Simon Heffer

Profile: Full name: Simon James Heffer Area of interest: Politics, Arts, Culture Journals/Organisation: Daily Mail | The Daily Telegraph Email: simon.heffer@telegraph.co.uk Personal website: Website: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/columnist-1069309/Simon-Heffer.html | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/simonheffer Blog: Representation: http://www.capelland.com/pages/authors/index.asp?CID=35 Networks:

Biography: About: Education: King Edward VI Grammar School (Chelmsford); Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Career: Medical journalist then freelance leader writer for The Times; Joined The Daily Telegraph: leader writer and parliamentary sketch writer until 1991; The Spectator: deputy editor and political correspondent, 1991/1994, also a columnist at the Evening Standard over the same period, and a columnist at the Daily Mail, 1993/94; returned to The Daily Telegraph: deputy editor and weekly political columnist,1994; moved to the Daily Mail as chief political columnist 1995; returned to The Daily Telegraph as columnist and associate editor, 2005; left the paper in May 2011: rejoined the Daily Mail in 2011 as columnist and editor of the MailOnline comment website RightMinds Current position/role: Columnist, editor of RightMinds also writes/written for: Other roles/Main role: Other activities: Disclosures: Viewpoints/Insight: 3 talks from BBC Radio 4s The Westminster Hour: Simon Heffer on society's ills, 2003 (audio) Broadcast media: Frequent appearances on TV and radio debate programmes, i.e. Question Time, What the Papers Say, Any Questions, Breakfast with Frost Video: Controversy/Criticism: Iain Dale's diary: Shame on you Simon Heffer, May 2005 Sunder Katwala: The genius of Simon Heffer, March 2006 Awards/Honours: Study of the exercise of the Royal Prerogative in the British constitution won the Charles Douglas Home prize, 1993 Scoops: Other:

Books & Debate: Books: The End of the Peer Show: Why the Hereditary System Is Wright and Wromantic (Centre for Policy Studies, 1996) ISBN 1897969600; Moral Desperado (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1995) ISBN 1857994469; Like The Roman: The Life of Enoch Powell (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998) ISBN 075380820X; Power and Place: The Political Consequences of King Edward VII (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998) ISBN 0753807505; Nor Shall My Sword: Reinvention of England (Phoenix; New Ed edition, 2000) ISBN 0753809419; Vaughan Williams (Phoenix; New Ed edition, 2001) ISBN 0753811243 Latest work: The Great British Speeches OCLC 75714057, 2007 Speaking/Appearances: Debate:

Daily Mail: Column name: Remit/Info: Section: Role: Pen-name: Email: Website: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/columnist-1069309/Simon-Heffer.html Commissioning editor: Day published: Regularity: Column format: Average length:

Articles:

The Sunday Telegraph: Column name: Remit/Info: Arts, Culture Section: Features / Comment Role: Commentator Pen-name: Email: simon.heffer@telegraph.co.uk Website: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/simonheffer Commissioning editor: Day published: Regularity: Weekly Column format: Average length:

Articles: The arts can survive, and thrive, without public money - State subsidy is not the only way to cultural excellence, and often it only perpetuates mediocrity - 8th May 2011 Radio 3's new concert programme will change the musical landscape - Radio 3's new series of live concerts proves it to be one of the country's great civilising forces - 1st May 2011 Explore what lies beyond Holst's Planets - Tony Palmer's film about Gustav Holst reveals the range of that strange, brilliant man - 17th April 2011 Ravel's brilliance extends far beyond 'Bolero' - Roger Nichols's brilliant new biography of Ravel reminds us how stunning his music can be - 10th April 2011 Let's pay tribute to the Gothic genius who enriched our lives - George Gilbert Scott was one of the great architects of Victorian Britain - but his masterpiece, the soon-to-reopen Midland Hotel at St Pancras, should not be there - 2nd April 2011 It's hard to find food in a British restaurant - The great British food fad has made it difficult to get anything to eat - 27th March 2011 Terence Rattigan sounded the deep blue sea of English feeling - Terence Rattigan fell out of fashion in the 1950s, but his best dramas are timeless - 20th March 2011 The inside story of how Essex beat the Blitz - 'The Oaken Heart' by Margery Allingham, the story of one village in the first year of the Second World War, shows what 'community' really means - 13th March 2011 Kind Hearts and Coronets': a personal tragedy and a universal comedy - In a career cut cruelly short, Robert Hamer made the most perfect and most subversive of all British films - 6th March 2011 Michael Kennedy: a music critic worth his weight in gold - He wanted to be known as the only Englishman who understood Richard Strauss - but Michael Kennedy has far better claims to renown - 20th February 2011 Decimalisation picked our pockets of truly beautiful coins - Before decimalisation, Britons were still carrying great works of art around in their small change - 13th February 2011 A Tony Palmer season should be music to the ears of classical fans - The BBC seems to have woken up the appeal and talent of Tony Palmer. It's about time, too - 6th February 2011 Vaughan Williams: to learn from unheard music - The 'new’ piece by Vaughan Williams that’s been lying in a Cambridge University archive since 1899 is said to be 'really amazingly good’ - 30th January 2011 Brighton Rock: A masterpiece refashioned as a turkey - I don’t want to see the new version of 'Brighton Rock’, any more than I would like to hear Vaughan Williams played by an orchestra of drunk penny-whistlers - 23rd January 2011 Why Thunderbirds is still FAB - Did any person in the 20th century make so many children so happy as Gerry Anderson - 16th January 2011 David Hart and Alan Clark were the kind of eccentrics Britain needs - True eccentrics aren't defined by silly clothes - the best are men who refuse to compromise or conform - 9th January 2011 Sadly, the snobs were right about Trollope - Trollope had much in common with Dickens - except that Dickens did everything so much better - 1st January 2011 The time is ripe to rediscover Benjamin Britten - Benjamin Britten's centenary, barely two years away, should prompt a new appreciation of his genius - 26th December 2010 Non-Christians make Christmas merrier - It has slowly sunk in that if we all want to get along, then trying to take part in the cultural mainstream does no harm at all - 19th December 2010 Confessions of a bridge addict - Once I learned the game at the age of 12, it became an immediate obsession - 5th December 2010 Britain needs a lesson in dressing for the occasion - The current tendency to sport informal clothing at all times is not just impractical, but downright rude - 21st November 2010 How British documentaries made poetry in motion - Simon Heffer salutes the film-makers who captured the hidden parts of our culture - 14th November 2010 Britain's long, slow journey to remembrance - We have fought wars for centuries, but it is only recently that we have chosen to remember our dead, rather than our battles and our victories - 7th November 2010 Elgar's glory has yet to reach its true height - Edward Elgar's reputation has risen steadily, but his genius should still be more widely appreciated - 31st October 2010 To me, books are literally indispensable - A true bibliophile doesn't stop accumulating volumes just because his house is already full - 24th October 2010 Downtown Abbey is what television should be - Those of us whose souls are so deeply penetrated by cynicism that we can hardly get up in the mornings can feast on Downtown Abbey's authenticity and visual detail - 17th October 2010 Gavin Stamp exposes Britain's vendetta against its Victorian masterpieces - The new book by architectural historian Gavin Stamp exposes our callous brutality towards our architectural heritage - 10th October 2010 The sweet sound of a self-sustaining orchestra - The New Queen's Hall Orchestra shows how a dependence on state subsidy rather than popular support is stifling classical music - 3rd October 2010 Brilliant architecture can rescue even Basingstoke - George Ranalli's marvellous work in Brooklyn should be a lesson to Britain's architect and planners - 19th September 2010 Cinema shows the real story of Britain - Simon Heffer on his new Radio 3 series, which explores the transformation in our politics and culture depicted in the films of the 1940s - 11th September 2010 Herbert Howells drew glory from a well of grief - The Hymnus Paradis by Herbert Howells is the greatest piece of English choral music - and unutterably moving - 5th September 2010 How Vaughan Williams captured a country with strings - The Fantasia is far more than simply the reworking of a hymn tune - 8th August 2010 Jack Hawkins: The man who won the war in black and white - He only made five war films, but Jack Hawkins, whose centenary falls this year, became the ultimate cinematic incarnation of the British officer - 1st August 2010 Why I went to Australia with 14 Trollopes - Summer holiday reading means catching up on the works one always meant to get round to - 18th July 2010 There's so much more to Hubert Parry than Jerusalem - At this year's Proms, Sir Hubert Parry will finally get a look in before the Last Night - 11th