement...
14.01.2021
Why are the teaching unions so determined to stop teaching?First they insisted that all teaching be moved online, now they are campaigning against that, too...
11.01.2021
Don’t excuse insurrectionFor four years, Trump's supporters have given him a pass - something the Chief Executive should never get...
26.12.2020
We can now expect good relations with the EU - maybe, at last, the culture war can endGiven the hand he was dealt, Boris played a blinder ...
17.12.2020
There is now more man-made stuff in the world than there are animals - but don’t let it bother youThere's evidence that we have passed the peak, because capitalism encourages minimisation...
13.12.2020
Brexit as it might have beenBoris Johnson becomes PM in 2016, Britain joins EFTA and a culture war is avoided...
06.12.2020
Valéry Giscard d’Estaing embodied the de-haut-en-bas arrogance of the EU elites'Si extraordinairement distingué, quand je lui dis "bonjour" je me fais toujours l'effect de lui dire "merde".'...
05.12.2020
The lockdown has divided us into two unreasonable and hostile tribesAs with Brexit, I find that I have migrated across the spectrum without changing my opinions...
01.12.2020
When even Eton goes woke, the war is overReason, tolerance, moderation, courtesy - we are leaving them all behind...
28.11.2020
How odd that the rebellion should begin just as the lockdown is finally being liftedWe are hitting what marathon runners call "the wall": the end is in sight, but our muscle energy has run out...
22.11.2020
Devolution will be a disaster until Scotland gets meaningful fiscal autonomyIn an age which elevates victimhood over liberty, the British brand is bound to lose its appeal...
20.11.2020
The lockdown has undone a decade of progress for poor childrenWe are running schools in the interests of the producers, not the consumers...
14.11.2020
More tax rises would kill any chance of a recoveryThe way to balance the books is to spend less, not to tax more...
11.11.2020
Je me souviens des jours anciens et je pleureHow can anyone look at trees in November and not be pierced by the terrible beauty of mortality?...
08.11.2020
We are heading for decades of debt and Big GovernmentThe impact of the coronavirus crisis will last a generation...
06.11.2020
Official Britain grovelled before agitators representing just three per cent of the publicBLM is indulged for the same reason that most food is halal: asymmetry of conviction...
31.10.2020
Why, given everything we now know, are we locking down again?The only argument for a lockdown is that it buys time. But what are we buying time for?...
30.10.2020
Brexit is a colossal opportunity for our coastal communitiesIceland shows us how to treat fisheries as a valuable renewable resource...
24.10.2020
I feel it in my bones: public enthusiasm for the lockdowns is about to turnLabour has picked the worst possible moment to jump on the lockdown bandwagon...
22.10.2020
My native Peru had the world’s toughest lockdown, but still ended up with the worst fatality rateWe need to accept that government intervention does not make much difference either way...
19.10.2020
The EU is treating Britain like a renegade provinceThere is no good faith from Brussels, and Britain should not accept the Withdrawal Agreement without a trade deal...
15.10.2020
As a lockdown sceptic, I now know how it must have felt to be a RemainerEveryone you know agrees with you, you're convinced the facts are on your side, but the polls show you're in the minority...
11.10.2020
Labour would leave Britain with the most restrictive trade policy outside North KoreaUnder the pretence of defending food standards, they would make any trade deals, even with the EU, impossible...
01.10.2020
Beardless men will soon be in the minority - againThe periods when men were clean-shaven are brief interglacials between long hirsute ice ages...
26.09.2020
Medical advisory committees are prone to absurd pessimism and risk-aversionTheir members' personal incentives push them towards excessive caution...
19.09.2020
Looking at the data from different countries, there is no evidence that lockdowns are effectiveIf I asked you to match the countries to the infection and fatality graphs, you wouldn't;t be able to say which had closed down...
09.09.2020
The Rhodes statue will be brought down by a woke committee, in defiance of public opinionThus does the Left continue its long march through the institutions...
06.09.2020
Tax rises now would choke off any chance of a recoveryOn the contrary, we need to cut taxes - especially on employment and investment...
01.09.2020
We are outliers in our reluctance to go back to workBritish voters demanded the toughest possible lockdown, and now face the economic price...
29.08.2020
William Shakespeare was all things to all men - and all women(See also the second column on the excellent news that Tony Abbott is joining Britain's Board of Trade)...
23.08.2020
Britain’s administrative machine has broken down irreparablyOfqual, PHE, the immigration service, the police - the crisis has exposed the utter uselessness of our quangos...
22.08.2020
Precisely 100 years ago, a ragtag army of Polish volunteers saved Europe from tyrannyWe in the West barely remember the Polish-Soviet war, but it was a damned near run thing...
04.08.2020
Failing to reopen schools is unforgivableNo one has suffered more from these closures than the young people who are least at risk from the disease...
02.08.2020
Republicans finally glimpse a post-Trump futureIt took the crazy proposal to postpone polling day, but big-R Republicans are at last standing by small-r republican principles...
26.07.2020
We have lost the most influential philanthropist of them allStuart Wheeler was a flinty patriot, an expert gambler, a generous host and a loyal friend...
