In the same interview he said “I tend to be rather bad at politics”, which is true if one takes the holding of great offices of state as the yardstick of success.
He is a man of Negative Capability, who cannot be understood by those with a fact-checking mentality, and he admires Trump.
Johnson’s first biographer confesses to feelings of bemusement, even incredulity, at the recent turn of events.
She can indicate that neither her party nor the public will be satisfied if she bows the knee to Brussels.
The former Chancellor has taken to the role of newspaper editor, but some will see his attacks on the Prime Minister as unhelpful.
On Saturday, there were two interesting articles, by two of the most original Conservative politicians of the past generation. Although neither man is a devotee of the party line, they came to the same conclusion, Both of them were wrong. Matthew Parris (Times (£)) and Michael Portillo (FT (£)) would have us believe that David […]
There is a paradox. On homosexual marriage, David Cameron's theology may be better than his politics. That might seem an extraordinary claim. For nearly 2000 years, Christians professed to believe that the sins of Sodom were punishable by Hell fire: that those in authority who sought to encourage them would certainly experience to the full […]
If anyone told David Cameron that a centuries-old coral reef was about to be destroyed, the PM would rush into action. Yet institutions are the social equivalent of coral reefs, and the PM shows little interest in preserving them. Who would have dreamed that a Tory-led government would propose the effective abolition of the House […]
There is one conclusion to be drawn from the Autumn Statement. Maggie was right; there is no alternative. No-one has set out a plausible alternative strategy: a quicker and less painful route back to economic growth. George Osborne did not only sound authoritative on Wednesday because he had learned the lessons of the Budget degringolade. […]
Boris Johnson is not always wrong. I suspect that a lot of us were surprised to learn that in India, the top rate of tax is only 30%. Ours will still be half as high again, in spite of a controversial cut. It is also unsettling that even when we have a Conservative Prime Minister, […]
There are two obvious and immediate responses to the Leveson Report. The first is congratulations. It is awesomely long and formidably argued: a remarkable achievement in such a short time. The second follows from the first. The report requires close reading and serious thought. I have not had time to do either as yet. That […]
There is a place for crude, raucous populism and poujadism and there are newspapers which provide it. You will enjoy them, if that is the sort of thing you enjoy. But there is no place for insincere pretend poujadism in newspapers which ought to know better. Yet last Friday, the Independent worked itself into a […]
Anyone who believed a lot of the press comment about Lynton Crosby would find the man himself gravely disappointing. To judge by the cuttings, you might think that he was a cross between Ned Kelly, a Barry Humphries character and Crocodile Dundee. That is an entire distortion. I am now about to libel him, because […]
“Give us peace in our time, O Lord”. Does the English language contain a more moving, more heart-felt — more heart-rending — invocation? But when children are pulled out of the rubble and other children cower in bomb shelters, it is more a matter of “Give us original sin in all times”. Everyone is calling for […]
Instead of denouncing the idea, we should work out and explain how the free market delivers true egalitarianism.