- Editor, The Spectator; also Contributing Editor and Political Columnist, GQ Magazine (from 2006 to 2009)
- Deputy Editor, Comment (1996-8); Deputy Editor, Sunday Telegraph (from 1996 to 2006)
- Quondam Fellow, All Souls College (from 1996)
- The Times (Assistant Editor, 1994–5) (from 1991 to 1995)
- Prize Fellow, All Souls College (from 1989 to 1996)
- Undergraduate, Magdalen College, Oxford (from 1986 to 1989)
- Nothing to Fear (Hodder & Stoughton, 2008)
- Confessions of a Hawkish Hack (2006)
- Tabatha’s Code (Alma Books, 2006)
- Going East (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 2003)
- (with C.P. Thiede), The Quest for the True Cross (Palgrave Macmillan, 2002)
- (with C. P. Thiede), The Jesus Papyrus (Orion Publishing Group Ltd, 1997)
- The Ties That Bind Us: A Study of Civic Society in English Town (Social Market Foundation, 1996)
- Member, Puttnam Commission on Parliament in the Public Eye (from 2004 to 2005)
- Member, Policy Advisory Board, Social Market Foundation (from 2002 to 2006)
- Member, Millennium Commission (from 2001 to 2006)
- Member, British Executive, IPI (from 1998 to 2006)
- Member, Board of Directors, Centre for Policy Studies (from 1998 to 2006)
- Member, Advisory Council, Demos (from 1998 to 2006)
- Philip Geddes Memorial Lecture, St Edmund hall, Oxford (2006)
- Editor of the Year, Current Affairs Magazines, BSME (2007).
- Political Studies Associate Awards (2006).
- British Press Awards (2004).
- Charles Douglas-Home Memorial Trust Prize (1995).