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...
09.07.2020
We can’t spend our way out of this messAny jobs "created" by government spending must always, by definition, come at the expense of jobs elsewhere...
25.06.2020
The police now elevate anti-racism over private property, public order and impartial justicePoliticians, broadcasters, conservationists and epidemiologists excuse BLM lawbreaking, but the police are the most flagrant...
10.06.2020
This is no longer anti-racism, it is a form of collective psychosisViolating the lockdown, smashing up someone else's stuff, attacking the police - all are excused by supposed anti-racism...
14.05.2020
Coronavirus and the crisis of conservatismWe are going through an authoritarian spasm that leaves little space for thoughtful Burkeianism...
30.04.2020
The only thing that matters coming out of the crisis is getting back to growthWe need to pull every available lever - starting with trade deals....
16.04.2020
The epidemic should have brought people together - so why hasn’t it?Anger and abuse is directed at those who want to relax the shutdown, not at those who want to extend it....
02.04.2020
We are inflicting an epochal depression on ourselvesThere comes a point when the damage caused by the shutdown is greater than that caused by the virus itself...
18.03.2020
We will emerge from the crisis with WW2 levels of debt - and WW2 levels of state interventionIn a crisis, we revert to type - and not always in a good way....
06.03.2020
Guilt by association - the first resort of the lazy commentatorThe notion of moral contamination is an extension of what anthropologists call "sympathetic magic"....
22.02.2020
No, you’re not going to die from the coronavirusAll the political and media incentives are to exaggerate what is in fact a tiny risk...
11.12.2019
If you can’t get to a marginal seat, try some telephoning. But please – don’t hang back.So much at stake, so much displacement activity....
27.11.2019
£1 million? £1 billion? £1 trillion? McDonnell is relying on you not knowing the difference.Suppose I were to tell you that Labour’s promises would cost £50 billion....
13.11.2019
Castro, Chávez and Morales. That these tyrants are Corbyn’s heroes should make us very frightenedI spent my earliest years under a Corbynista dictatorship....
30.10.2019
Where would we now find another Norman Stone?One good thing – only one – came out of Oliver Letwin’s wrecking amendment earlier this month...
02.10.2019
Why are MPs and commentators fainting like Victorian matrons over the use of the word “humbug”?“Margaret Thatcher Six Feet Under!” ...
18.09.2019
Cameron maligns Brexiteers because he misunderstands themEveryone agrees that David Cameron made a terrible blunder when he called the referendum....
04.09.2019
How to keep our pledges to the EU nationals who live hereAmid all the angst and acrimony, let’s cling to one area of agreement. ...
26.07.2019
For Brexit to work, power must be stripped from the quangocratsWhen Donald Trump entered the White House, his then senior adviser, Steve Bannon, set out the administration’s three priorities....
01.05.2019
May must stand down as Party leader before the European electionsBrace yourselves. We are in for what the Americans call a shellacking. ...
17.04.2019
Brexit. Vote Conservative in the European elections to help us deliver it – and finish the job.The latest two opinion polls show the Conservatives at 16 and 15 per cent in advance of the European elections...
03.04.2019
We are shuffling towards a deal that is worse either than remaining or leavingTheresa May’s call for national unity will go unanswered. ...
20.03.2019
The EU’s anti-democratic culture. First it corrupted other countries. Now it is corrupting Britain.Lewis crammed a lot of philosophy and theology into his adult stories...
20.02.2019
The Gang of Four caused a split. The Gang of Eight have caused only a splinterWelcome to the Mad Hatton’s Labour Party. ...
06.02.2019
Venezuela. Be warned. This is the regime that Corbyn still sees, even now, as his model.to grasp the full extent of Venezuela’s tragedy, consider just one statistic...
23.01.2019
What is driving this chaos? I’ll tell you. The EU is determined to punish us.You want a one-sentence explanation for the chaos in our politics, the breakdown of our party system?...
09.01.2019
That Brexit film works as drama. But it doesn’t as history. I should know. I was there.Pundits keep averring that “Brexit: The Uncivil War”, the Channel 4 play shown earlier this week, was just a drama. ...
