menu_open Columnists
Ross Clark

Ross Clark

The Spectator

We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

Zack Polanski is on the brink after his Holborn by-election defeat

Zack Polanski’s failure to win the Holborn and St Pancras by-election is not just a disappointment; it undermines the Green party leader’s entire...

latest 8

The Spectator

Ross Clark

AI isn’t making us more productive

AI isn’t making us more productive

At some point there has to be an “emperor has no clothes” moment. Why, when we are in the middle of a boom in Artificial Intelligence, which is...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Ross Clark

The Tories are right: the Environment Agency must go

You can almost feel John Selwyn Gummer, Zac Goldsmith and the rest of the Conservatives’ green lobby quaking. Kemi Badenoch has incurred their wrath...

05.10.2026 10

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Trump is exposing Britain’s energy folly

Exploiting more of our North Sea oil and gas reserves will make absolutely no difference to our energy security nor the prices we pay in the shops...

02.10.2026 20

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Burnham will regret dredging up the Brexit debate

Andy Burnham tells us that he left the House of Commons in 2017 because he was disillusioned with the place. It was not at all because he had lost the...

30.09.2026 10

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Burnham’s National Care Service is a Tory vote winner

Andy Burnham wants to thank the nation’s carers – except, possibly, the one he told us slipped his Granny Kitty’s engagement ring off her finger...

29.09.2026 20

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Andy Burnham’s Great British Grid is doomed

There was a very big hole in the Chancellor John Healey’s claim yesterday that he is going to generate a new age of industry. Why would anyone want...

29.09.2026 20

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Tactical voting is Burnham’s secret weapon

For Andy Burnham the biggest challenge is to avoid going down like Gordon Brown, who passed up the chance of calling an election in autumn 2007, when...

27.09.2026 30

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Could slavery reparation demands save Reform UK?

Small boat arrivals are down a bit. Meanwhile, Reform UK has had a difficult year over its donations and seen its vote eaten into by Restore Britain....

22.09.2026 20

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Why green zealots want to drop ‘net zero’

First, the good news. The Commons select committee on energy security and net zero has called on the government to drop net zero. Now the bad news:...

17.09.2026 30

The Spectator

Ross Clark

If Burnham won’t make cuts, the IMF will do it for him

Even the weather has been playing along with the bizarre 1976 tribute act in which we seem to be trapped. We have had a mid-term change of Labour...

11.09.2026 30

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Oil at $100 a barrel is a disaster for Trump

When Donald Trump’s political obituary comes to be written, none of his colorful phrases over the years will seem quite as outrageous as his remark...

10.09.2026 20

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Ryanair is right to fume about the chaos at Britain’s airports

In a crowded market, the National Air Traffic Control Service (Nats) still has a good claim to be our most croaking public service. Yesterday’s...

09.09.2026 20

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Are our maps colonialist?

It has been clear for years that the UN has fallen under the influence of left-wing activists and rapacious developing countries, who are using it as...

05.09.2026 20

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Are our maps colonialist?

It has been clear for years that the UN has fallen under the influence of left-wing activists and rapacious developing countries who are using it as a...

04.09.2026 20

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Sadiq Khan is the victim of a terrible miscarriage of justice

Who – at least among those of a Conservative mind — didn’t feel a pang of pleasure at the news that Sadiq Khan has been convicted of failing to...

02.09.2026 20

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Burnham is a big state man heading for disaster

Should public utilities be in public hands? I am prepared to see both sides of that argument, especially as some privatised companies – Thames...

01.09.2026 20

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Has Burnham gone shy on welfare reform?

Will the government ever get around to reforming the welfare system? I ask because Andy Burnham seems to have bottled out. It seems that there will be...

28.08.2026 20

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Net zero isn’t bringing down our energy bills

We know all about climate change deniers; perhaps it is time we turned our attention to energy bill deniers. This morning Ofgem announced that its cap...

26.08.2026 30

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Lucy Powell would be mad to undo the Tories’ school reforms

How lovely to hear Education Secretary Lucy Powell sending her ‘massive congratulations’ to children receiving their GCSE results. ‘More of you...

21.08.2026 30

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Why is Rayner helping travellers build more sites?

Here it is, finally: Labour’s ‘growth’ strategy. And what does it consist of? Reform of planning laws to make it easier for travellers to set up...

18.08.2026 30

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Why won’t Reform’s welfare cuts apply to the triple lock?

Well done to Reform UK for proposing to make chunky, £50 billion cuts to the welfare budget, more than twice the £23 billion cuts the Conservative...

17.08.2026 20

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Nigel Farage has been strengthened

There are two words you will hear endlessly today: ‘hollow victory’. Nigel Farage is back as MP for Clacton, but by doing battle with a bin, he...

15.08.2026 40

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Clacton has strengthened Nigel Farage

There are two words you will hear endlessly today: ‘hollow victory’. Nigel Farage is back as MP for Clacton, but by doing battle with a bin, he...

14.08.2026 40

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Burnham bounce / Is this the best Labour can do?

Will Andy Burnham call an autumn general election and take advantage of his prime ministerial honeymoon, or will he go the way of his erstwhile boss,...

