20.08.2024
Don’t restore the winter allowanceForget that it's Labour, and forget that it's a broken promise. It cannot be right to keep paying unconditional benefits...
20.07.2024
Sir Humphrey’s final victoryThe Tories were doomed by their inability to get things past the standing bureaucracy...
18.06.2024
What killed the Tories?Nigel Farage, more than any other campaigner, grasps how screen addiction has changed our politics...
04.06.2024
Can the Conservatives hold together?The end of the Cold War means that the old Tory/Whig alloy is separating into its two constituent elements...
06.05.2024
The Tories are now blamed for Labour’s policiesLabour's determined resistance to the Rwanda scheme comes across to most voters as Tory dithering...
20.04.2024
Forever frenemiesDespite everything, Britain and France have been on the same side for the better part of two centuries...
21.03.2024
Why is Britain holding out against Europe’s populist tide?Portugal has joined the swing from old Left to insurgent Right. What makes Britain different?...
10.03.2024
Islam is not IslamismOne is a religion founded by Mohammed in 610, the other a political movement founded by Hassan al-Banna in 1928...
24.02.2024
Everyone hates the ConservativesThe country is in a Left-wing mood, and nothing short of a full economic crisis will shift it...
05.02.2024
OK, but what’s your alternative?It is easy to list the defects of the Rwanda scheme, but critics never say what they would do instead...
22.01.2024
Biffing pirates and slavers is what Brits doNot for the first time, the Royal Navy is acting on behalf of humanity - and getting little thanks for it...
10.01.2024
Mark Littlewood belongs in the House of LordsWe can't have committees of grandees blocking people of whom they happen to disapprove on ideological grounds...
26.12.2023
Remember why we are backing UkraineIf Putin wins, liberal democracy will suffer a massive global setback...
08.12.2023
The West faces a collective Suez momentOnce again, a dictator has found that attacking the old colonial powers guarantees global popularity...
30.11.2023
The Peronist deep state is mobilising against Javier MileiToo many interests are at stake to let his free-market reforms succeed...
10.11.2023
Israel must be careful not to play the part of Vladimir PutinPopulation transfers, energy boycotts, talk of nuclear strikes - these things are never acceptable...
14.10.2023
There will never be a peaceful, prosperous PalestineHamas has, as it intended, killed any prospect of a two-state solution...
29.09.2023
Why Leave is behind in the pollsThe EU has dropped out of the news, and we no longer hear about its problems...
14.09.2023
We need SOME non-local candidatesA House of Commons composed almost wholly of local councillors will refuse to build anything...
02.09.2023
The Letby horrors must not produce more bad lawsOur response should be proportionate to the likelihood of a repetition, not to the sense of public outrage...
20.08.2023
Are spending cuts possible in a democracy?Generally only after an economic calamity, like Britain's 1976 IMF bailout...
10.08.2023
Let Russia fragmentRussia in its present form - an imperial Eurasian state - cannot but be a menace to the free world...
29.07.2023
Who’d want to be an MP?One way to make our parliamentarians behave better is to expect it of them...
09.07.2023
Why France? Why now?The riots reflect the global BLM-inspired grievance culture, and things will only get worse ...
23.06.2023
The Windrush migrants came to work, not “to help”Why turn the honest story of ambitious people coming for higher pay into a Leftist morality tale?...
09.06.2023
The Jacobean Kane and AbelJesse Norman's first novel treats Francis Bacon and Edward Coke, quite properly, as ambitious rival MPs...
25.05.2023
The Blob Won’t StopFirst it was Priti Patel, then Boris Johnson, then Dominic Raab, now Suella Braverman - civil servants don't like Leavers...
13.05.2023
Won’t somebody please think of the deficit?This Coronation, like the last, was a distraction from the immensity of our debt crisis...
28.04.2023
Yes, we should forgive Diane AbbottEither you're against cancel culture or you're not - and, if you are, you have to be consistent...
14.04.2023
Am I the last critic of the Belfast Agreement?That deal is treated almost literally as Holy Writ - except among ordinary Unionist voters...
06.04.2023
Free countries don’t go in for political arrestsLawfare, malicious investigations, trumped up charges - these things are our future if we keep elevating outcome over process...
17.03.2023
Why the quangocracy growsA return to the Oxford Union showed me why governments keep setting up executive agencies...
