Stephen Daisley

STEPHEN DAISLEY: The economy is more important than emissions If we want to cut harmful emissions we might begin with the hot air emanating from the Net Zero cult.

Growing the economy is more important than cutting emissions. Death to Net Zero.

My latest @dailymail.co.uk column is on the need to drill, baby, drill in the North Sea.

The global cottage industry gaming America's culture wars The influencer industry has been left reeling by a new function on X which allows readers to see the location from which any given account is operating

‘I don’t tweet from an air-conditioned basement suite at the Mossad headquarters – more’s the pity – but from right here in good old Blighty. Look, I have the certificate to prove it.’

I’ve written about the great Twitter unmasking for the @thespectator1828.bsky.social.

My @dailymail.co.uk sketch of #FMQs features The Football, the job-killing political class, and the grim plight of Anas Sarwar.

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Northern Ireland's Christian RE crackdown should trouble us all This is a story about teaching materials in a Northern Ireland school, but it’s a story about a great deal more than that

Northern Irish schools must no longer teach pupils that Christianity is an absolute truth. The Supreme Court says doing so contravenes the European Convention on Human Rights.

Over at @thespectator1828.bsky.social, I consider the cultural and civilisational consequences.

Helen Webberley is terrifying Ben Leo’s interview with Helen Webberley is a chilling dramatisation of what happens when ideology meets reality – and ideology persists.

When ideology meets reality and you still choose ideology.

My @thespectator1828.bsky.social bit on Helen Webberley’s GB News appearance — and why the law on both sides of the Atlantic must catch up with an emerging body of evidence on the risks and harms of gender medicine.

The return of migration centrism None of Shabana Mahmood’s asylum reforms is as radical as the terms in which she is talking about this issue. In an op-ed teeing up Monday’s announcement, she writes: ‘Unless we act, we risk losing po...

The Parliamentary Labour Party and the Bluesky shut-ins are frothing over Shabana Mahmood’s asylum reforms. Truth be told, they are achingly moderate and to the left of the average Labour voter. But they are a welcome start.

My @thespectator1828.bsky.social take. (Which is the correct take.)

Scotland does not need an LGBTQIA+ festival Alan Cumming is back in Scotland to take up the artistic directorship of the Pitlochry Festival Theatre.

Out in the Hills, Alan Cumming’s Pitlochry-based LGBTQIA+ festival, will showcase ‘a time and space built on and by nature, community care and trans ancestry’.

We’re about to find out the Picts were non-binary, aren’t we?

Me in @thespectator1828.bsky.social.

STEPHEN DAISLEY: Ariane won't be the only Green who hates this country Every now and then a Green MSP is allowed out unsupervised and, unaware of just how batty their party's policies are, happily blabs about one of them in all their lunatic detail.

‘Every now and then a Green MSP is allowed out unsupervised and, unaware of just how batty their party’s policies are, happily blabs about one of them in all their lunatic detail.’

My latest @dailymail.co.uk column is on Ariane Burgess and THOSE comments.

Tory leader gave voice to young women robbed of their childhoods Taylor likely never expected to be the subject of FMQs. The proceedings of the Scottish Parliament seldom concern themselves with the likes of her.

‘All those strategies and processes and cold, official acronyms tasked with safeguarding. None of them safeguarded Taylor. Instead, the state looked the other way. Taylor has a right to know why.’

My sketch of this week’s #fmqs.

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The crisis at the BBC is no victory for the right Politics Notebook #30: The Conservatives will only ever conserve progressive institutions, not reform them.

Don’t get too excited, Tories. Restoring impartiality at the BBC would be a mammoth task — one your party has shown no interest in.

Some thoughts over on my Substack.

How a right-wing putsch felled the infallible BBC The BBC’s on-air talent is muttering darkly about political campaigns and the corporation being ‘under attack’.

REVEALED: The right-wing plot to undermine the BBC.

By me, over at the @thespectator1828.bsky.social.

Boogeyman nights Ticket Stubs #12: Fearing the reaper in John Carpenter’s “Halloween” and fearing him somewhat less in “Halloween II”.

I’ve written about my favourite movie, and on the most appropriate day of the year: Halloween.

Police Scotland has lost its way One of the most fascinating cases of institutional self-harm in modern Britain is policing. Not just the oft-criticised Met (though it is spectacularly adept at inflicting needless wounds on itself) b...

Gender ideology is undermining the police.

Me in the @thespectator1828.bsky.social.

Really good thread on the SNP’s risible energy policies.

The treatment of British Jews proves the lie at the heart of multiculturalism This ideology cloaks itself in platitudes about tolerance while downplaying attitudes inimical to a free society

Why do police and prosecutors rush to the aid of every other minority but turn a blind eye when it’s Jews under threat?

I’ve written about the harsh realities of multiculturalism for @telegraphnews.bsky.social.

My latest @dailymail.co.uk column is on how ideology, whether Net Zero fundamentalism or anti-nuclear dogmatism, is a threat to our energy security.