12.08.2026 30

The Spectator

Ross Clark

There’s one rip-off Andy Burnham will never crack down on

Trying to pay my taxes via the HMRC website the other week, my bank thought it had sniffed a rat. “Could this be a scam?” it popped up and...

10.08.2026 30

The Spectator

Ross Clark

No, Westminster isn’t banning ‘vertical drinking’

Well, Andy Burnham’s commitment to devolution didn’t last long. It has failed to survive the mildest of challenges: a proposal by Westminster...

07.08.2026 70

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Our airports have won the battle against net zero – but not the war

For anti-airport campaigners it is a double setback. In the space of 24 hours, legal challenges against the expansion of Gatwick and Luton have...

05.08.2026 20

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Why Burnham’s levelling-up drive is sure to backfire

‘Growth in every postcode’, ‘levelling up’ – whatever you call it, it is easier to sympathise with the general aim of raising living...

31.07.2026 40

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Why a ‘social care levy’ is a bad idea

I am not having an election because I am going to stick to the 2024 manifesto on which Labour was elected. That’s Andy Burnham’s position, but...

29.07.2026 30

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Will Labour ever cut the benefits bill?

Does anyone really believe that Andy Burnham will succeed in cutting welfare benefits for 16–24-year-olds, as is being reported? Good luck to him if...

28.07.2026 40

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Is Andy Burnham really ready to hand power to Reform councils?

Keen to keep up the momentum on his big (or not so big) ideas, Andy Burnham will apparently announce on Friday that in future some revenue from income...

26.07.2026 30

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Only North Sea oil can save Burnham’s cost of living drive

Andy Burnham has made it clear that he doesn’t much like free markets. And they are making it equally clear that they don’t much like him, either....

24.07.2026 30

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Energy / Has Miatta Fahnbulleh learned her lesson on net zero?

Many were the voices arguing that Ed Miliband would be a disaster if appointed Chancellor, frightening markets and sending Britain even further down...

22.07.2026 50

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Would a social care levy work?

We keep hearing that Andy Burnham’s government will be the most left-wing since the 1970s, when the namesake of the new chancellor promised to...

21.07.2026 50

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Andy Burnham’s plan to reverse Thatcherism is a little ridiculous

Why not blame Herbert Asquith or Lord Aberdeen? Andy Burnham’s line about reversing ‘40 years of neo-liberalism’ – i.e. since the Thatcher...

17.07.2026 40

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Nationalising British Steel is not the worst idea

Keir Starmer won’t leave much of a legacy, but his last week has brought one thing which will be seen as a totemic achievement in Labour circles: he...

17.07.2026 30

The Spectator

Ross Clark

A land value tax would be disastrous

Earnings are taxed too highly, Andy Burnham has hinted, and wealth too little. I don’t hold much hope for a cut in income tax, but I think we can...

15.07.2026 30

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Is Ed Miliband really changing his tune on North Sea oil?

I’m a little sceptical of reports that Ed Miliband is prepared to back down and accept new drilling for gas in the Jackdaw field in return for being...

14.07.2026 40

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Badenoch would be wrong to boot net zero backers from the Tories

No-one has spent more time opposing Britain’s net zero target than me. I wrote a whole book on it as well as dozens of columns. I have addressed...

10.07.2026 40

The Spectator

Ross Clark

What is Farage’s game?

It is a mark of Nigel Farage’s position on the nation’s consciousness that he has succeeded in pushing the judgement in the Prince Harry vs...

07.07.2026 40

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Do doctors think tax rises shouldn’t apply to them?

‘Only the little people pay taxes,’ New York hotel tycoon Leona Helmsley was once reputed to have said. She later discovered, as she was jailed...

07.07.2026 30

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Only bad parents will let their kids skip school to watch the England game

Is Thomas Tuchel a secret agent sent by Friedrich Merz’s government to ruin the UK economy and education system so as to make life easier for German...

05.07.2026 60

The Spectator

Ross Clark

The problem with Burnham’s ‘cost of living populism’

Is Andy Burnham plotting to base his premiership around a policy of ‘cost of living populism’? That is what is being reported following the...

03.07.2026 60

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Is Andy Burnham really ready to become prime minister?

Andy Burnham is not prime minister yet, but he has already outdone John Major. Whoever thought of putting him in a grey outfit against the backdrop of...

29.06.2026 50

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Prime minister Andy Burnham spells trouble for the south east

Andy Burnham is not giving much away as to what a government led by him would look like. Given that it seems unlikely there will be a leadership...

26.06.2026 50

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Why aren’t conservatives more excited about Kemi Badenoch?

Is the Right ready to take advantage of a fractious Left in the increasingly unlikely scenario that Andy Burnham will call a general election if he...

23.06.2026 40

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Streeting’s surrender is bad for Britain

Government bonds haven’t had a great few days, but there is one asset which has plummeted far quicker in value this morning: all the Wes...

22.06.2026 30

The Spectator

Ross Clark

How much is Burnham going to cost Britain?

The Makerfield by-election – in which Andy Burnham swept to victory overnight – has been presented as a fight for the soul of Britain, but in a...

19.06.2026 40

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Britain will never be the ‘Saudi Arabia of wind’

If you thought that Net Zero couldn’t get any sillier, it just has. Remember how, according to Boris Johnson, Britain was going to become the...

17.06.2026 30

The Spectator

Ross Clark