Columnists

Columns

Hugo Rifkind

George Bush’s White House was straight out of Hollywood

It’s the very end of George W. Bush’s second presidential term, and Dick Cheney comes to see him in the White House to talk pardons. It’s the very end of George W. Bush’s second presidential term, and Dick Cheney comes to see him in the White House to talk pardons. Specifically, Cheney wants a pardon

Politics: What Dubya taught Dave

When you think of George W. Bush, ‘philosophical influence’ isn’t the first phrase that springs to mind. When you think of George W. Bush, ‘philosophical influence’ isn’t the first phrase that springs to mind. But the former president has as good a claim as anyone to be a philosophical influence on the Cameron project. Although

The Spectator's Notes

The Spectator’s Notes | 13 November 2010

Poor Phil Woolas. How could he reasonably have expected that, for lying about his Liberal opponent, Elwyn Watkins, in the general election, he could be thrown out of Parliament? It is as if a reporter were sacked from the Daily Mail for writing unkind stories about the royal family. It goes against the natural order

Any other business

Any Other Business | 13 November 2010

Disappointed, discouraged – but American optimism will soon start to return Philadelphia ‘We should always love America, not for its leaders — who generally turn out as disappointing as our own — but for its vitality, its collective belief in the possibility of renewal.’ That’s what I wrote from Los Angeles, exactly two years ago,