The New Conservative Alternative Budget
December 3, 2025
With the recent Budget going down about as well as Keir Starmer at an orgy for those who can actually see, it looks set to
Politics
The Chancellor’s New Clothes
December 2, 2025
There is a pleasing synchronicity that Oxford announced its word of the year is “rage-bait”. After a weekend of splenetic fury over the Chancellor’s statements
Sir Keir Can’t Afford Peace in Ukraine
November 17, 2025
The Guardian reported last week that the British military is preparing for operations in Ukraine. While this was easy to treat as mere sabre-rattling, Keir
Public Service
November 5, 2025
For something which knows so much about me, Facebook seems to know very little about me. It knows where I went to university, but deluges
Mandelson: More Wizard of Oz Than Prince of Darkness
September 15, 2025
I try to keep out of the “who’s your favourite cannibal?” debate because it always gets too political. If you say Anthony Hopkins then some
Emily Thornberry Is the New Mrs Dutt-Pauker
September 11, 2025
For many years the late Michael Wharton wrote a column for The Daily Telegraph using the pseudonym Peter Simple. He created therein a Swiftian world
The Lunatics Really Are Running the Asylum Now
September 10, 2025
I was only half listening to the news at the end of the week, and over the weekend, preoccupied as I was with a five-hour
Will Starmer Regret Rayner’s Resignation?
September 6, 2025
Let me declare an interest from the outset: I am sad to see Angela Rayner depart the political battlefield. I like the fact that she
Magical Politics
August 28, 2025
I recently spent some happy hours with Noel Edmonds. That he was in New Zealand and I was in the London ‘burbs was perhaps for