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...
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...