July 2010 If you think you know what you like, think again - We Britons have broadened our horizons in recent years, but there are still areas of our culture where a narrowness of mind prevails - 3rd July 2010 The last casualty of the Troubles is truth - No former member of the Parachute Regiment can be in the dock unless Martin McGuinness is there too - 19th June 2010 World Cup 2010: The problem with football is that it's just not cricket - All of my efforts to appreciate the 'beautiful game' have ended in failure - 13th June 2010 Arts funding: fiddles show the way to go - The innovative Stradivari Trust has come up with a clever scheme that combines philanthropy and hard-headed commerce, recognising that culture is a business as well as a recreation - 6th June 2010 Varieties of darkness that lit up my life - In a new recording of Vaughan Williams's Sixth Symphony, one hears things that one had missed in hundreds, perhaps thousands, of previous listenings - 30th May 2010 Found at last – the missing bits of Berkshire - What is so appealing about Berkshire is the triumph of the Victorians and Edwardians in creating things of almost self-indulgent beauty out of what was just an expanse of heath - 23rd May 2010 Alan Sillitoe wrote the first real roles for proles - The writer presented the industrial working class to the rest of the British public with a degree of honesty that was shocking and brutal - 16th May 2010 The undiluted joys of a literary genius - A compelling new book tells the life of GeorgeOrwell through the letters of the man himself - 9th May 2010 James Bond can beat any villain - including MGM - The sheer incredibility of James Bond will always lure suckers like me back to the cinema - 25th April 2010 Cameron's spinners created a vacuum for Clegg to fill - The Tories are suffering because they don’t have enough solid policies - 21st April 2010 A peculiarly British form of entertainment - The Brides in the Bath case has every necessary ingredient to make it resonate - 18th April 2010 No flights because of volcanic disruption? You won't see me for dust - Have you reflected, writes Simon Heffer, on how wonderful life would be if we couldn't fly anywhere for two years? - 17th April 2010 General Election 2010: Nice Nick Clegg can't believe his luck - I thought the public would see through Clegg's pious, sanctimonious, oleaginous, not-me-guv display of cynical self-righteousness: but they didn't - 17th April 2010 Don't be afraid of Wagner. He's not a Nazi - The idea that Nazism can be traced back to a moment in 1905 when Hitler, aged 16, had some sort of epiphany after seeing Rienzi in Linz is simply potty - 11th April 2010 The dysfunctional world of the Waltons - Although he treated her badly, William Walton owed a huge debt to his wife - 28th March 2010 The King who liked to collect his own head - the stamp collecting habits of King George V - 21st March 2010 Repay the maestro's gusto with your bravos - When we go to a concert and experience the musical brilliance of others, we should give full and demonstrative voice to our appreciation afterwards - 14th March 2010 I learnt about power when I joined the Union - These debating societies have been scarred by the image of drawling, chinless political dilettantes, but that is unfair - 7th March 2010 Why supermarkets leave me cheesed off - The cheese and meat available in supermarkets look like food, but there the likeness ends - 28th February 2010 A sacred building, and not just for its Beatles - It fills one with sadness that so great a studio as Abbey Road may soon be frozen in time as a museum - 21st February 2010 Architects should please the public, not spite them - New projects by Daniel Libeskind and Zaha Hadid show the pleasures and pitfalls of modern architecture - 14th February 2010 John Terry is the model of the modern footballer - it's hard to see why anyone was shocked or surprised by the England captain's behaviour - 7th February 2010 I cheer for every football team that goes bust - Footballers - and their managers - don't provide the role models that our children need - 7th February 2010 Ordnance Survey: tracing the contours of a national scandal - It is high time map-making came of age - 31st January 2010 Eminent Victorians at knockdown prices - No one could be less fashionable than high Victorians like Matthew Arnold - which is good news when you stumble on that indispensable first edition - 24th January 2010 Edlington attack: we don't have to breed such savages - Parents such as those who bred the Edlington savages should be in prison - 23rd January 2010 There's a golden age going on next door - The wit, charm and humanity of modern French cinema should be an inspiration to us all - 17th January 2010 The true great 20th-century novelists who irked the Bloomsbury snobs - As writers, HG Wells, Arnold Bennett and John Galsworthy far outshone those self-obsessed frauds DH Lawrence and Virginia Woolf - 10th January 2010 To be frank, these stamps aren't worth a damn - The Royal Mail's tawdry issues and designs are making philately, once a hobby fit for a king, into a slightly seedy investment business - 3rd January 2010 Classic British cinema has become an elusive delight - The England I love is in the old films of Ealing, Elstree and Shepperton - and they're becoming harder to see - 27th December 2009 Never mind the hiss, feel the quality - Newer technology is not necessarily better technology when it come to music - 6th December 2009 A tale of hardihood to stir any man's heart - Twitter is an adolescent craze - but it could bring to the attention of a new generation the heroism of Captain Scott - 29th November 2009 TS Eliot does not correspond with his letters - Simon Heffer had always believed there were raging currents in TS Eliot, yet the poet of 'Prufrock' kept them well out of sight in his letters - 22nd November Is Andrew Roberts really an inadequate historian? - A savage review of Andrew Roberts's 'The Storm of War' - 15th November 2009 Boris Johnson should take a bite of the Big Apple - The way New York has turned itself around gives hope for a lot of London's ills - 8th November I find Hallowe'en frightfully frightening - We should resist the gruesome commercial feast of Hallowe'en and get back to good old effigy-burning Guy Fawkes Night - 1st November 2009 The secret of biography is in Proust's overcoats - The detailed dismembering of a person that is now expected by the reading public can make the very task of writing a life unpalatable - 18th October 2009 BBC plans for TV comedy are no laughing matter - The BBC's guidelines for comedy will make all the jokes we actually find funny unacceptable - 11th October 2009 Roman Polanski's crime doesn't cancel out his art - and vice versa - Roman Polanski proves once again how good art and a bad character can go together - 4th October 2009 Restore the arch and let beauty into our towns - Simon Heffer recalls his elders talking of the loss of the Euston Arch as the opening of the floodgates to a period of bleak modernism - 27th September 2009 The gulf between a Princess and a Queen - The lives of Queen Elizabeth, the late Queen Mother, and Diana, Princess of Wales, reflected a differing understanding of the Royal role - 20th September 2009 The South Bank Show: the last bastion of civilisation on ITV - Tony Palmer's magnificent new film on Wagner shows how much ITV will lose when the South Bank Show finishes its run - 13th September 2009 Further adventures of Jonathan Meades, cultural commando - There are moments in Meades's documentaries that are not merely challenging - they are almost threatening - 6th September 2009 There's no smell on the shelves of cyberspace - Browsing a dealer's list online is not the same as seeing a book by chance, flicking through it, smelling it, turning it over in one's hands - 9th August 2009 We are still lost in the mystery of that war - Nothing changed us more, or demanded so incomprehensible a sacrifice as the conflict that ended in November 1918 - 2nd August 2009 The July 7 memorial says what words cannot - We have become exceptionally good at revering our heroes and this latest effort is as utterly right as the Cenotaph - 12th July 2009 The game I grew up watching has ended - I could attempt to get my children interested in the new form of cricket – if I wished to be cruel to them - 28th June 2009 Facebook: Everything you never wanted to know... - A younger friend told me that the purpose of Facebook is to 'keep in touch with people you don't want to keep in touch with'. So why bother? - 14th June 2009 Bookmakers still prove a magnet for punters - I suppose you could describe literary festivals as a sort of live porn show for the educated classes - 31st May 2009 Farah Fawcett takes American television to the final frontier - Whatever species of disgusting vulgarity we develop for ourselves will always find a ready market in the US - 24th May 2009 Some new architecture is shockingly. . . good - The development of London's Docklands has been one of the social and architectural triumphs of the last quarter-century - 17th May 2009 Why we need Victorian values in television - With The South Bank Show going, there is little other than Radio 3 and BBC Four between the stockade and the barbarians - 10th May 2009 (see also: Melvyn Bragg and the shameful axing of The South Bank Show - Max Davidson)