24.07.2020
Let British jihadis come back here - and then try them for treasonWe should allow UK nationals to return, but that should be the last journey they make...
18.07.2020
Britain can avoid depending on China by leading the world in hydrogen technologyHydrogen is the philosopher's stone of energy - the way to transmute water into fuel...
15.07.2020
Too many people are going to universityThe jobs vacancies are for qualified electrical engineers, not philosophy graduates...
11.07.2020
Workers’ rights mean little when there are fewer and fewer workersGovernments can't create jobs. Their task is to remove obstacles so that firms can expand and hire people...
08.07.2020
Hong Kongers are the Huguenots of our age, and China’s loss will be Britain’s gainLet the people of that entrepôt build a new city here, a Hong Kong 2.0 to enrich the UK...
05.07.2020
Our woke quangos are failing the nationNannying and politically correct in normal times, our administrative state us useless in a crisis...
30.06.2020
A nation without history is like a person without memoryStatue-smashing isn't about slavery or race. it's about who wields power today...
27.06.2020
Shall I tell you the worst thing? The lockdown will come to be remembered with nostalgia.People will miss - or think they miss - the sense of community that comes from a shared misfortune...
24.06.2020
Global Britain needs to think like a maritime, not a continental, countryWe are defined by our island statue, but in precisely the opposite way usually meant by Europhiles...
22.06.2020
Slavery and plunder cannot make a nation rich - only free exchange can do thatSlavery persists to today in the poorest places on Earth, and that is no coincidence....
17.06.2020
What a panicky people we have becomeWe have lost all notion of calculated risks, opportunity costs, least bad options. We absurdly demand total security....
14.06.2020
Taking down Cecil Rhodes’s statue would be cowardly and anti-intellectualThe diamond magnate campaigned against the disenfranchisement of Africans and specified that his scholarships be colour-blind...
08.06.2020
If China won’t tolerate a free Hong Kong, let’s build one in BritainLet's create a charter city to replicate the miracle that took place at the mouth of the Pearl River...
01.06.2020
Eurocrats would rather hurt all sides than let Brexit succeedBrussels is trapped in the negotiating position it evolved when it was still trying to overturn Britain's referendum...
24.05.2020
A plan to end the worst recession we have ever known.Cut stamp dust, capital gains tax, employers' and employees' NI and drop our trade barriers....
17.05.2020
Private schools should reopen right awayChildren are highly unlikely either to have or to transmit the symptoms, so there is no need to wait until June....
12.05.2020
The virus has put the European project into intensive careThe EU might survive, but only in the sense that the late Holy Roman Empire did - as a title, a shell, a memory....
04.05.2020
Irrational fears, rather than cold science, are prolonging the closuresDiseases bring out our Stone Age heuristics: avoid strangers, hoard food, keep your children close...
27.04.2020
Sweden’s success is starting to infuriate the lockdown enthusiastsThey won't be able to claim afterwards that things would have been even worse without their closures....
20.04.2020
Extending the Brexit transition would be the worst of all possible responsesSome Remainers have become like Jacobites, clinging to their cause long after it has ceased to be a practical possibility....
13.04.2020
We should begin a phased loosening of the lockdown - starting with shops and schoolsThe purpose of the closures was simply to buy time, not to stop all infections....
06.04.2020
The uselessness of our quangos is becoming lethalSurely everyone can now see why we need to get on top of the administrative state....
29.03.2020
This isn’t about money versus lives, it’s about lives versus livesEvery day that these restrictions remain in place is lethal, and a balance needs to be found...
22.03.2020
Panic? Troops on standby? Empty shelves? London has never seemed so far away.In these parts, the chief emotion is not fear of infection, but concern about the economic impact of the crackdown...
16.03.2020
Retreating from globalisation is the worst possible response to the coronavirusBanning flights, closing borders, demanding self-sufficiency - all are aimed at our irrational inner caveman...
09.03.2020
We are wired to dislike free marketsWhat newspapers call "price gouging" is in fact a logical response to panic buying....
08.03.2020
England’s northern towns stand to gain the most from free trade - now as alwaysFrom the Anti-Corn Law League to the present, free trade was primarily about lower prices for working people...
22.02.2020
If these are the EU’s terms, we should save everyone time and walk away nowNo self-respecting nation can accept terms offered in a calculatedly vindictive spirit...
16.02.2020
Where is the outrage when a party with a private army wins the Irish election?Brussels sanctioned Austria over the Freedom Party. Washington sanctioned Palestine over Hamas. Why is Ireland different?...
02.02.2020
Everything has felt a bit better since 31 JanuaryEven Remainers - at least, off Twitter - have been affected by the optimism...
19.01.2020
I’ve learned the hard way that bad police reform just breeds more pen pushersOK, I admit it. Police and Crime Commissioners are, at least in part, my fault....
18.01.2020
Roger Scruton was the greatest conservative thinker of our agever the past 18 months, all the men who had the greatest influence on me at the beginning of my adulthood have died....
