Published by UnHerd (14th June, 2025)
United States / World
Jimmy Carter’s selfless work for the poor and sick after he left office serves as a stinging rebuke to the venality of Blair and Cameron
Published by The Daily Mail (31st December, 2024) When Jimmy Carter left the White House in 1981, he was one of the most reviled United States presidents in […]
Politics
Starmer can learn lessons from the Tory disaster
Published by The i paper (8th July, 2024) Already our politics feels a little bit calmer. Labour has kicked out the Tories, Sir Keir Starmer has moved into […]
Politics
I was Cameron’s speechwriter but voted for my Sunday football pal Keir. He’ll need all his on-pitch tenacity to tackle the Herculean challenges ahead
Published by The Daily Mail (5th July, 2024) It is more than 14 years since I stood chatting to a nervous politician on the eve of taking power. […]
Defence / Policy / Politics
Sunak’s not so cunning plan
Published by The i paper (27th May, 2024) Right you ‘orrible lot, fall in. Our forces are staring defeat in the face. Our officers look useless. Their strategies […]
Politics
Cameron’s rosy vision reduced to dust
Published by The i paper (24th May, 2024) It seems strange to recall the nervous Conservative sense of hope and optimism when the party was ushered back into […]
Politics
May was the best PM of a bad lot
Published by The i paper (11th March, 2024) Theresa May has announced she is leaving the political stage at the next election while polls indicate that the party […]
Politics
A desperate appointment as Tories lurch back to the centre from the far-right abyss
Published by The i paper (14th November, 2023) David Cameron is back in frontline politics. These are words I never expected to write. His return as Foreign Secretary […]
Politics
I apologise for my small part in the Tory fiasco…
Published by The i paper (22nd May, 2023) I must start with an apology. Shortly after leaving my job as deputy editor on a national newspaper 13 years […]
Policy / Politics / Whitehall
How politics is corrupted by cash
Published by The i paper (19th April, 2021) Political careers all end in failure, according to a famous dictum, yet not all of those involved end up soiled and […]
Policy / Politics / Whitehall
Integrity? Public service? This lobbying scandal smacks of something we’d see in a banana republic
Published by The Daily Mail (17th April, 2021) It smacks of something we might expect in a seedy banana republic rather than a democracy that has long cherished […]