The Daily Telegraph: Column name: On Saturday Remit/Info: Politics Section: Features / Comment Role: Commentator Pen-name: Email: simon.heffer@telegraph.co.uk Website: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/simonheffer Commissioning editor: Day published: Saturday Regularity: Weekly Column format: Usually seven topics, with one leading topic around 625 words Average length: 1600 words

Articles: Cut loose, Dave, and let the nation decide - The Liberal Democrats have have lost the confidence of the country. David Cameron should call a general election - 7th May 2011 You can’t have a laugh with a Lefty - Had David Cameron been a gent he would have apologised to Angela Eagle - 30th April 2011 David Cameron’s moment to question the EU - The Prime Minister leads a country at the mercy of border laws set by a foreign power - 15th April 2011 It’s not our job to save the euro - The failure of the euro will signify the failure of the European ideal - 9th April 2011 Lefties, not Etonians, are closing libraries - Zadie Smith is wrong about libraries – and the BBC were wrong to let her broadcast her attack on the 'cuts' - 2nd April 2011 A Budget for growth of state spending - George Osborne has shown himself completely unequal to the task of fixing the nation's economy - 26th March 2011 PC Dave can't police the world - Just five months ago, the Prime Minister chose to shut down much of our defence capacity - 19th March 2011 We must fight the unions over pensions - State employees need a lesson in life - 12th March 2011 Fix parliaments and rig the constitution - What happened on Thursday in Barnsley presents just one reason why a 2015 election is outrageous - 5th March 2011 The foolish cuts that leave us defenceless - The ludicrous, hasty and ill-informed decision to cut defence so severely is one for which Dave and his Chancellor must take full responsibility - 26th February 2011 Fix local government – start sacking - Public services now exist far more for the benefit of those who work in them than those they are supposed to service - 19th February 2011 How to destroy our universities - The drive by Vince Cable and his hapless puppet Nick Clegg to impose quotas of state school pupils on universities verges upon the wicked - 12th February 2011 All that's growing is Nick Clegg's stupidity - There can be no growth without an increase in consumption - 5th February 2011 Seven weeks to save the economy - Boris Johnson is right to draw attention to the crippling burden of taxation now faced by our people - 29th January 2011 Miliband always wanted Balls - Ed Miliband and Ed Balls are joined at the hip by their devotion to Gordon Brown and his insane policies - 22nd January 2011 Could Britain be heading for a crash? - We cannot postpone indefinitely the final acceptance that we must live within our means - 14th January 2011 The Coalition provides plenty of noise for plenty of nothing - For all the bragging about cuts, they are pitiful - 8th January 2011 Heed Margaret Thatcher, not sad old Supermac - The Left will not admit that by the time Mrs Thatcher left office she had transformed the British economy and set an example that was followed around the world - 1st January 2011 Get tough on drugs, don't legalise them - There is a strong case for setting excise duty at a higher rate than on booze and fags - 18th December 2010 Is England not corrupt enough to survive? - Straight dealing in almost any international forum these days is utterly non-existant - 4th December 2010 Ed Miliband's 'relaunch' will only get Labour so far - For all his rhetoric about breaking with the past, until last May Ed Miliband was a turgidly loyal Brownite - 27th November 2010 Prince William and Kate Middleton: After the royal wedding news, the inevitable drivel - For Prince William to get married in a registry office and to have the reception in a pub in Clapham is hardly in keeping with our constitution - 20th November 2010 Iain Duncan Smith: Britain must listen to the Quiet Man - We are a country that has been hobbled by welfarism, but IDS could change that - 13th November 2010 Barack Obama is doomed – enter Mrs Clinton - Despite the efforts of the US media to support St Barack, the Americans are having none of it - 6th November 2010 David Cameron and the euro millions roll-over - What has happened in the past couple of days is an affirmation of business as usual - 30th October 2010 Spending review: why so soft on Scots and foreigners? - The spending review may have cut deep, but we continue to bankroll Third World despots and Scotland - 23rd October 2010 Let Essex Man work his magic again - The Essex Man spearheaded Margaret Thatcher's economic miracle. David Cameron needs him to do it again - 9th October 2010 Hypocritical Harriet Harman needs to cut the clap - Occasionally one witnesses hypocrisy of such stomach-turning proportions that it is impossible even for those most brutal cynics to remain unaffected by the wickedness before them - 2nd October 2010 Vince Cable is the anti-business secretary - Vince Cable's attack on capitalism showed that he doesn't understand it - 25th September 2010 We must let the Pope come and go in peace - I am dismayed by the aggression and militancy of some of my fellow atheists, who show a shocking intolerance of the Pope - 18th September 2010 Without jobs, no one will get off benefits - It was refreshingly candid of George Osborne to say that there are those who need to be confronted about their lack of a job - 11th September 2010 Hague's judgment is the real issue - The Foreign Secretary has called into question his credibility to stay in office - 4th September 2010 It's uncloned meat that worries me the most - A cloned cow is probably considerably safer to eat than an uncloned one, and its milk much safer to drink - 7th August 2010 Our overseas aid bill could pay for Trident - George Osborne's statement that the renewal of Trident will have to paid for out of the Ministry of Defence's equipment budget is silly, unrealistic - 31st July 2010 America is the acceptable face of cultural imperialism - Simon Heffer reports from New York on the differences between British and American culture - 24th July 2010 David Cameron in Washington: Time to stop being junior to Uncle Sam - America's power should not be confused with its being right - 24th July 2010 A brainless way to pay for universities - We have to start getting our priorities right about education, and treating the subject seriously - 17th July 2010 Whitehall dunces must do better - Failures in the civil service are being caused by a cultural problem at the top - 10th July 2010 Many criminals just need an education - If Ken Clarke's motivation in seeking to reduce the number of people in prison is to save money, then he will be defeated before he begins - 3rd July 2010 Sir Ronald Harwood: A great knight at the theatre - Most honours lists are depressing, but one honour today has given Simon Heffer hope - 12th June 2010 Gulf of Mexico BP oil spill: Sub-prime slick is far worse than BP's - Barack Obama seems happy to sacrifice his relationship with Britain for electoral reasons - 12th June 2010 The public sector will be better when the quangos go - But we won’t attract people of the right calibre to do vital jobs if we pay them derisory salaries - 5th June 2010 Capital gains tax and the politics of envy - Vince Cable poses as a man who understands economics, but at heart he is a redistributionist - 29th May 2010 David Cameron will rue the day he betrayed the - 22nd May 2010 Conservatives - As I have argued for the last four-and-half years, Dave is not actually a Conservative David Cameron turns ugly with our constitution - To allow a government effectively to ignore defeats in the Commons and carry on regardless is a constitutional outrage - 15th May 2010 General Election 2010: David Cameron has had this coming to him - Dave Cameron abandoned conservatism five years ago because he believed it would get his party elected. It didn't - 8th May 2010 (General Election 2010) Not quite the change that Dave wanted - The leader of the Conservatives has only himself and his teenage advisers to blame if he loses this election - 24th April 2010 It's time to turf this toad out of office - We, the electorate, have done nothing to deserve this saponaceous little creep - 10th April 2010 Desperate times call for Ken Clarke - David Cameron needs to use Kenneth Clarke to lead the economic battle - 27th March 2010 Punish parents for holiday truancy - Why not criminalise parents who take children from school for holidays - 27th March 2010 Barack Obama builds on George W Bush's bad mistakes - Barack Obama has failed to improve America's standing in the world - 20th March 2010 Good universities are worth paying for - Any attempt to link a degree in history, classics or philosophy to the "utility" of our commercial future misses the point of university education - 20th March 2010 There is one cut that could save Labour - The Tory party that seems to understand less about economics than Jack the Ripper did about the sanctity of human life - 13th March 2010 There is a little worth saving at the BBC - A drastically reduced BBC would eliminate much of the Leftist influence that dominates it - 6th March 2010 The madness of Little George Osborne - Simon Heffer finds the Shadow Chancellor's recent bout of lunatic posturing irksome - 27th February 2010 Barack Obama: crumbs of comfort from a dog's dinner of a presidency - Barack Obama has one advantage that should not be discounted - 20th February 2010 Gordon Brown's fantasy is Britain's nightmare - Not a day passes without more evidence of Gordon Brown's bovine incompetence - 20th February 2010 We