12.12.2018
We still have time to switch course from disaster. Just. It’s up to Conservative MPs to act now.Widen the shot to see what is going on. News developments are now battering us so fast that we can become punch-drunk....
28.11.2018
I want to support May’s plan. But I can’t.I have been watching the dégringolade of Brexit with – if such a thing is possible – even more agony than the rest of you....
14.11.2018
May’s deal leaves us facing colonial rule from BrusselsIt leaves us facing colonial rule from Brussels, of the sort imposed on Bosnia following the Yugoslav war....
31.10.2018
If Momentum wants more war memorials, why won’t its members crowd-fund them?Our Armed Forces at the end of the Great War looked more like the Britain of 2018 than the Britain of 1918. ...
17.10.2018
The proposed Brexit terms represent a deal worse than either staying or leaving.The problem is the backstop. Not the precise terms of the backstop, but the fact of having one at all. ...
03.10.2018
Kavanaugh may be guilty. But justice demands that his confirmation should take place.They’re both telling the truth. That’s the only conclusion I draw from the whole business. ...
19.09.2018
We no longer need to imagine a free trade deal with the USA – we’ve written oneGlobal Britain took an important step forward yesterday. ...
06.09.2018
It should be obvious, not controversial, to seek a deep friendship with our EU neighboursIt’s the tetchiness that’s so odd: the frenzied language, the talk of “catastrophe” and “betrayal”......
22.08.2018
Identity politics. It becomes impossible to avoid giving offence, because…To illustrate the pathology of our age, consider the following stories, all from the past fortnight....
08.08.2018
Political clickbait is Fleet Street’s addiction, and the nation’s problemImagine the sense of disappointment at The Guardian...
26.07.2018
Even the blockade of Qatar hasn’t produced the calamity that Remainers now predict from BrexitAs the journal Foreign Policy put it last month, “Qatar won the Saudi blockade”...
11.07.2018
My view of May’s new Brexit plan. It’s just about better than No DealNo deal is better than a bad deal....
27.06.2018
Higher taxes, spending bungs, gender quotas. Is this really the brave new Brexit Britain we want?Heathrow, Hinkley Point, HS2. ...
07.06.2018
On the Elgin Marbles, as on everything else, Corbyn’s assumption is that Britain Is Always In The WrFew voters will be swayed one way or the other by the location of the Elgin Marbles....
10.05.2018
For partisan advantage, Labour demands a worst-of-all-worlds Brexit“Not working out the way you thought, Hannan, is it?”...
26.04.2018
Like the Windrush children, EU nationals raised here have a moral right to UK citizenshipAlthough the Windrush scandal has sparked a debate about immigration, the people involved are not, in the main, immigrants. ...
12.04.2018
Corbyn’s first instinct in a national crisis is to treat it as a way to attack the Tories.There were plenty of patriotic Leftists in 1939, even among the intelligentsia. ...
15.03.2018
Brexit will be a success, but swivel-eyed Remainers make the process more costly than it needs to beI keep trying to move on from Brexit....
01.03.2018
Being good at governing is no guarantee of re-election – just ask Harper and KeySpare a thought for Stephen Harper, arguably Canada’s most successful prime minister....
15.02.2018
Johnson – a Tigger among Eeyores – is right to restate the positive, uplifting vision of BrexitShakespeare knew a thing or two about words. Words can inspire or quell. ...
01.02.2018
When everyone and everything is called racist and sexist, no-one and nothing isWhat was the first word that came into your mind when you read about the Presidents Club dinner at the Dorchester? ...
18.01.2018
No matter how much Tusk might wish it, there will be no second referendum, and no cancellation of BrImagine that the EU were a wholly rational actor....
23.11.2017
Leave.EU and Arron Banks – the Brexiteers that the Remain campaign lovedWhat do you suppose was the biggest problem faced by Brexit campaigners last year?...
09.11.2017
Coercion may be working in Catalonia, but it won’t work hereThe latest polls show a decline in support for separatist parties, as well as a decline in support for secession itself....
26.10.2017
The tension over Catalonia is a wholly avoidable tragedy for Spain“If you and I were to reach a deal, both of us would be betraying our ideals and our men”....