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Everything You Always Wanted to Say About Woody Allen* (*But Were Afraid to Admit) Ticket Stubs #11: Remembering Diane Keaton in her roles in “Annie Hall” and “Looking for Mr. Goodbar”.

I’ve written about Diane Keaton (1946-2025) and two of the most frustrating directors she worked with.

The hate-filled campaign against professor Ben-Gad If I didn’t tell you professor Michael Ben-Gad was an Israeli, you could probably figure it out from his response to a hate-filled campaign to drive him out of his job at City St George’s, University ...

University of London students are disrupting Israeli academic Michael Ben-Gad’s lectures as part of a campaign to get him sacked.

This mob must be stopped and future mobs deterred.

Those who are British should be expelled. Those who are not, deported.

Anti-Jewish sentiment has poisoned our police British Jews have grown concerned at the Metropolitan Police’s handling of pro-Palestine marches. This interview won't reassure them.

A British Jew was interrogated by police over his Star of David necklace, which officers thought could be ‘antagonistic’ to pro-Palestine protestors.

That sound you hear is the near-total silence of progressives who clamour to denounce police racism when it’s every other minority group.

Middle East experts got Trump all wrong Whenever Donald Trump proposes a policy that runs counter to the progressive consensus, there are three stages of response: it’ll never work, it’s a disaster, it was our idea all along. We are at stag...

‘Whenever Donald Trump proposes a policy that runs counter to the progressive consensus, there are three stages of response: it’ll never work, it’s a disaster, it was our idea all along.’

Me in @thespectator1828.bsky.social on Trump’s precarious but pragmatic truce in Gaza.

Sometimes you write a column then think: ‘Was I too harsh?’

This isn’t one of those. John Swinney’s independence white paper deserves every ounce of disdain being heaped upon its banal, flaccid, intellectually moribund contents.

From today’s @dailymail.co.uk:

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The Manchester synagogue attack is a story of mass immigration and multiculturalism. We must bring an end to both.

My latest for the @thespectator1828.bsky.social.

www.spectator.co.uk/article/immi...

Bari Weiss was meant to fade – instead, she’s taking over - The Jewish Chronicle Driven from the New York Times, she built The Free Press into a powerhouse, challenged the legacy media on everything from Israel to free speech, and may soon rise to top ranks of CBS. For America’s p...

The rumours were true: Bari Weiss has been appointed editor-in-chief of CBS News. Here is a thing I wrote about the move for the @jewishchron.bsky.social a few weeks ago.

STEPHEN DAISLEY: Politicians have left Jews living in fear Their names were Adrian Daulby and Melvin Cravitz.

‘Listen to Jews, take their concerns seriously and treat them with the same respect you afford more electorally significant minorities. Until then, take your solidarity and shove it.’

My @dailymail.co.uk column on political posturing and the Manchester synagogue attack.

Do Palestinians want Hamas gone? Discussion of Donald Trump’s peace proposal for Gaza revolves around one question: who is for it and who is against it?

A deradicalised Gaza is impossible for the same reason a two-state solution is impossible: the Palestinians don’t want it.

Me in the @thespectator1828.bsky.social.

STEPHEN DAISLEY: Menzies 'Ming' Campbell belonged to a principled age Menzies Campbell was in the noble tradition of Scottish Liberalism. In tone, he belonged to an earlier political age, one in which principles were held fiercely.

I’ve written about Menzies Campbell for Saturday’s @mailonlinescot.bsky.social. #buyapaper

‘Menzies Campbell was faithful to his conscience and lived a life of public service with integrity at its heart. It was his longest and final race and he won it by a mile.’

STEPHEN DAISLEY: Nicola Sturgeon is only in it for herself Political parties are built to weather storms but people less so, and especially those people in Sturgeon's constituency. They need a parliamentarian who is in it for them. Nicola Sturgeon is only in ...

‘Nicola Sturgeon has spoken just 12 times in Holyrood in the past 12 months. Half of those were points of order about problems with her voting app. Seventy-five grand for piping up once a month. Nice work if you can get it.’

My latest for @dailymail.co.uk.

STEPHEN DAISLEY: Swinney serves up more waffle than an all-night... 'This is Scotland's first ever Innovation Week,' Russell Findlay told the chamber.

‘Independence means getting powers and then everything works and you never have to make hard choices and everyone lives happily ever after. This isn’t nationalism, it’s Hans Christian Andersen with flags.’

My @dailymail.co.uk sketch of this week’s #FMQs.

Keir Starmer’s Palestine doesn’t exist In recognising a state of Palestine, Starmer attempts not to halt a tide but to summon a new one which flows counter to history.

Why the UK is about to become much, much more hostile to Israel.

Me on Starmer, Cnut, and the illusion of power in @thespectator1828.bsky.social.

STEPHEN DAISLEY: The governing class tells migrants: We'll... Leave it to Humza Yousaf to come within spitting distance of a good point then miss by a country mile.

‘In a vanishingly short span of time, the UK has undergone unprecedented demographic transformation. At the turn of the millennium, fewer than one in ten Britons was born overseas, today the figure is one in six.‘

My @dailymail.co.uk column is on growing opposition to immigration in Scotland.