can't afford to have less history taught at universities - Whoever governs this country next musty proclaim a commitment to higher education in the broadest sense - 12th February 2010 A perverted idea of equality that protected Ali Dizaei -Never was a stronger case made against the positively dangerous obsession with artificial "equality" promoted by lunatics like Harriet Harman - 12th February 2010 MPs' expenses: Parliament is no place for the talented - There will be no fresh start for the House of Commons until MPs are allowed outside earnings - 6th February 2010 Three Forces into one doesn't go - One of the more crackpot notions of recent times is that we should rationalise our Armed Forces into one Service - 6th February 2010 Iraq Inquiry: Unlike our boys, Blair emerged unscathed - Tony Blair does conviction exceptionally well. Those who know him knew he would not repent the war - 30th January 2010 Politicians such as Jack Straw abandoned principles long ago - This makes him a suitable member of a Government because he lacks principle - 23rd January 2010 Barack Obama's running on borrowed time - Barack Obama's only answer to debt is the same as Gordon Brown - 23rd January 2010 How to help the white working class - Labour is ducking the radical steps needed to help Britain's poor - 16th January 2010 General Election 2010: We can't actually hate Labour more - How idiotic does one have to be to want to take over the leadership of the Labour Party - 9th January 2010 Gordon Brown's insult to the Lord Mayor was shocking - Now the Lord Mayor just gets a CBE, two ranks above what is given to lollipop ladies and teenage athletes - 2nd January 2010 Bravo, PD James, for bringing the BBC to book - How I admire Baroness James for kicking the director-general of the BBC in the way she did on the Today programme - 2nd January 2010 Hypocrite Straw's role in destroying the police - It was in Mr Straw's four years as home secretary from 1997 to 2001 that the cancerous attitudes that have benighted our police really set in - 2nd January 2010 The lies that saw in a decade of debt - Sadly, there has been more to worry about than the battle against Islamic fundamentalism over the last decade - 26th December 2009 I'd rather not hark to any more herald angels - Simon Heffer longs to hear the old, traditional and unusual Christmas carols that rarely get an outing now - 20th December 2009 We should lock up the guilty - not the innocent - Our system of justice should be ashamed of the way in which it has treated Munir Hussain - 19th December 2009 Money alone won't get us better teachers - Poor pay is not the only reason why first-rate graduates prefer not to go into the classroom - 5th December 2009 Forget climate change - save the planet from the thermomaniacs - At last people are telling David Cameron that his bunny-hugging has the potential to cause extreme economic and political damage - 5th December 2009 Want to fix the NHS? Go private - When a hospital fails in the way that the Basildon and Thurrock Trust has, it should be turned over immediately to a private-sector hit squad to sort it out - 28th November 2009 Ofsted is simply making schools worse - Ofsted has become a Left-wing front dedicated to maintaining the pretence that schools under Labour are getting better all the time - 28th November 2009 Oxbridge is clearly guilty of pursuing excellence - Oxbridge demands very high A-level passes and produces many students with good degrees, very few of whom drop out. Where is the problem - 21st November 2009 A brilliant way to turn off Tory voters - The Conservative Party positively encourages the persecution of such types as Sir Jeremy Bagge, old Etonian and leader of Norfolk's "Turnip Taliban" - 21st November 2009 The real enemy of the working classes - Labour's lax immigration policies have not served Britain well, but the welfare state has been more damaging - 14th November 2009 Free cricket is not the birthright of every Englishman - Important though Test matches are, they are not a state occasion like a Coronation or the opening of Parliament - 14th November 2009 One attack on Gordon Brown I don't applaud - I am in no doubt that he was sincere in his grief when he wrote to Jacqui Janes - 14th November 2009 Barack Obama is beatable - but by whom? - The Republicans have a fundamental problem: they don't have a leader to capitalise on the President's weakness - 7th November 2009 A Prime Minister with our soldiers' blood on his hands - The TA, unlike Mr Brown and his toadies, is comprised of volunteers who put their lives on the line for our country to implement the sometimes idiotic decisions taken by dodgy politicians - 31st October 2009 We must give in to the EU - or give it up - A Tory referendum on the Lisbon Treaty would be futile, but politicians can't hide from the real question forever - 31st October 2009 David Cameron chooses tokenism over principle - Most voters want the best candidate as their MP, not the best after half the population has been ruled out - 24th October 2009 Sign up and fight Gordon Brown's latest cut to the forces - It is typical of this government's contempt for the Armed Forces that it is seeking to shut down their postal service - 17th October 2009 MPs' expenses: Sir Thomas Legg must target MPs more carefully - There seems to me to be one glaring injustice in how Sir Thomas Legg has run the MPs' expenses investigation - 17th October 2009 David Cameron looks the part, but missed the point - The Tories have no plan for growth. If they are to come safely through an election campaign in which Labour will make endless promises of bribes to its clientele, they must find one - 10th October 2009 Restore the arch and let beauty into our towns - Simon Heffer recalls his elders talking of the loss of the Euston Arch as the opening of the floodgates to a period of bleak modernism - 27th September 2009 Supreme Court has far less appeal than the Lords - 26th September 2009 MPs' expenses: why Members deserve to be in the doghouse - Might there have been a pang of conscience alongside the perverse sense of priorities - 26th September 2009 (see: MPs' expenses: summary) The gulf between a Princess and a Queen - The lives of Queen Elizabeth, the late Queen Mother, and Diana, Princess of Wales, reflected a differing understanding of the Royal role - 20th September 2009 George Osborne's and Vince Cable's 'spending cuts' won't cut the mustard - Both George Osborne and Vince Cable supported increasing spending for far too long - 19th September 2009 The South Bank Show: the last bastion of civilisation on ITV - Tony Palmer's magnificent new film on Wagner shows how much ITV will lose when the South Bank Show finishes its run - 13th September 2009 A poor apology for a Prime Minister - Gordon Brown's posthumous apology to Alan Turing shows that Labour has no sense of history - 12th September 2009 Further adventures of Jonathan Meades, cultural commando - There are moments in Meades's documentaries that are not merely challenging - they are almost threatening - 6th September 2009 The NHS gets a bad bill of health - The Government could make the NHS more efficient by contracting out the management of its care - 5th September 2009 For British bellies, the salad days are over - In the 1970s, in a spasm of national consciousness, we realised our food was ghastly. Things have got better since, but they could be about to decline again - 16th August 2009 There's no smell on the shelves of cyberspace - Browsing a dealer's list online is not the same as seeing a book by chance, flicking through it, smelling it, turning it over in one's hands - 9th August 2009 Ronnie Biggs is laughing all the way to his grave - The release of Ronnie Biggs exemplifies the moral destitution of our society - 8th August 2009 We are still lost in the mystery of that war - Nothing changed us more, or demanded so incomprehensible a sacrifice as the conflict that ended in November 1918 - 2nd August 2009 David Cameron has the most to lose from a televised debate - Things are so pitifully awful for Gordon Brown that he has nothing left to lose - 1st August 2009 Labour once knew what patriotism was - Labour's control of the Armed Forces is utterly, and literally, lethal - 1st August 2009 The soul of England lives in the public house - All around our countryside are our great gift to the world: the country pub. They are at the core of my sense of myself as an Englishman - 26th July 2009 Start your great adventure at the Albert Hall - Music cannot be elitist when fine performances of an enormous section of the repertoire are available, free of charge, to anyone with a wireless receiver - 19th July 2009 The July 7 memorial says what words cannot - We have become exceptionally good at revering our heroes and this latest effort is as utterly right as the Cenotaph - 12th July 2009 The countryside is not a theme park for townies - The Royal Show failed because this Government couldn't give a stuff about the countryside - 11th July 2009 Phone hacking: If you're Dave's mate, you can do no wrong - Andy Coulson has nothing to fear from the News of the World phone hacking furore - 11th July 2009 The Queen is getting out her begging bowl - Her Majesty is too-frugal - 4th July 2009 Now even the summer has a health warning - Many of us will have spent the last few days of extreme heat wondering how we have lived this long - 4th July 2009 Want more sleaze? Have full-time MPs - The proposal to end parliamentary privilege shows how sinister the Labour Government has become - 4th July 2009 The game I grew up watching has ended - I could attempt to get my children interested in the new form of cricket – if I wished to be cruel to them - 28th June 2009 Tories refuse to learn their grammar - Can we have a U-turn on grammar schools, please? - 27th June 2009 Biggs deserves to stay in jail - The implication is that we should have let him out earlier - 27th June 2009 Let BBC executives test the market - Still fizzing after all these years, but treat him to the Pol Roger White Foil next time - 27th June 2009 Italian politics? It's Carry On in Rome - Berlusconi's fellow countrymen admire his prowess with the ladies - 27th June 2009 Into the red, red, red, we sink with Brown - Mervyn King: the Guv'nor can do the sums - 27th June 2009 Facebook: Everything you never wanted to know... - A younger friend told me that the purpose of Facebook is to 'keep in touch with people you don't want to keep in touch with'. So why bother? - 14th June 2009 Tube strikes: Change the law so that Bob Crow can be crushed - We need some test cases from employers or individuals who were affected by the strike, suing the RMT for any damage to their businesses and livelihoods - 13th June 2009 Sir Alan Sugar has no business on TV now - The appointment of Sir Alan Sugar as enterprise 'tsar' is a stunt, but it is a Government-sanctioned one: and, as such, he should no longer be allowed to appear on his rather coarse television programme - 13th June 2009 Gordon Brown's PR won't stop duck houses or 'flipping' - I may be obtuse, but I fail to see how altering the way we are governed - short of abolishing MPs altogether - would have made any difference to the MPs' expenses debacle - 13th June 2009 Russia wheels out the evil weapon of history - Distorting the facts about the Second World War may well be a prelude to a battle over a land corridor through Poland - 7th June 2009 Bookmakers still prove a magnet for punters - I suppose you could describe literary festivals as a sort of live porn show for the educated classes - 31st May 2009 MPs' expenses: We await an apology in Saffron Walden - I'm still game on to challenge Sir Alan Haselhurst - 30th May 2009 Euro elections: My vote is going to Ukip - 30th May 2009 MPs' expenses: How David Cameron can now shame Labour - A series of by-elections, which the Tories would probably win, would be very good for the party - 30th May 2009 Farah Fawcett takes American television to the final frontier - Whatever species of disgusting vulgarity we develop for ourselves will always find a ready market in the US - 24th May 2009 Financial crisis: One more quango and we might burst - The MPs' expenses scandal has, I hope, been a wake-up call to those who rule us that we have rumbled the fact that so much of our money is squandered - 23rd May 2009 MPs' expenses: Being clean of moat is no longer a virtue - Although Labour is regarded as the worst offender, the image of Viscount Hailsham?s moat is the one that has lodged in public consciousness - 23rd May 2009 Some new architecture is shockingly. . . good - The development of London's Docklands has been one of the social and architectural triumphs of the last quarter-century - 17th May 2009 MPs' expenses: Now we know where all our money goes - Public money has been squandered, and the many cases in which there is a prima facie case of fraud must be investigated by the Crown Prosecution Service - 16th May 2009 Why we need Victorian values in television - With The South Bank Show going, there is little other than Radio 3 and BBC Four between the stockade and the barbarians - 10th May 2009 (see also: Melvyn Bragg and the shameful axing of The South Bank Show - Max Davidson) MPs' expenses: The Maltesers are on the taxpayer - MPs are supposed to be honourable - 9th May 2009 There's one more thing Gordon Brown can do - Britain is in a terrible state. Our people are losing their jobs, their homes, their businesses, their livelihoods. The Prime Minister should call an election - 2nd May 2009 Is Zara Phillips meant to live on scraps? - If some of her critics had their way, Zara Phillips would be sent to a convent - 2nd May 2009 We'll be lucky to get a bowl of soup - The Brown Economic Miracle has turned Britain into a basket case - 25th April 2009 A savage and pointless attack on Middle England - Alistair Darling and Gordon Brown are squeezing the middle classes to keep their clients happy - 23rd April 2009 The Home Secretary is a walking disaster - The preposterous Jacqui Smith is a disgrace to the office of Home Secretary - 18th April 2009 A flogging for RBS seems a fair return - Although I don't blame the bankers for our woes, I do believe the disaster into which they were led by bad governments has exposed horrors that, for the sake of their shareholders and for the future of banking, need to be expunged - 4th April 2009 Fine Jonathan Ross, not the BBC - Will the BBC recover the sum of its Ofcom fine from the bloated earnings of Jonathan Ross? - 4th April 2009 Claire Taylor could show the boys a thing or two - The first woman to be chosen as one of Wisden's five cricketers of the year is a credit to her country - 4th April 2009 G20: A 'new world order' is simply fantasy - The international act of posturing was pointless; because despite having caused the problem, the political class had none of the requisite skills to sort it out - 4th April 2009 Time for the Tories to get horrible - The Conservatives should start behaving like an Opposition, and attack Labour head-on - 28th March 2009 Natasha Richardson: Death is a tragedy, not a showbiz spectacle - I know our media can be tasteless, but in America celebrity death is larded with a peculiarly disgusting hypocrisy - 21st March 2009 The race is on for the White House - the Republicans are already gearing up to oust Barack Obama in 2012 - 21st March 2009 Barack Obama on Jay Leno risks becoming a bore - Any Briton watching would have been reminded of the easy, demotic charm of Tony Blair. And we know how that ended - 21st March 2009 G20 leaders are good for nothing - If the world's richest countries are looking for ways to save money they could start by cancelling this futile summit - 14th March 2009 Honouring Ted Kennedy is an insult to IRA's victims - 7th March 2009 Brown's reckless ruse to make money - Gordon Brown won't stop borrowing because he can't stop spending - 7th March 2009 Brown has as little shame as Sir Fred Goodwin - Parliament should debate Gordon Brown's salary and perks, and slash them - 28th February 2009 Civil servants don't need Labour's sleaze - Sir Brian Bender's behaviour is typical of Labour's cosy relationship with big business - 14th February 2009 The BBC just carries on giving offence - The corporation is now estranged from those who fund it - 7th February 2009 This is why Britain is a failing nation - how in God's name does someone get seven GCSEs if he can't read? - 31st January 2009 Scots have brought Britain to its knees - The sooner the bunch of Scots who govern us are booted into history the better - 24th January 2009 Harriet Harman: If you're middle class, you can't work here - is Miss Harman is modelling herself on Stalin with her latest attempts to remove Britain's class divide - 17th January 2009 Interest rates and the economy: Does anyone in charge have a clue what to do? - I have yet to read a satisfactory explanation of the cut in interest rates this week - 10th January 2009 Gordon Brown has ruined sterling but now is not the time to be lured into the euro - No doubt your new year celebrations had extra zest two days ago: for it was not merely 2009, it was also the 10th anniversary of the currency union that brought us the euro - 3rd January 2009 The Tories must give us cause for hope in 2009 - David Cameron and George Osborne have to start making the case for sacrifice, cuts and an end to living beyond our means - 31st December 2008 Brown will hit the middle classes but will Cameron? - It is no secret that Brown is planning to make the middle classes pay but what would the Tories do - 27th December 2008 Gordon Brown's behaviour is simply immoral - too many people are taken in by his son-of-the-manse act, and the "fact" that he has a "moral compass" - 20th December 2008 David Cameron should pay attention to the Germans - The Conservatives had better have some serious policies by the time an election arrives - 13th December 2008 Speaker Martin is a disgrace to his office - There is a deeper problem at the heart of the Damian Green affair. It is Labour's lack of regard for history and hard-won liberties - 6th December 2008 Alistair Darling - you'll make things even worse - The world's financial markets are melting down. Whole industries - such as the American automobile manufacturers - are on the verge of collapse. Woolworths could be about to disappear from our high streets. Unemployment is at an 11-year peak. Confidence has not merely evaporated: it has been replaced by fear. And I have yet to speak to anyone in the financial world who imagines things can do anything except get worse - 22nd November 2008 A successor to 'Edward the Caresser' - The lesson of Edward VII suggests that even if Charles must wait another 20 years, he can still be a force for good once he gets there - 16th November 2008 Britain is as depraved as in Dickens's day - In the 19th century, when a great majority of people were uneducated, dirt poor and left to their own, often gruesome, devices, it was no wonder that one of the national sports was child abuse - 15th November 2008 “David