12.01.2020
The Conservatives are not losing control of public spending, they’re simply taking advantage of cheaLook, I’m going to come right out and ask the question. Have the Conservatives given up on fiscal rectitude?...
11.01.2020
The hardline Remainers can’t stand the idea of Brexit workingYou know how all the people who wanted a “People’s Vote” turned out to be Remainers? ...
05.01.2020
Why does Labour have such a problem with patriotism?Patriotism is a prerequisite for electoral success. ...
29.12.2019
A letter to the Eurocrats: Britain’s quarrel is with you, not with EuropeI appreciated what you called your “love letter to Britain”, published in Thursday’s Guardian....
28.12.2019
One Nation Toryism rests on patriotism, a concept the Left struggles to understandBritain’s elites have not reacted well to Boris Johnson’s victory....
22.12.2019
Why do Tories like dogs and Labour voters like cats?Imagine you had a fixed sum of money to spend on a new house....
21.12.2019
After 20 years in Brussels, even I feel a bit wistful now about the thought of leavingIt keeps happening. A Brexit date is announced....
15.12.2019
The election was a triumph for the SNP, but let’s not label it an independence upsurge yetAt any other time, it would have been the story of the election....
07.12.2019
Labour has built up a world of alternative facts – but we can see Britain is no Dickensian slumDeep down, we can’t really imagine it happening in Britain....
01.12.2019
I simply won’t appear on Channel 4 News, because it is biased, unfair and juvenileI remember the moment when I decided to stop appearing on Channel 4 News....
30.11.2019
Brexit gives us the chance to trade with new and old friends, starting with JapanLet’s remind ourselves why we are leaving the EU. ...
25.11.2019
Why the Holocaust is more than just another genocideThe easy reaction is outrage. How dare Roger Hallam, the founder of Extinction Rebellion, seek to downplay the Holocaust? ...
24.11.2019
Without the unbelievable modesty of one man, Brexit would have been impossibleThe ancient church was full of Conservative MPs pausing their election campaigns to attend a memorial service for Lord Spicer. ...
23.11.2019
The young embrace socialism because they are ignorant of its destructive powerYou think broadband is expensive now? Just wait till it’s free....
17.11.2019
To blame is human, but the authorities can only do so much to stem the tideThe flood damage, and the agony of affected families, could easily have been far greater ...
16.11.2019
The reason we don’t have a four-day week is that most of us don’t really want oneWe could all be working a four-day week now – but we want holidays and Netflix...
10.11.2019
Nigel Farage would rather scupper Brexit than let somebody else deliver itDonna Jones organised the Leave campaign in Portsmouth in 2016....
09.11.2019
30 years after the Berlin Wall’s fall, the dangerous ‘cuddly socialism’ myth has returnedThirty years ago, most observers were convinced that socialism was finished. ...
02.11.2019
Boris Johnson has risen to his role as PM - and the Remainers don’t know how to reactWhen Boris Johnson published his biography of Winston Churchill five years ago, his detractors were scathing....
27.10.2019
I thought Britain had biased, Left-wing media – until I spent time in CanadaJustin Trudeau, a man who can’t remember how many times he darkened his skin for comic effect...
26.10.2019
Labour has now run out of excuses. It can’t delay a general election any longerYou can’t live a lie forever – not even if you’re a politician....
20.10.2019
When even Nicky Morgan thinks we should end the licence fee, its time is upNo one could call Nicky Morgan an ideologue. I have known the Culture Secretary since we were students....
19.10.2019
On the cusp of victory, will Nigel Farage decide to put Brexit – or party – first?Are politicians principled or venal? The honest answer, in most cases, is “a bit of both”...
13.10.2019
It would be a lethal mistake if the West shuts its eyes to the Isil ‘bloodlands’When I first visited Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial centre in Jerusalem...
12.10.2019
The Brexit row is turning us all into devils – and our MPs are mainly to blame“Don’t you have any regrets about Brexit, Hannan?”...
06.10.2019
Social engineering in universities can only harm one of our great national assetsBritain’s strengths are in twenty-first century industries: international legal services, biotech, artificial intelligence......
05.10.2019
Leave voters can see what’s going on. They won’t blame Boris if Brexit is delayedHere’s how it will go. The EU, after some sneering and posturing, will reject Boris Johnson’s deal....
29.09.2019
From paying reparations to backing our enemies, Labour’s anti-British credo is shamefulThe single most shocking proposal to come out of the Labour conference was largely overlooked....
29.09.2019
Rich or poor, everyone will benefit from Boris Johnson’s tax cutsLower taxes are a good thing....
22.09.2019
The Germans think Shakespeare was a German – and they are rightIf but as well I other accents borrow that can my speech defuse…” says Kent in King Lear. ...
21.09.2019
If the Establishment’s coup against Brexit succeeds, our institutions will never recoverI had my Europhile three-year-old with me in Strasbourg last week. In his mind, the European Parliament means endless goodies...
15.09.2019
Eighty years after the Soviet invasion of Poland, the Western Left is still playing apologist for RuStalin needed no encouragement. ...
