Tony Blair
The agony of Labour’s old-fashioned modernisers
The exhausted Labour leadership contest takes a bucket-and-spade holiday next week, with all four candidates agreeing to an uneasy truce…
Look back in anger
‘Cringe!’ said Boy, after I’d exposed him to a few seconds of last week’s special nostalgia edition of TFI Friday.…
Sexed-up pacifism
Big-screen documentaries never change the world. Blackfish has not shortened the queues to see maltreated killer whales leap through hoops…
The British public is about to make a big mistake
On the weekend of 25 April 2015 I started to believe that the party I supported might not win an…
Come on you blues. Or, er, reds
Here’s an election-winning idea for Dave: forget about Aston Villa (or West Ham) and become a full-on Bournemouth fan. They…
A deadly silence
One Friday, 28 people were rescued by the Italian coastguard when the boat on which they were fleeing Libya capsized in…
Passion
‘I long for spontaneous passion but I will never get it with my husband because I think he has Asperger…
Portrait of the week
Home Tony Blair, the former prime minister, opposed a referendum on membership of the EU. In a speech at Sedgefield…
Diary
I am living in rustic seclusion while writing a book. Our only cultural outing of the week was to Newbury…
In defence of Christianity
Churchgoers face a tidal wave of negativity in modern Britain
A credit to the nation
Cameron was right about one thing: not sacking Lord Freud
Promising more than he delivers
In 2001, Tony Blair took Sir Michael Barber from his perch as special adviser in the Department for Education and…
There will be blood
LBC likes to tell us it’s ‘Leading Britain’s Conversation’, though in the case of weekday pre-lunch presenter James O’Brien you’ll…
The writing on the wall
It is a common prejudice about modern politics that it is all focus groups and spin, all public relations and…
Tony’s toxic legacy
Labour's attitude to wealth is sliding back into the 1970s - and Tony Blair's new career is one reason why
Battle scars
The author of this primer to the long-overdue Chilcot report, a retired sapper (Royal Engineers) major-general, nails his colours to…
I guess I have to apologise for the state of the National Health Service
Oh, I see. So it’s my fault. There I was, thinking that the general swamping and near collapse of accident…
High life
Gstaad The very end of 2014 laid an egg, and an expensive one at that. I missed David Tang’s bash…
A fair hearing
A beautiful speaking voice draws attention to the words spoken
A third way to war
Jesse Norman was permitted three minutes for his speech to the Commons in last Friday’s debate. But the contribution from…
Diary
This week marks another milestone in my 15-year battle with Richard Branson. Ever since he unsuccessfully sued me in 1999…
Long life
For a politician to draw attention to his own deficiencies is a desperate attempt to curry favour with the electorate…
Barometer
Commons inheritance Emily Benn, granddaughter of Tony and niece of Hilary, has won the right to stand for Labour in…
Mr al-Baghdadi’s inspirational vision for Europe
There is something attractive about almost the whole of southern Europe being part of an immense and somewhat rigorous caliphate,…
Long life
Tony Blair and Bill Clinton must be very happy about how they have fared since leaving political office, for each…
