Our top ten picks of the week

Sunak, Farage, Johnson – and lessons for the Prime Minister from Cameron’s unexpected win in 2015 

Paul Goodman

“He found a way of guarding his right flank and winning out against the odds. Downing Street will want to study how it was done.”

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Victory at the High Court, but the Government is a long way from making the Rwanda policy work

Henry Hill

“The need to review every deportee on a case-by-case basis gives campaign groups the chance to bog it down in legal trench warfare.”

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Through a fading Christian faith, the special and sacral nature of Christmas can endure

William Atkinson

“Whether one is a Christian, of another faith, or of none, we have all benefited from growing up in a country still saturated in Christian assumptions. Christmas is the best illustration of that.”

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Who, apart from a Belgian magistrate, is in charge of the clattering Brussels gravy train? 

Andrew Gimson

“The European Parliament is not a Parliament at all. Clarity never arrives. All is opaque, an endless subterranean wrestling match, for the irrelevant voters intolerably dull.”

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Twelve years, ten achievements – what the Conservatives have accomplished 

Peter Franklin

“The claim that nothing has been achieved springs from the same lack of seriousness – and is simply untrue .”

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Clarkson’s column is no excuse for politicians to start dictating what papers may print 

Emily Carver

“It’s telling that Caroline Nokes and her co-signatories won’t spell out for us what action they want taken against the free press.”

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Medvedev’s crass remarks on the Falklands are an insult to Argentina 

Daniel Hannan

“General Galtieri’s was a wicked regime. But his armies, unlike Vladimir Putin’s, at least respected the rules of war.”

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A Christmas vision of the horrors of Labour past – and what might have been had Miliband won…

Penny Mordaunt MP

“I wish to be your guardian angel, and whisk you off to another reality for a moment – one where a Conservative government did not exist…”

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Tackling illegal immigration and small boats won’t be easy. But we have a plan to do so – and here it is. 

Robert Jenrick MP

“The High Court’s judgement earlier this week marks a major step forward in our plans and we are focused on moving ahead with the policy as soon as possible.”

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Gender-recognition clash highlights once again the incoherence of devolution 

Henry Hill

“The UK’s equalities framework looks set to fragment because whilst the Equality Act is reserved, the Gender Recognition Act is not.”