Cameron must join the real world and fight Labour's big lies’’ - Cameron and Osborne need to prove how, under a Tory administration, things would get better, argues Simon Heffer – 9th November 2008 Obama's only a human being, you know - Expectations of him changing the world are as unrealistic as those of his chances of transforming America by his mere presence in the White House - 8th November 2008 US can't get rid of George W Bush fast enough - The American president is nowhere - possibly not even in the caves of Pakistan or the badlands of Iraq - so despised as in his own country - 1st November 2008 Can you trust George Osborne with your money? - However comical the events concerning George Osborne and his international white trash friends might seem, there is a serious undertow to them - 25th October 2008 Gordon Brown's legacy: debt and more debt - 18th October 2008 Tories need to grow up to beat Gordon Brown - The Tories are not attacking Brown's handling of the financial crisis, because they haven't a clue what they would do differently - 11th October 2008 Third time lucky for Peter Mandelson? - The Mandelson appointment is so contemptible that it deserves to be one of the most conspicuous reasons for the electorate to punish Labour - 4th October 2008 George Osborne must talk about tough choices - 27th September 2008 Freedom doesn't come without risks - Despite this weeks events, the free market and the associated risks are crucial to a free society - 20th September 2008 The hypocrites who punish excellence - there are few greater hypocrisies than Labour criticising our old and great universities for taking too few people from "disadvantaged" backgrounds - 13th September 2008 McCain offers vision rooted in reality - Whereas Barack Obama offered empty promises, John McCain presented a message of unity rooted in gravitas and experience - 6th September 2008 Obama has left the US election wide open - Despite his masterful rhetoric, Barack Obama has not yet done enough to win the election - 30th August 2008 A rise in interest rates is unavoidable - It is vital to keep inflation under control however politically difficult the side-effects for our Prime Minister - 16th August 2008 archive

The Daily Telegraph: Column name: Remit/Info: Politics Section: Features / Comment Role: Commentator Pen-name: Email: simon.heffer@telegraph.co.uk Website: Telegraph.co / Simon Heffer Commissioning editor: Day published: Wednesday Regularity: Weekly Column format: Average length:

Articles: What sort of democracy treats losers like they're winners? - The Lib Dems should have less influence, not more, after their kicking at the polls - 11th May 2011 Nick Clegg is out of his depth – and David Cameron should let him sink - The Tories' bargaining power in the Coalition will increase after tomorrow's elections - 4th May 2011 Politicians, not republicans, are a threat to the monarchy - Ministers who want to change the nature of our constitution don’t grasp the consequences - 27th April 2011 David Cameron’s moving further to the Left on his tiresome guilt-trip - The Prime Minister’s latest fatuous comment shows how out of step he is with Conservatism - 13th April 2011 David Cameron should listen to Vernon Bogdanor on the constitution - The Coalition’s reforms would take power from the people and deliver it to the political class - 6th April 2011 TUC protests: Ed Miliband wrecks his reputation by siding with the criminal class - Ed Miliband lives in a fantasy land if he thinks Saturday's riots were ideologically driven - 30th March 2011 Budget 2011: the Chancellor's reputation is built on actions, not the half-truths of spin doctors - To talk about George Osborne's leadership ambitions at this stage is a diversion to prevent our seeing the lack of ambition of what may be announced in the Budget - 23rd March 2011 We don't have the luxury of an interventionist foreign policy - We must work out what our national interest is, and then we must act upon it - 16th March 2011 If David Cameron doesn't get a grip, his troubles will only get worse - Ukip’s success in Barnsley will be replicated elsewhere unless the Tories shape up - 9th March 2011 There's no light at the end of the tunnel for this high-speed folly - Enterprise zones would do far more to revive the economy than a pointless railway line - 1st March 2011 It's time we stopped insulting the Duchess of Cornwall - There is no logic, but much spite, in the way we treat the Prince of Wales's wife - 23rd February 2011 AV is a recipe for coalitions – reason enough to vote 'No' - David Cameron has more pressing issues at the moment than his sop to the Lib Dems - 16th February 2011 Conservative MPs are biting their tongues – but for how much longer? - The lack of a growth strategy, and no progress in curbing EU powers top the list of complaints - 9th February 2011 Britain has put its feet up - Despite the enterprise and valour of our citizens, our leaders seem set only on managing the country's decline - 2nd February 2011 David Cameron now has no chance of understanding ordinary people - With Andy Coulson's departure the PM has lost his last contact with the real world - 26th January 2011 Up to his brass neck in sartorial disgrace - Nadhim Zahawi's musical intervention in the House was an unforgivable faux pas - 21st January 2011 The last thing the House of Lords needs is a mass of elected members - Nick Clegg's proposed reforms will keep talented people out of the Upper House - 19th January 2011 University is for the brightest, whichever school they went to - Simon Hughes's quota plan for private school pupils will destroy further education - 12th January 2011 Why the real Conservative Party is about to make itself heard - A spat over Europe and the wrong economic policies mean trouble ahead for the PM - 5th January 2011 The country's problems are far more urgent than the Coalition's - Doing the right thing for Britain must be Mr Cameron's first concern - 29th December 2010 Cameron punishes Tories, but lets Vince Cable go free. Why is that? - Vince Cable, the Business Secretary has exposed how unnatural this Coalition really is - 22nd December 2010 Tuition fees aren't the only thing Nick Clegg has to be ashamed about - The Lib Dem leader's breathtaking retreat from principle is reaping its just reward - 15th December 2010 David Cameron's obsession with image and spin is failing the country - The public is paying dearly for the Prime Minister's cult of personality - 10th November 2010 The future looks bleak for Barack Obama - America has taken stock of Mr Obama’s presidency – and it doesn’t like what it sees - 3rd November 2010 The goodwill of the middle classes can no longer be taken for granted - The strident voice of protest in France is one we shall hear in Britain all too soon - 27th October 2010 £83billion sounds a lot – but these cuts are nowhere near enough - Spending Review 2010:The Government is making a weak start in its attempt to deal with the deficit - 20th October 2010 If employers want good graduates, then they must pay for them - We cannot allow universities to become the province of 'rich kids' - 13th October 2010 Conservative Party Conference 2010: Class envy won't win the Tories the next election - Unfair welfare reforms are the latest sign of the Conservatives moving to the Left - 6th October 2010 Ed Miliband will say anything if it means getting into Downing St - Labour had better beware its new leader – his only creed is expediency - 29th September 2010 This five-year plan for Parliament is a fix in more ways than one - The Coalition is trying to fool us with its undemocratic bid for fixed-term rule - 22nd September 2010 The RAF can be trimmed but to cut the Navy and Army is insane - The world is looking very dangerous – we need defence more than an overseas aid budget - 15th September 2010 Labour must eat humble pie - The Opposition needs to face up to its failings - 8th September 2010 Tony Blair's memoirs: a strange book by a gifted man - Tony Blair's memoirs are unlike those of any previous prime minister, not least because of the space devoted to settling scores with his arch rival. But they fail to tell the whole story - 2nd September 2010 Don't be complacent – English cricket is on a sticky wicket, too - The spirit of a once civilised game has been ruined by greed - 1st September 2010 David Cameron's Coalition insults voters by paying lip service to democracy - The Tory Right is trying to save the party – and the country – from leaders without accountability - 3rd August 2010 If President Obama carries on like this, he will turn into a lame duck - The president hasn't grown into the job - all that's needed to beat him is a serious Republican - 28th July 2010 The next Labour leader could be prime minister within a year - Whoever wins the leadership battle will present a real challenge to the Coalition - 20th July 2010 How on earth can a monster like Raoul Moat be hailed a hero? - Growing hostility towards the police lies at the heart of a mindless reaction to his death - 14th July 2010 Coalition electoral reform is fantasy, and Conservatives should fight it - The proposed changes do a lot for the Lib Dems, but nothing for democracy - 7th July 2010 Times have changed, and the NHS must take the medicine too - It is insane to ring-fence health spending – and overseas aid - 30th June 2010 Here is a programme to horrify politicians, but save Britain - The huge deficit requires radical solutions such as VAT on food and severe NHS cuts - 16th June 2010 The dishonest