Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Introduction

Part One: The Sound of the Suburbs

The suburbs are what make Britain great

Not every age needs a Churchill or a de Gaulle

Once in a while just go for it, hell for leather

Peace and freedom: the blessings of capitalism

Six reasons why I’m an uber-moderniser

MPs? Well, I can’t trust anyone. Not even you

I’d never voted Tory. But changing was easy

It’s human to dread change and fear loss

Labour hasn’t got a monopoly on compassion

No, I won’t be asking for a foreign passport

Part Two: The Rules of Politics

Now here’s a spiffing idea …

Why a mobile phone on a beach sends out a stark message to Gordon Brown

Happy birthday! We like you

Top Tory tips: climb the ladder, check out the ceiling and see the cheese

Let me flog you a used car

Guess the weight of the ox: then you will see what’s wrong with our politics

Enough substance, Mr Cameron. Stick to style … because you’re worth it

Ooh matron! I’m sick of fizzy populism

Curse of the Premier of the Month

Some sage advice: ignore the results

Everyone agrees he’s got to go. So why hasn’t he?

Keep plugging away. The brand is a winner

This isn’t Fox: The Movie. It’s messy, real life

This politico has a lesson for ‘the real world’

There’s only one solution to the PM’s dilemma

What happens in Syria will not stay in Syria

71 days to go and Ed has no campaign in sight

Bad news for Labour: you’re stuck with him

Part Three: The Arrow of History

The 2016 Isaiah Berlin Lecture

1968 violence: blame the bulge

Understand Chelsea versus Sheffield, and you will see the Iraq game plan

Mr Blair’s final magic trick will begin shortly

Would you pass or fail the Kinnock Test?

Berlusconi’s antics are everybody’s business

The political class is losing, not gaining, power

Labour leadership hopefuls stuck in the past

Rees-Mogg’s Brexit history lesson is bunkum

Part Four: People

Walt Disney … Defend Disney from his Mickey Mouse critics

Hillary Clinton … Hillary’s flaws have defined the US election

Clement Attlee … A review of Citizen Clem: A Biography of Attlee by John Bew

Chuck Berry … A political revolutionary

Ted Sorensen and JFK … Obama must learn from the real Jack Kennedy

Ayn Rand and Karl Marx … Beware zealots who lack the human touch

Gordon Brown … The problem all along, Mr Brown, was you

Millicent Fawcett … The Fawcett statue will be a true landmark

Robert McNamara … From the fog of war come three hard truths

Gary Becker … The man who won a Nobel Prize for parking

Winston Churchill … The wartime leader was a great man, but a racist nonetheless

Muhammad Ali … The boxer could sting like an extremist

John Major … They didn’t listen to him then. They are now

Nelson Mandela … Rising above victimhood

Margaret Thatcher … It wasn’t her that divided us

Margaret Thatcher … The last prime minister of the Second World War

Brian Epstein … and the triumph of capitalism

David Bowie … Rock’s great rebel owed it all to capitalism

William Hague … His two faces are the two faces of Toryism

Luciana Berger … Her exit was a distressing sight

Donald Trump … and the pastor who propelled him to the top

Theresa May … and how history will see her

Jeremy Thorpe … The extraordinary story of a fantasist

George Martin … From the Goons to the Beatles

Part Five: Pastimes

Hours not to reason why (or how I’m pushed for Times)

Football’s ridiculous. And unfair. But it’s such fun

Hamilton musical makes a Founding Father a hero of our time

Whose finger on the off switch?

Fidget in the office to beat the fat

Oscar night: can real men get red-carpet ready?

Thank you for your highly original idea …

Our sepia-tinted PMs were arrogant and remote

Part Six: Crime and the Law

Serial killers and serial errors

All that clairvoyant stuff, I don’t see it myself

J’accuse: this man must not languish in jail

These bundles of charges pose a real danger

We should all be free to choose how we die

Prosecutors don’t know how biased they are

Part Seven: My Times

It’s simple, all the new leader has to do is to win over some new voters

Tonies and Phonies

The truth behind Cameron’s victory: the triumph of the Smith Square set

No, no, no. You’ve got it all wrong. It’s Brown that’s New Labour, not Blair

The best-dressed corpse in the morgue

Tying the knot? For you, we promise £5,000

Our high inheritance taxes must go, pass it on

Israel acts because the world won’t defend it

If you don’t like voters, they won’t like you

Gay marriage – such a conservative idea

Soon it will be mainstream to say ‘leave the EU’

If we don’t cut the deficit now, when will we?

If Scots file for divorce, we’ll need a good lawyer

Labour’s hypocrisy has brought us to this crisis

Shy Tories are not really shy … or Tory

As Greece shows, threats will get you nowhere

Let’s face it, the EU rescued us from failure

Killer flaw at the heart of the Brexit campaign

If Labour split, what sort of new party would be formed?

We must stand up to the populist blackmail

This election will sweep away the old politics

True socialism always ends with the Stasi

Jeremy Corbyn’s worldview is made for anti-Semites

Boris Johnson’s tax-cut promise is sheer folly

Corbyn’s grand plan is to replace Parliament

Index

Acknowledgements

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