Peter Cardwell

Peter Cardwell is a former special adviser to two secretaries of state for Northern Ireland.

Rishi meets Biden: bi-latte or bi-lateral?

15 min listen

James Heale is joined by Katy Balls and Talk Radio political editor, Peter Cardwell who has been in Belfast for Biden’s state visit. A symbolic time as Northern Ireland marks the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. Given the President’s proud Irish roots and vocal criticism of former Prime Ministers, was Rishi Sunak able to

The Good Friday Agreement’s uneasy anniversary

On the 23rd anniversary of the signing of the Belfast Agreement, it’s safe to say celebrations here in Northern Ireland will be muted at best. Over the past ten days, hundreds of rioters wielding bricks, bottles, stones and petrol bombs in Belfast have injured more than 70 police officers, most notably in the west of

What do special advisers actually do?

24 min listen

Dominic Cummings walked out of No. 10 Downing Street last night – but what did he actually do in there? Katy Balls is joined by Fraser Nelson and Peter Cardwell, a former SpAd and author of The Secret Life of Special Advisers.

Farewell to the Palmerston I knew

As a number of top civil servants take shelter from the ‘hard rain’ Dominic Cummings has forecast for Whitehall, it’s unsurprising one feline has also taken the opportunity to announce his retirement. It’s fair to say my friends and former colleagues who work at the Foreign Office are much sadder to see the back of

Rod Liddle is right about John le Carré

Rod Liddle is spot on about John le Carré (8 December). I’ve long held the view that life is too short to read or watch another le Carré. Your erstwhile columnist Hugo Rifkind put it brilliantly when he wrote of le Carré in these pages in 2011: ‘Single bars burning on three-bar fires; men who