election campaign has given us a cynical Government - The Coalition should know what to do with the deficit without asking the public - 9th June 2010 The new politics is as obsessed with propaganda as the old was - The Coalition depends on rhetoric to conceal its weaknesses - 2nd June 2010 The collapse of the euro would open the door to democracy - The European project has been shown to be economically and politically bankrupt - 26th May 2010 Only a Tory without principles would demonise the Right - Cameron's coalition will stop at nothing to smear those who believe in traditional values - 19th May 2010 The political infighting won't be over until we have another election - the coalition government will be unsatisfactory and short-lived - 12th May 2010 General Election 2010: Mark your ballot paper with care, then prepare for the worst - There are worthy candidates, but this campaign has left Britain unprepared for the struggle ahead - 5th May 2010 (General Election 2010) The worst that can happen is a second general election - A hung parliament would allow all the parties to think again - 28th April 2010 lection 2010: David Cameron's image-makers created the vacuum that Nick Clegg has filled - The Tories are suffering because they don't have enough solid policies - 21st April 2010 Search continues for good reasons to vote Tory - The party's manifesto is largely irrelevant to the crisis facing Britain - 14th April 2010 General Election: the only thing you won't hear in the next 30 days is the truth - The parties' cosy consensus will leave millions of voters effectively disfranchised - 7th April 2010 How can David Cameron and the rest of the Conservative Party be so 'bonkers' about banks? - The Lord Mayor of London is right to attack a unilateral levy on banks, which will destroy Britain's only world-beating industry - 24th March 2010 Labour has taken 13 years of diabolical liberties with Britain - Individualism and autonomy used to be prized – now they are held in contempt - 17th March 2010 Americans seem to want them but can the Republicans deliver? - The race for nomination is on but any challenge to Obama has to be carefully calibrated - 10th March 2010 The end of the road for Obama? - The President seems unable to face up to America's problems - 8th March 2010 The Notting Hill Tories simply don't have the popular touch - Labour's record in office is appalling, but Cameron's slogan of change is vacuous - 3rd March 2010 Life is never fair. So why does Labour pretend it can be? - The party's vision of the future involves punishing the haves for the sake of the have-nots - 24th February 2010 Can anyone explain what the Conservative Party stands for? - Lacking clarity and direction, the Tories risk a haemorrhage of support to fringe parties - 17th February 2010 Who in their right mind will bail out the poor relations of Europe? - The euro cannot survive if the national interests of EU countries are to prevail - 10th February 2010 The only economic advice the Tories need - cut spending - If Cameron refuses to tackle government debt, the consequences for Britain will be disastrous - 3rd February 2010 This recession was no accident, and we know who's to blame - Brown provided cheap money for the banks to behave idiotically with – and Cameron went along with it - 27th January 2010 David Cameron's Tories are a one-man band that's playing out of tune - Labour's show of resilience since the coup plot raises questions about David Cameron's team - 20th January Gordon Brown's deep, dark obsession has brought the country to its knees - The psychological flaws of the Gordon Brown and his cronies are to blame for Britain's ills - 13th January 2010 It looks like being a traditional general election: bluster, bombast and lies - Will Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg ape his party rivals in duping the voters - 6th January 2010 Will £18 million win the Tories an election? - Given the state of the economy, the Conservatives should have shown greater restraint when funding their campaign - 30th December 2009 How the great Mr Gladstone saved our fallen country - Two hundred years ago, a leader was born who puts today's politicians to shame - 23rd December 2009 Remember, Mr Cameron - it isn't only Labour that has a core vote - The party of enterprise is offering nothing to aspirational average earners - 16th December 2009 Cameron must learn the dangers of tinkering with the constitution - Labour has not just hobbled the Union, but wrecked our whole system of government - 2nd December 2009 How the Tories can lead the revival of a battered Britain - The reform of schools, welfare and the economy will be the key to a better future - 25th November 2009 We have had enough of the most pointless Parliament for 350 years - Today's State Opening is a waste of our poor Queen's time - 18th November 2009 When it comes to Europe, David Cameron is howling in the night - The other 26 EU countries are not about to exhume the corpse of national sovereignty - 11th November 2009 It's Barack Obama's first anniversary - but there's precious little to celebrate - The US President's performance has dismayed even his biggest admirers - 4th November 2009 We must give in to the EU - or give it up - A Tory referendum on the Lisbon Treaty would be futile, but politicians can't hide from the real question forever - 31st October 2009 None of Britain's politicians appears to realise what a mess we're in - The Tories' plans to deal with Britain's recession are still economically illiterate - 28th October 2009 Tories must be wary of replacing Labour's cronies with their own - The Balls fiasco perfectly illustrates the folly of public sector patronage - 21st October 2009 MPs' expenses: Sir Thomas Legg's audit is not about fairness – it's about preserving our democracy - The MPs who complain about Sir Thomas Legg's investigation of Parliamentary expenses are missing the point - 14th October 2009 If the Tories dislike the 50p tax rate, they should just get rid of it - His uninspiring speech at the Conservative Party conference shows that George Osborne has failed to grasp the mood about what's gone wrong - 7th October 2009 Nursery worker Vanessa George: punish the guilty – not the innocent - However much vigilance we impose on those who work with children, it is not enough - 2nd October 2009 Gordon Brown's Labour Party will pay for its cowardice - When I arrived in Brighton for the Labour Party conference last Sunday, the atmosphere was like that of a pub with no beer, and it got worse - 29th September 2009 The last gasp of a charlatan? - For all his rhetoric, Mr Brown knows that in reality any hope of his staying in power rests with the Lib Dems - 29th September 2009 We're up the Swannee, and all the parties are in the same boat - The Tories need to embrace the culture of wealth creation if they are to rebuild Britain - 23rd September 2009 The undeserving poor will be David Cameron’s biggest headache - We must end the flawed benefit system that encourages people not to work - 16th September 2009 Weak leadership is a damaging disease – and it's catching - As the day of reckoning looms, Labour has lost any concept of the national interest - 9th September 2009 England pays through the nose for the luxury of Scottish values - Salmond's call for a referendum on independence is part of a long-term strategy - 2nd September 2009 On-screen violence is more worrying than a quiet smoke - It was only a matter of time before the idiocy of higher ratings for films with smoking reached us - 15th August 2009 David Cameron and George Osborne offer progress – but in the wrong direction - As Lord Tebbit has worked out, whatever else David Cameron and his friends are, Tory they definitely aren't - 15th August 2009 The trouble with Labour - The Government's failure to think ahead will leave a disastrous legacy - 12th August 2009 Politicians are the only people standing in the way of recovery - The banking crisis may be over, but capitalism is not saved yet - 5th August 2009 David Cameron is likely to win, but don't expect a Conservative government - Tory silence on the 50p tax rate, Europe and private schools shows a party too timid to achieve anything in office - 29th July 2009 How Labour keeps the lower classes in their place - State schools have been wrecked and now it is the turn of our best universities - 22nd July 2009 There's a class war to be fought over the future of private schools - The independent sector can lie down in front of the tanks - or get its guns out - 15th July 2009 David Cameron's first priority must be job cuts in the public sector - With Labour stumbling towards defeat, a golden opportunity is looming - 8th July 2009 If David Cameron wants to govern, he should stop being afraid of ideas - The Tory leader's disdain for think tanks does the party a disservice - 1st July 2009 Labour seems bent on insulting the voters until the very end - The election of John Bercow as Speaker shows that most MPs have still not understood the public mood - 24th June 2009 European elections 2009: David Cameron must not rest on his laurels if he really wants power - The Tories did well in last week's elections, but it is still a long way to No 10 - 10th June 2009 Gordon Brown: You can judge a leader by his toadies - Since the whole country knows that what it really wants is an election, and the early defenestration of Mr Brown, I wonder what people think of the likes of Shaun Woodward - 6th June 2009 Local elections 2009: The nation knows the game is up - What