The remarkable life of Peter Kemp, warrior and Spectator writer
Today is the 110th anniversary of the birth of a former Spectator correspondent who took part in and survived more…
Socialism ends in Bolivia after two decades
Bolivia is to be treated to a nail-biting run-off this autumn between two conservatives in the race to be the…
What if Starmer had been prime minister in the second world war?
Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, has posed a fascinating counter-factual question about our Prime Minister: what if Keir…
Horst Mahler, the far-left terrorist who became a neo-Nazi
One of the strangest German lives in the post-second world war era closed on 27 July 2025 with the death…
Reform is right to reject Liz Truss
Reform UK topping the opinion polls and winning local council elections has prompted several leading Tories to defect. But now…
How The Salt Path bewitched a nation
Like millions of others, I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Salt Path, an account of how a penniless and homeless middle-aged couple…
There’ll never be another Norman Tebbit
The death of Norman Tebbit at the great age of 94 marks a real ending of an era. They simply…
History does not favour Musk’s new America party
The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, has announced that he intends to create a new third party in the US…
Oxfam’s Gaza propaganda
An astonishing email from Oxfam, one of Britain’s oldest and biggest humanitarian charities, dropped into my inbox this week. Dramatically…
Nigel Farage is looking unstoppable
Opinion polls are notoriously a snapshot rather than a prediction, but the latest Ipsos survey of more than 1,100 voters…
This is Netanyahu’s Churchill moment
History may not repeat itself, but it certainly rhymes, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now finds himself in precisely…
Farewell to the Frederick Forsyth I knew
We writers generally live dull and boring lives, tied to our desks painfully wresting words out of mundane experiences: not…
Zia Yusuf’s resignation won’t harm Reform
The sudden resignation of Reform UK’s chairman Zia Yusuf came as a shock in Westminster yesterday – but is unlikely…
Lord Hermer’s ‘Nazi jibe’ at Reform won’t work
It is an axiom of political debate that once you compare your opponents to Hitler’s Nazis you have definitely lost…
Reform must prove to voters they’re more than a protest party
Reform is now touching 30 per cent in the polls, as Labour lags on 22 per cent and the Tories…
The far right is gaining footholds across Europe
The relentless rise of the populist right in Europe has been confirmed by provisional first results of elections held yesterday…
A Dad’s Army won’t save Britain
Eighty-five years ago, on 14 May 1940, Anthony Eden, newly-appointed secretary of war in Winston Churchill’s government, went on the…
Rupert Lowe faces life in the political wilderness
Rupert Lowe must currently be the most frustrated man in British politics. The MP has been exonerated of accusations brought…
Could the death penalty return?
The attack on a prison officer by Axel Rudakubana, the killer of the three girls at a dance class in…
Why the First Sea Lord stepping down is so shocking
The news that First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Ben Key, the head of the Royal Navy, has stepped down from his…
Donald Trump needs a history lesson
President Donald Trump has again demonstrated his less than impressive grasp of history with a statement on his Truth Social…
How great political parties die
Though local polls and by-elections are notoriously unreliable guides to general elections, and a week is indeed a long time…
Labelling the AfD ‘extremists’ will backfire
By officially classing the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party as ‘right-wing extremists’, the German establishment may have scored an own…
Has Reform sent the Tories into a death spiral?
The Turquoise typhoon that is Reform UK has swept through the English council and mayoral elections – and winning by…
How Mario Vargas Llosa was inspired by Thatcher
Most writers – like the vast majority of actors, artists and other luminaries of our culture – belong to the…
