Fraser Nelson is a Times columnist and a former editor of The Spectator.
From our UK edition
What on earth does George Osborne know about journalism? How can someone with no journalistic experience go straight in as editor – editor! – of the London Evening Standard? What were its proprietors thinking? To have dinner with an MP is one thing, but to hire him as an editor? And what does this sacked
From our UK edition
It has been barely two years since the last Scottish referendum, with no sign that opinion in Scotland has changed since then. Yet still Nicola Sturgeon hopes to vote to request a new referendum in the Scottish Parliament next week. But here’s the thing: last year, Scots voted to strip the SNP of its Holyrood majority,
From our UK edition
It’s the Press Awards tonight and a first for The Spectator – we’re nominated for the first time. James Forsyth is up for political journalist of the year, and he and I are heading to out to the awards now (after taking out a small mortgage for the £250-a-piece tickets) to hope for the best.
From our UK edition
For weeks, politicians on both houses of Parliament have been carrying on a drama where they pretend to get worked up about the Brexit bill while knowing that the Lords was always going to cave and the Bill was always going to be passed. The House of Lords, which last week voted to make Brexit
From our UK edition
Throughout David Cameron and George Osborne’s six-year double act, we seldom heard of serious arguments between them. Both were keen to avoid a repeat of the Blair-Brown psychodrama and prided themselves on their indivisibility. Same with their respective teams. You would never pick up the Sunday papers and read the sort of No. 10 vs
From our UK edition
In an interview with the BBC last night, Nicola Sturgeon suggested that the autumn of next year would be a ‘common sense’ time to hold another referendum on Scottish independence. Which would, of course, mean voting without knowing what the terms of the Brexit would be. (Or, perhaps, whether it will really happen.) Why the haste?
From our UK edition
I was on the Question Time panel last night, and suspected that the issue of National Insurance might crop up – and that Karen Bradley, the Culture Secretary, would be sent out to defend the indefensible. Like all ministers, she has to repeat Philip Hammond’s bizarre claim that the Tories had not broken a manifesto
From our UK edition
Some thoughts on today’s Budget: Hammond breaks Tory promise not to raise National Insurance. Breaks his word, hits 15pc of workforce, raises a pittance. The pledge was made no fewer than four times in the 2015 Conservative Manifesto: no rises in VAT, income tax or National Insurance. And after the election, a law was then passed
From our UK edition
When James Forsyth set up Coffee House ten years ago, we imagined there being a big difference between blogs and magazine articles. We soon worked out that readers didn’t really distinguish. They read a great article on The Spectator website, and that was that. They’d share, and subscribe to read more. Over the years Coffee
From our UK edition
Just before Christmas, Sajid Javid performed a ritual he has observed twice a year throughout his adult life: he read the courtroom scene in The Fountainhead. To Ayn Rand fans, it’s famous: the hero declares his principles and his willingness to be imprisoned for them if need be. As a student, Javid read the passage
From our UK edition
UK print sales up 10pc in a year – fastest of any UK magazine or newspaper UK newsstand sales up 13pc. Growing popularity of digital/print bundle Last year, we revealed that The Spectator had broken its previous circulation record and was selling more copies than at any time in its 189-year history. That momentum has
From our UK edition
Just before Christmas, Sajid Javid performed a ritual he has observed twice a year throughout his adult life: he read the courtroom scene in The Fountainhead. To Ayn Rand fans, it’s famous: the hero declares his principles and his willingness to be imprisoned for them if need be. As a student, Javid read the passage
From our UK edition
We’re looking for interns to spend a week or two with us here at The Spectator. We tend to get over a hundred applications for about a dozen places, and take the process seriously. Several of our recruits (Camilla Swift, Alex Massie, Sebastian Payne) first came through our doors as interns: when we have a vacancy,
From our UK edition
Matthew Parris’s article about the madness of the Brexiteers has caused much interest on social media, as did Alex Massie’s article along the same lines on Friday. I’ve been amused to see this described by some as a evidence of mutiny on HMS Brexit. A magazine’s star writers attacking each other with some passion, and sparing no
From our UK edition
On the wall behind my desk hangs a picture of Alexander Chancellor when he was editing The Spectator, with cigarette and telephone in one hand and looking very much the hero that all of us in the magazine have long regarded him. His death, announced earlier on this morning, is awful news: we have lost not
From our UK edition
Theresa May mentioned Donald Trump only once in her speech to the Republicans gathered in Philadelphia tonight, but its centrepiece was a gift to him. In his inauguration speech, he said that the US was now out of the business of liberal interventionism. She told Republicans that the same applies to Britain. Here’s the key quote:-
From our UK edition
With the predictability of an atomic clock, Nicola Sturgeon has come out today condemning the Supreme Court which has reminded her that foreign affairs are not devolved, so Brexit is handled by the UK government on behalf of everyone in the UK. She concludes that ‘Scotland’s voice is not being heard and not being listened to
From our UK edition
I’ve never been a big fan of the Supreme Court, seeing it as a Blairite invention and – given our position in the European Union – a misnomer. But its decision to back the High Court and remind Theresa May that only parliament can dissolve laws that parliament makes is welcome. It has issued a useful
From our UK edition
The early departure of Robert Hannigan as GCHQ chief, announced today, marks not so much the end of an era as the transition between eras. The agency’s famous HQ in Cheltenham, a metallic doughnut the size of Wembley Stadium, might look futuristic but was designed in the late 1990s before anyone worked out just how much data the
From our UK edition
Rather than seek to inspire or unite a country, Donald Trump’s inaugural address was a long vindictive swipe at his enemies mixed with a whinge about free trade and how America has been the loser from it. Nothing about only fearing fear itself, nothing about asking what you can do for your country rather than vice