is happening to Gordon Brown now makes John Major's government look like a triumph - 6th June 2009 They call it Gordon Brown's 'tragedy', but it's been a catastrophe for us - The Cabinet's failure to put the PM out of his misery is in nobody's interest - 3rd June 2009 MPs' expenses: do the right thing, Sir Alan Haselhurst, or I will stand against you - Because we have exposed so much moral leprosy, some deserving cases – deserving of greater scrutiny with a view to forcing them to own up – have slid back into the undergrowth. Today, I must pull one back - 27th May 2009 (see: MP's expenses: summary) When will Barack Obama stop fudging it? - Barack Obama's reluctance to begin confronting difficult decisions is creating the impression that his administration is simply hoping for the best - 25th May 2009 One man can restore dignity to the House - These are unprecedented times and only a Speaker of real stature will do - 20th May 2009 MPs' expenses: the Queen has a role to play in stabilising government - The Queen cannot help but be aware of the public's anger over MPs' expenses and should help to rebuild politics - 18th May 2009 MPs' expenses: What Parliament needs now is the spirit of Cromwell - As the Commons' standing falls to a historic low, with news of MPs claiming expenses for everything from piles of manure to tennis court maintenance, drastic action is needed from the party leaders - 13th May 2009 Labour must stop worrying about their silly little party and put Britain first - Labour started all this by picking a flawed leader who was clearly not up to the job - 6th May 2009 You had to be there to grasp the scale of Margaret Thatcher's revolution - We are victims of our upbringing. Anyone coming to political consciousness as I did in the 1970s will understand why Mrs Thatcher happened, whether we support what she did or not - 29th April 2009 Thank Henry VIII for laying those foundations of freedom - Without the Reformation there would have been no constitutional monarchy - 22nd April 2009 No one is more damaged by Damian McBride than Gordon Brown himself - It has taken a disgraced Labour adviser to boost the Tories - 15th April 2009 With MPs like these, porn films should be the least of our worries - Our system attracts career politicians and it badly needs reform - 1st April 2009 Time the Tories tackled the real problem – the state, not the rich - David Cameron is spurning a chance to revive country and party through the Tories' tax decisions - 25th March 2009 President Barack Obama: Perhaps he can't fix it. . . - President Obama has been in power for just over 50 days, but already critics believe his plans to save America from disaster are doomed - 18th March 2009 Northern Ireland has not been at peace - despite what Labour claims - 'Republican' gangsters have reverted to type to secure the unification of Ireland - 11th March 2009 It's the Europhiles versus reality, and reality is going to win - Milton Friedman was right to predict that the euro might not survive a recession - 4th March 2009 The people say they'll keep calm and carry on. . . but for how long? - Labour has failed us – and if the Tories can't find a solution to our problems, the public mood could turn ugly - 25th February 2009 Jacqui Smith is a symptom of our consensus of cowardice - the lack of outrage over the Home Secretary's expenses is a sad reflection on our politicians - 11th February 2009 David Cameron's 'moral' capitalism is no better than socialism - The Tory leader has revealed his true colours – he misunderstands the market - 4th February 2009 House of Lords: Peers already have the power to put their tarnished house in order - The Lords must recover the credibility lost in ruinous reforms and mediocre appointments - 28th January 2008 How much rope does Gordon Brown need? - only one honourable option remains for Gordon Brown - but he won't take it - 21st January 2009 Charles Darwin reminds us not to squander the great legacy of the Victorians - There are obvious reasons to commemorate Charles Darwin on his bicentenary - 14th January 2009 Now is the moment for radical Tory policies. So where are they? - The move on savings was a step in the right direction, but Cameron needs to be much bolder if Labour is to be punished for its terrible failure - 7th January 2009 Christmas is the time to revisit our obsession with the past - There is nothing more helpful that one can do at this season than to provide an unequivocal recommendation on how to spend the book tokens, or sums of ready cash, that might come your way tomorrow - 24th December 2008 There is a class war - but Ed Stourton's sacking is not part of it - The speculation about Ed Stourton highlights the fact that social divisions have worsened under Labour - 17th December 2008 John Milton was a poet and a freedom fighter - On the 400th anniversary of John Milton's birth, we should remember him as a pamphleteer who set up the struggle for English liberty - 10th December 2008 Conservatives need to look after the middle class - and Britain - There has never been such an opportunity to win the hearts and minds of British voters since Mrs Thatcher's great campaign in 1979 - 26th November 2008 Alistair Darling's pre-Budget report of political expediency - 25th November 2008 Tories must fight Labour's big lies - Cameron and Osborne have no coherent alternative to offer - they need to prove how, under a Tory administration, things would get better - 19th November 2008 When will our politicians have the guts to use the 'C' word? - all three major parties promise lower taxes yet decline to pay for them with lower public spending - 12th November 2008 Barack Obama’s historic victory: Now we need to find out what 'change' means - 6th November 2008 US elections: Danger lurks in Barack Obama's comfort zone - 4th November 2008 Obama: the Busby Berkeley of modern America - Barack Obama has all but won the race for the White House, but he'll need more than rhetoric to help him once he's in power - 29th October 2008 MPs must stop serving their own interests - It is disgraceful that Parliament was not recalled during the summer and that MPs didn't demand it - 22nd October 2008 The Tories must spell out our predicament, or they can lose - If the Conservatives don’t make the case for capitalism, Britain will start to look like North Korea – with Gordon Brown as leader for life, argues - 15th October 2008 Brown is still no great statesman - He may be winning plaudits in the European media, but we must not forget Brown's part in creating the crisis - 14th October 2008 Financial crisis: We're all socialists now, comrade - Perhaps if Brown did not socialise our financial system the situation would worsen but state-backed banks will eventually impoverish us all - 9th October 2008 Here are the lessons of the credit crunch - we are paying the price of failing to control the money supply - but will we learn from our mistakes? - 8th October 2008 Tories have a long way to go to be judged a government-in-waiting - the Conservative party still gives the impression it is struggling to understand the tectonic shifts in the world financial order - 1st October 2008 Gordon Brown's conference speech won Labour over, yet they're doomed if he stays - 24th September 2008 Who has the guts to govern Britain in this time of turmoil? - It's obvious what needs to be done to lead us out of the present economic crisis, but is there anyone with the resolve to do it? - 17th September 2008 Gordon Brown is bad news for Britain, and disastrous for Labour - As the Prime Minister clings to office but is no longer able to wield power, he risks consigning his party to the wilderness for years to come - 10th September 2008 Sarah Palin's winning conviction - John McCain's running mate has proved herself to be an astounding politician - 5th September 2008 John McCain needs to explain how he would make America better - 3rd September 2008 Story can't make Obama good president - There is tension in the air at the convention as Democrats start to worry about their choice of candidate - 27th August 2008 The private sector could save our schools - The "inequality" between private and state schools is not about money, it is about the quality of teachers - 23rd August 2008 Vaughan Williams should be revered - His work was hijacked by the nostalgia industry in the 50 years since his death, but the composer's contribution to our national life was invaluable - 20th August 2008 The West must hit Russia where it hurts - Only America has the muscle, the will and the sense of leadership to force the Kremlin to draw in its horns - 13th August 2008 archive

News & updates: Simon Heffer to leave Daily Telegraph - Long-serving associate editor and style guide scourge to pursue role in journalism and broadcasting, The Guardian, 11th May 2011 Heffer Sacked From the Telegraph - Guido Fawkes blog', 11th May 2011

References:

Links: Hack watch: The security services and Whitehall have long kept dossiers on certain journalists but, characteristically, New Labour has widened the focus - as an internal cabinet memo obtained by the Guardian shows - Seumas Milne, Kevin Maguire, The Guardian, 22nd January 2001 Simon Heffer's greatest hits - A selection of the Daily Telegraph associate editor's missives on house style, The Guardian, 11th May 2011 Simon Heffer launches MailOnline comment website RightMinds - RightMinds unveiled with intention of creating web community for Daily Mail site, with writers including Richard Littlejohn - The Guardian, 13th September 2011