the mid nineteenth century until the end of the First World War – High Minds – the Victorians and the Birth of Modern Britain (2013), The Age of Decadence – Britain 1880 to 1914 and Staring at God – Britain 1914 to 1919 (2019). Heffer became a professorial research fellow at the University of Buckingham in 2017. Hillsborough comments Heffer said in 2012 that he wrote the first draft of a Spectator editorial in 2004 regarding the death of Kenneth Bigley, which said in part: These comments (sometimes incorrectly attributed to the then-editor of the Spectator, Boris Johnson) were widely circulated following the April 2016 verdict by the Hillsborough inquest's second hearing proving unlawful killing of the 96 dead at Hillsborough. Johnson apologised at the time of the publication, saying: "That was a lie that unfortunately and very, very regrettably got picked up in a leader in the Spectator in 2004, which I was then editing." Politics Heffer was politically left-wing in his teenage years, but had abandoned his views by the time he went to university, although he states he still has a lingering respect and affection for several past figures of the left, such as Michael Foot and Tony Benn. Heffer is a social conservative, though in a recent interview he described himself as a Gladstonian Liberal. He supported the retention of Section 28, opposed the equalisation of the age of consent and the liberalisation of laws on abortion and divorce. He opposed the removal of hereditary peers from the House of Lords in 1999. Heffer believes that Christianity should have a strong role in shaping both the moral foundation of society and public policy, but he is personally an atheist. In 2008, Heffer called for the United Nations to be strengthened: "If the UN ceases to be regarded by the larger powers as an institution to secure the peace of the world and justice therein, then that holds out all sorts of potential dangers." On 27 May 2009, Heffer threatened to stand as an independent against Sir Alan Haselhurst, his local Conservative MP and a deputy speaker, unless Haselhurst paid back the £12,000 he claimed for work on his garden, as revealed in the Parliamentary expenses scandal. A month later, Haselhurst announced that he would pay the £12,000 back, while insisting it had been claimed within the rules. In 2010, Heffer criticised the then Prime Minister, David