12.10.2017
The modern politician must learn about psychology, and how evolution moulds our mindsBecause our irrational tendencies have a genetic basis, they are predictable. ...
29.09.2017
There’s far more agreement on the terms of Brexit than the pundits suggestHere are some aspects of Brexit that, as far as I can tell, have the agreement of everyone in Cabinet....
14.09.2017
Farewell to Edward du Cann, the courtly Eurosceptic who helped propel Thatcher to powerThroughout his years as Conservative leader, Edward Heath detested two of his MPs above all others....
31.08.2017
Prejudice against fat people is a snobbery of the LeftLet me have men about me that are fat; sleek-headed men and such as sleep o’ nights....
04.08.2017
Twelve principles to unite Remainers and Leaverst is in everyone’s interest to replace our EU membership with a strong and friendly relationship....
20.07.2017
Uganda shows the power of the free market in actionThe best arguments for the free market are practical rather than theoretical....
06.07.2017
Sooner or later, you run out of spending other people’s money.And it’s young people who foot the bilOne of the worst features of minority governments is that they’re inescapably extravagant. ...
11.05.2017
Corbyn is the ultimate selfish gene, content to kill off Labour for his own benefitThe eclipse of the Labour Party by must now be reckoned more likely than not....
27.04.2017
The hip hop musical that revitalises a star of the American RevolutionI can’t get the Hamilton soundtrack out of my head. It was my 11-year-old who started it: obsessed with the hip hop musical....
13.04.2017
Spicer didn’t deny the Holocaust – but the Twitter mob simply doesn’t careDoes anyone actually believe that Sean Spicer, Donald Trump’s press spokesman, is a Holocaust denier? ...
20.03.2017
Brussels, not May, is being inflexibleI keep being told by half-clever pundits that Theresa May was never a Remainer in her heart. ...
16.02.2017
A Singapore-style economy isn’t a threat, it’s a growth strategyLet’s start with some basic statistics. In 1950, the United Kingdom was roughly twice as rich as Singapore: our per capita GDP w...
02.02.2017
The left-wing dominance of public culture is unintentionally good for conservativesI had one of those glorious, time-stopping experiences over the weekend, listening to Simon Russell Beale reciting Prospero’s “Y...
19.01.2017
May’s Brexit vision is Churchill’s vision of Britain and EuropeRegular readers will know that this is a Helvetophile column. I love pretty much everything about Switzerland: its courteous peo...
05.01.2017
Our electoral system is less secure than that of most banana republics“Electoral fraud that would disgrace a banana republic,” was how the presiding judge described the postal vote abuse in Birmingh...
08.12.2016
We will get a good deal – because rational self-interest will overcome the Eurocrats’ furyIs the European Union prepared to self-harm in order to make Brexit difficult? Might it truly be more interested in deterring st...
24.11.2016
Populists flourish after financial crises – but they get found out in the endIt started with the credit crunch. Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, Geert Wilders, Marine Le Pen, Jeremy Corbyn, Syriza, Podemos, t...
10.11.2016
The parallels between Brexit and Trumpery have been absurdly overdone“I didn’t predict Trump’s victory, but now let now me explain to you exactly why it happened.” Political pundits are like mediae...
27.10.2016
The beautiful melancholy of an English autumnDo you remember the end of The Last Battle, the culmination of C.S. Lewis’s Narnia series? The children enter a sort of Platonic...
13.10.2016
May isn’t a Christian Democrat, she’s a proper conservative“Our economy should work for everyone,” said Theresa May in Birmingham last week. “But if your pay has stagnated for several...
29.09.2016
My one worry about Brexit – if we mess things up, we could harm relations with IrelandI’m forever being asked whether I have any regrets or worries about Brexit. Regrets? None: Britain is on the way to becoming...
15.09.2016
Most Remainers are not Remoaners – we must work with the sensible, reasonable majorityIf you’re a Conservative, speaking at an academic conference is always going to be an away match. If you’re also a Leave...
01.09.2016
Repeat after me. Single market membership and single market access are not the same thingSo, demand the pundits, which is it to be? Are we going to control our borders, or are we going to stay in the EU’s single...
