The Spectator

My fears about the ‘new normal’

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Perhaps there’s light at the end of the long lockdown tunnel. The roadmap at least allows hope that life might get back to normal. For me, normal means freedom to live life as we choose, from cramming into packed planes to go on holiday to crowding into pubs for birthday parties. However, even saying that … Read more

Staying at home doesn’t make us heroes

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I don’t particularly like the constant war analogies used about fighting coronavirus. However, when someone like Matt Hancock conjures up the Blitz spirit, urging us to pull together ‘in one gigantic national effort’, I think of that cliched question: ‘What did you do in the war, Daddy?’ Forget the sexism, what will our answer be to future … Read more

This is no time for ‘gotcha!’ journalism

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In The Spectator, Claire Fox argues that rather than trying to catch the government out, the media should treat its audience with the deference it deserves and truly scrutinise the government’s strategy. The lockdown has ensured that many millions now gather round the TV and watch the daily press conference from No.10. We hang on … Read more

Don’t expect the EU to learn any lessons from Brexit

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Claire wrote for the Spectator on her experiences of being a member of the European Parliament. She explains how the parliament doesn’t even provide a vehicle to discuss the EU’s problems and potential solutions because it is such a bureaucratic stitch-up. She argues that the EU doesn’t look like it will act to deal with … Read more

My clash with Alastair Campbell convinced me it’s time to hug a remainer

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Claire wrote an article for the Spectator following her appearance on BBC Politics Live. She argues that whatever the aggravations of the Brexit debates, it’s time to try to be constructive in the way we discuss politics. She writes: I confess I had butterflies doing the first BBC Politics Live of 2020. It felt like … Read more

Boris Johnson couldn’t have done it without the Brexit Party

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Claire wrote for the Spectator on why she was pleased that the Conservatives won a majority in the election. But she also explains why Boris Johnson should be grateful to the Brexit Party – not just for his election landslide but for the fact that Brexit was back on the agenda at all. The party’s … Read more

Boris’s ‘oven-ready’ Brexit deal isn’t what all Leave voters want

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Claire has an article in the Spectator on why voting Conservative isn’t necessarily the answer for many Brexit voters. Whatever the results on Thursday, there have been aspects of this election campaign not revealed by polling. My experience of speaking and campaigning in my MEP patch in the North West has been revelatory. I am in … Read more

An invitation to carry on insulting me and my fellow Brexiteers

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“After appearing on Newsnight last week, an #FBPE-monikered keyboard warrior wrote a much liked comment above my picture that read: “Bat shit crazy, howling at the moon @brexitparty_uk  neo Nazi fascist apologist tries to blame the judiciary. Straight out of the Hitler/Goebbels Handbook. We are living in dangerous times. #stopbrexit #RevokeA50 #SaveDemocracy”. This was one … Read more

It would be foolish to take Boris’s Brexit promises at face value

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“As the by-election result came through from Wales last week, one Tory Leaver tweeted this: “Brecon and Radnor is a timely warning to Brexiteers. Vote for the @brexitparty_uk and you will hand another seat to Remain. How could you be so stupid?”.  So stupid? The nerve, when after all, it was the Brexit party that resuscitated … Read more

Will Philip Pullman forgive my ‘gross insult to Beethoven’?

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“In my first week as an MEP, I was delighted to find that my Twitter feed included lots of interest in classical music and literature: Beethoven and Schiller. It soon became apparent that it wasn’t a cultured debate, but vicious condemnation of us turning our backs during “Ode to Joy”. The EU officials had demanded … Read more