02.03.2023
Why did Brussels fold so suddenly?The EU's movement on the Northern Ireland Protocol suggests that it is finally getting over its pique...
19.02.2023
The silliest smear in politicsWith vast amounts being firehose away by the state, it is bizarre to focus on ministers' declared and legitimate hotel bills...
03.02.2023
Britain is CANZUK’s Leftist outlierWhy are Labour Australia and New Zealand and Liberal Canada more free-market than Tory Britain?...
30.12.2022
Why do Argentines celebrate a war where they were clearly the baddies?And why do Russians associate themselves with an unprovoked attack by a fascist dictatorship on a neighbouring democracy?...
09.12.2022
One rule for MPs, one for everyone elseBut in precisely the opposite way to what most people mean...
14.11.2022
The Tories are out of optionsVoters don't believe the money has run out and, without an early election, nothing will convince them...
01.11.2022
No more Tory democracyThe Conservative Party's leadership election rules make the system used to select the Dalai Lama look rational...
14.10.2022
We know what is needed - but do we have the courage to do it?There is no way that the spending increases brought in after Covid can become permanent...
29.09.2022
You really think this is about a tiny tax cut?There was always going to be a reckoning after all the money-printing; cutting taxes will at least help...
05.09.2022
Spending cuts can’t be put off until the electionA Centre-Right party can win during a downturn - but only if it has visibly started to fix the problem...
19.08.2022
Identity politics leads to unspeakable horrorsIndian and Pakistani immigrants to Britain were able to put the communal violence behind them by choosing individualism...
05.08.2022
Food nationalism - always popular, never rightA prolonged leadership race is terrible for rational policy making...
22.07.2022
Never use these rules againThey encourage dirty tricks and gamesmanship, set MPs against activists and ensure that the winner makes enemies along the way...
08.07.2022
We didn’t leave the EU to embrace even more protectionismThere is no case whatever for steel tariffs in the UK, and ministers know it...
25.06.2022
What if Boris had become PM in 2016?Consider the counterfactual - a swifter but softer Brexit, public sector reform, Michael Gove as the CEO...
13.06.2022
Can Boris pull it back?Maybe - but he needs to understand the anger about our spending levels...
27.05.2022
The Northern Ireland Protocol is SUPPOSED to hurtIt wasn't designed to keep British sausages out of Co Cavan, it was designed to punish us for Brexit...
13.05.2022
Sinn Féin’s victory makes a united Ireland less likelyPlenty of Irish Catholics dislike the idea of being governed by a party connected to organised crime...
29.04.2022
Britain is defined by the rule of lawTo claim otherwise on the basis of disagreements over asylum or parties is trivial and insulting...
14.04.2022
Why Poles have risen to the Ukrainian challengeFew countries have suffered more at the hands of occupiers, and few better understand the value of sovereignty...
01.04.2022
War is inherently collectivistOur individual vices and virtues are dissolved into national blocs - more's the pity...
18.03.2022
Is it racist to feel close to Ukraine?We are bound to be more attached to familiar cultures - something that only the West is meant to feel guilty about...
04.03.2022
We overestimated PutinHis unforced errors have undermined him, and a Kremlin coup is no longer unthinkable...
22.02.2022
What does Russia want?His chief aim is to keep his people in a state of scared, wounded patriotism. It's not victory he wants. It's permanent conflict...
04.02.2022
Brexit has been squanderedFar from liberalising, the UK is adopting more regulations than it had to as an EU member...
21.01.2022
Meritocracy raised the West, identity politics will sink itChina is much more ruthless about appointing the best talent, which is why it is overtaking us...
07.01.2022
There is no point in taking back powers if we don’t use themBrexit allows us to make different choices, but we seem determined to copy the EU from outside...
26.12.2021
Who would have done a better job than Boris?Obviously, Leftists and lockdowners loathe him. But why do libertarians?...
09.12.2021
Everything white is racistThat, pretty much, is the view taken by Tate Britain - and the rest of us keep putting up with it...
01.12.2021
In Peppa Pig World, no one would need to vote ConservativeBoris Johnson's critics are, as so often, wide of the mark...
12.11.2021
We should want MPs to have second jobsIdeally, being an MP would BE someone's second job...
29.10.2021
There is no money leftThe Conservatives are spending as if the past 18 months hadn't happened...
