New Labour
Highs and lows: The Boys, by Leo Robson, reviewed
Mourning the loss of their parents, two brothers succumb to listlessness and lethargy in a sweltering London gripped by Olympic fever
A New Labour restoration
To understand the political journey of Sir Keir Starmer, look to Liz Kendall. This week the Blairite and one-time leadership…
In defence of the Arts Council
I once knew a monster who said she could not read Proust because there were no figures in Proust with…
Are we falling out of love with the NHS?
Clap for carers now feels like ancient history. Public satisfaction with the NHS is at its lowest since 1997, according…
A spoonful of Sugar
Murder Island features eight real-life ‘ordinary people’ seeking to solve a fictional killing on a fictional Scottish island. What follows…
A troubled past
A decade ago — eheu fugaces labuntur anni — Stuart Evers’s debut story collection, Ten Stories About Smoking, was one…
Just do it: the advertising industry should embrace its right-wing roots
Am I allowed to mention Nigel Farage? Of course I am, this is The Spectator, and its readers enjoy analysing…
Perishable goods
Labour of Love is the new play by James Graham, the poet laureate of politics. We’re in a derelict…
Whatever next?
‘Ah, Jeremy,’ remarked Tony Blair at a smart dinner party in Islington not long before he became prime minister, ‘he…
What I got right
And what the Labour party is now getting wrong
Long life
I remember Sidney Blumenthal from my time in Washington in the late 1980s when I was there as the first…
Letters
Why girls do better Sir: Isabel Hardman notes that girls now outperform boys at every level in education (‘The descent…
Osborne is entitled to look smug but would be wise to wear a bag over his head
The popular pastime for financial commentators this season is sticking pins in George Osborne. To those on the left who…
The class that got left behind
In the 2010 general election, Ukip gained nearly a million votes — over 3 per cent — three times as…
Diary
They say nothing beats the feeling of seeing your book in print. But for me, the proudest moment was presenting…
Fury and loathing in the New Labour gang
There is a little vignette in the first volume of Alastair Campbell’s diaries that makes it abundantly clear that, at…
