Politics & Comment
I comment regularly on British and American politics, with a broad focus on foreign policy. I also maintain a particular expertise in the internal workings of the Conservative Party. I have contributed columns to most major British newspapers, starting my career at The Spectator, and am currently most likely to be found at The Financial Times and The Guardian, as well as number of US outlets. I have recently joined the Board of Index on Censorship.
In addition to my perspective as an intellectual historian, I also have a strong hinterland in the Anglican church, and write regularly on issues of faith and ethics. Much of my insight into British politics has been shaped by my time as part of the team responsible for establishing Bright Blue, the think tank associated with the Tory modernisation agenda. In 2014, I published a collection of essays with Ryan Shorthouse on the future of the Conservative Party, entitled The Modernisers’ Manifesto, for Bright Blue.
I have also made available here the three articles I wrote in late 2017 about Damian Green MP, which formed part of the #metoo movement and eventually led to his resignation as First Secretary of State. Originally published behind paywalls, they were widely reported in more sensationalist terms and it is important to me that my own words on the matter are publicly available.
Like most people who write for newspapers, I have no control over the headlines added to my articles. So I sometimes post articles here with my own choice of headlines, when I feel strongly that the published headlines are inappropriate.
Cameron’s reshuffle played for friends. Instead, it alienated everybody
written for The Telegraph, 2nd September 2014 Anyone who tells you that they can predict the outcome of the next general election is either lying or swivel-eyed. But one thing is certain: Conservative morale has collapsed. Again. Chris Kelly is a man of such ambition that at university he and his friend...
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From Palestine to parenting, we’ve lost the art of good faith
written for The Telegraph, 21 July 2014 The first casualty of war is decency on the internet. Even my most thoughtful friends have become monsters in cyberspace this week. Hamas sympathisers tweet what Brendan O’Neill calls our “moral pornography”, photographs of mutilated children, often of dubious...
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David Cameron may live to regret handing Michael Gove ‘the black book’
written for The Telegraph, 16 July 2014 Apparently, radical thought is no longer a good idea in the Tory Party. Michael Gove may be loved by the grassroots, but it was the unelected Lynton Crosby, Number 10’s campaign advisor, who pressured Gove into stepping aside, persuading the inner circle that the...
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Suzanne Moore, please don’t start a feminist party
written for The Telegraph, 11 July 2014 I tend to be pretty keen on all things Swedish. As Fraser Nelson has documented over the years, the radical independence of Sweden’s school system still has the rest of the world scrabbling to reproduce it, libertarian finance minister Anders Borg indulges in “punk...
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Censoring Mein Kampf – or anything – simply makes its ugly ideas more attractive
written for The Telegraph, 4 July 2014 Is this the Summer of Censorship? In the US, it emerged that the NBC network requested a film trailer remove the word “abortion” in order to be advertised on its website. From New York to Tel Aviv, there are calls to scrap the Metropolitan Opera’s production of...
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Paul Lamb is wrong. There is no such thing as a ‘right to die’
written for The Telegraph, 26 June 2014 It’s hard not to feel for Paul Lamb, paralysed in a car crash, who yesterday lost a court battle to win the right to a doctor-assisted death. Outside the court, Lamb (a lively and engaging fellow, sharp and engaged with his court case) told the media of the pain...
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