15.10.2021
The Northern Ireland Protocol has revealed the utter smallness of our Europhiles"Yeah, well you signed it!" Seriously, guys, is that all you've got? ...
30.09.2021
Why Labour can’t winEven its supposedly moderate and centrist figures can't help lapsing into self-righteous wokery...
16.09.2021
Sir Lindsay Hoyle is right to insist on formal dress - more’s the pityI hate wearing ties but, as a conservative, I see why they should be required...
22.08.2021
David Gauke should be a ConservativeHis return would indicate that the party has moved on definitively from the fevered rows of 2019...
06.08.2021
Party donors should be thanked, not demonisedIt is better for rich people to support causes bigger than themselves than to live lives of sybaritic indulgence...
24.07.2021
Is there any point in unilateral decarbonisation?Britain is well placed to develop clean energy technology, but there is no purpose in acting alone...
10.07.2021
The EU’s assault on the City has failedNow we need to deregulate in order to compete with the rest of the world...
24.06.2021
Oriel should market itself as a “safe space” for conservativesIs one non-Leftist Oxford college out of 39 really too much to ask?...
12.06.2021
How to level up? LocalismWe can't decree regional prosperity from the centre. We need to devolve power...
28.05.2021
Don’t respond in kind to the authoritarian LeftWe need to preserve basic liberal principles - free speech, free association, free contract...
14.05.2021
Wallpaper for Boris, curtains for KeirLabour is on its way out. So, sadly, is fiscal conservatism...
30.04.2021
The epidemic is over in Britain, so why are we not reopening?On every measure things have gone better than expected, but public opinion remains hostile to any easing...
16.04.2021
The Eurosceptic whom even Eurocrats likedJens-Peter Bonde, who has just died, established a truly pan-European anti-federalist movement...
02.04.2021
Lockdowns have brought out the very worst in usWe are turning into a nation of mean-minded, intolerant, authoritarian, servile snitches...
19.03.2021
Laws must be general, equal and certainThere is a terrifying readiness to argue that sanctions shouldn't apply to people we happen to like...
05.03.2021
Higher spending and regulation are here to stayThe epidemic has made big spenders of us all...
05.02.2021
Britain’s Pacific PivotJoining the CPTPP will strengthen the Anglosphere and boost jobs and growth...
22.01.2021
Free association is an absolute right, not conditional on identity politicsA club can insist you wear a tie, a gym can refuse to admit men, a platform can refuse to host people whose opinions it dislikes...
07.01.2021
We need to grow our way out of this mess - here’s a list of EU laws to scrapBritain has been uniquely badly hit by the lockdowns, and economic recovery must now be the sole aim of public policy...
10.12.2020
The EU’s attitude to Britain is that of an empire toward a renegade provinceThe EU is offering deliberately hostile terms in order to make a point - even at cost to itself...
25.11.2020
Vaccinate staff, keep kids in class, hold exams on timeIt is almost literally unbelievable that we might repeat this year's exams fiasco in 2021...
12.11.2020
Republican candidates outpolled Trump - yet they are too scared to act against himThe idea that Trump has a unique appeal to blue-collar voters is hard to reconcile with the results...
29.10.2020
How much is all this costing?It won't do any more to promise to defeat Covid "at any cost" - we need figures...
14.10.2020
The police have taken it upon themselves to snuff out free speechInvestigating Darren Grimes isn't just a waste of money, it's an assault on liberty...
30.09.2020
Charles Moore would make the perfect BBC ChairmanClever, witty, independent, broad-minded, humane, well-read, courteous - he is the best ally the Corporation could have...
18.09.2020
Boris is right to act to secure the Union - and voters know itThe Internal Market Bill is moderate, proportionate and necessary...
02.09.2020
Are tanks now redundant?What about aircraft carriers? The deployment of hypersonic missiles turns a lot of our assumptions on their head...
19.08.2020
We demand that politicians “let the professionals get on” - then blame them when quangos screw upOfqual, PHE, the NHS - all are free from political control. But they are never blamed for their own failings...
05.08.2020
Sweden is in the happy position of not needing to worry about a second waveEven now, few commentators seem to grasp that flattening the curve doesn't affect the size of the area under the curve...
23.07.2020
Why are we so reluctant to come out of lockdown?The lifting of restrictions has had a surprisingly slight impact - for reasons that owe more to psychology than epidemiology...
