The need for greed
I suspect I’ve had a lot more fun writing about the annual Sunday Times Rich List over the years than…
The best bottle to come from the Gigondas
One needs wine more than ever, yet when imbibing, it can be hard to concentrate. So much is going on.…
Anti-Semitism has returned to French politics
New Caledonia is an archipelago in the South Pacific not far from Australia. James Cook discovered it in 1774, but,…
The jaw-dropping story of the British Museum thefts
It’s August 2023 when news breaks that artefacts have gone missing, presumed stolen, from the British Museum. I’m about an…
Admit it – Italian food is rubbish
Every year I’m summoned to a gathering which I strive to avoid. My first cousin, who loves a boozy party,…
Why are doctors blaming my birth for my mother’s tumour?
A curious letter has been sent to my mother blaming the tumour in her neck on my birth. An NHS…
My message for Columbia’s protesting students
There are several frustrating things about American college campuses, just one of which is the sheer volume of column inches…
Olive oil was the key to Roman excellence
Owing to a rise in temperature in southern Europe and a reduction in rainfall, the production of olive oil this…
Why is the government making it harder to get an au pair?
You will have heard, I am sure, of the Conservatives’ recent largesse towards working parents, as their ‘free’ childcare policy…
How dangerous is it to fly by helicopter?
Crime without borders How many nations are signed up to the International Criminal Court? – 124 signed the Rome Statute…
What will Europe look like in the future?
This year, several articles in mainstream papers have sounded the alarm that the global human fertility rate will soon cross…
The real reason Ofcom has gone after GB News
I don’t envy the people who run Ofcom. On the one hand, they’re under enormous political pressure to sanction GB…
BBC1’s new Rebus is the kind of TV detective they just don’t make any more
Imagine a new series of Morse in which the real-ale-quaffing, jag-driving opera buff is turned into a speed-snorting mod on…
Harris Tweed, the miracle fabric
To understand the development of technology, you may be better off studying evolutionary biology rather than, say, computer science. A…
How to quit like the Japanese
Tokyo For many, the idea of quitting a job they hate, of walking into their boss’s office and telling him…
Letters: save our churches!
Free the C of E Sir: Patrick Kidd’s article on the shortcomings of today’s Church of England maintains the importance of the…
The deluge: Rishi Sunak’s election gamble
‘Only a Conservative government, led by me, will not put our hard-earned economic stability at risk,’ said Rishi Sunak as…
Inside Labour’s fight with the unions
By the end of the year, Britain may be one of the few countries in the democratic world where the…
Cyclists are the Jeremy Corbyns of the road
Three years ago next month, the journalist Andy Webb put in a Freedom of Information request to the BBC. He…
Who has the worst voice in parliament?
For the first time in more than two decades we are dog-less, and the house feels horribly empty. Our Patterdale…
Portrait of the Week: Infected blood apologies, falling inflation and XL bully attacks
Home Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, said: ‘I want to make a wholehearted and unequivocal apology’ for a ‘decades-long moral…
