The anxiety-inducing world of wellness tech
I first came across the Zoe programme when a bright yellow package arrived on my parents’ doorstep last year. My…
How to find out what organisations are saying about you
Every time I have a protracted ding-dong with a big organisation, I put in a request under data protection law…
My night with the paedo hunters
It’s a Wednesday evening, and I’m getting psyched up to go catch a paedophile with the boys. Playlist on, rocking…
The wonder of wine from the Mosel
Conservatives used to be good at inspiring a mass membership, underpinned by organisations. Before the first world war, the Primrose…
Easy-on-the-eye tosh: Netflix’s The Perfect Couple reviewed
The Perfect Couple is an exemplar of that genre sometimes cynically known as ‘poverty programming’: dramas that train all of…
When is anyone going to properly appreciate what critics have to go through?
The Critic is a period drama starring Ian McKellen as a newspaper theatre critic famed for his savagery and it…
How to roll the perfect cigarette
I recently estimated that, in my smoking life so far and at the age of 29, I have rolled 87,600…
Why I believe Lucy Letby’s trial was unfair
Even Horace Rumpole could not have secured an acquittal for Lucy Letby. The more I look at this case, the…
The lessons of Grenfell
We have been told that committees will meet, urgent discussions will be held, the guilty will be punished, and steps…
The rise of soapy, dead-safe drama: The Band Back Together reviewed
The Band Back Together is a newish play, written and directed by Barney Norris, which succeeds wildly on its own…
My teenage Interrailing adventures
Dante’s Beach, Ravenna In my life I have nearly killed myself mainly with cigarettes and alcohol and dangerous journeys into…
Are you a hotel buffet bandit?
Last week, on a Swedish train somewhere between Linkoping and Mjolby, as I struggled to open a bag of cheesy…
The C of E’s raving madness
In February there was a commotion at Canterbury Cathedral. Or, to be more precise, there was a silent commotion. The…
The BBC’s strange silence
In the long and illustrious history of race chancing, there must have been many more egregious examples than that of…
Will the toughest problem in maths ever be solved?
For many, not just mathematicians, the Riemann hypothesis is the very definition of a supremely difficult problem that might be…
There’s still everything to play for in America’s election
The first presidential debate of 2024 changed history by killing off Joe Biden’s career. The second presidential debate was nowhere…
Why are Chinese students giving up on architecture?
I recently convened an urban studies summer school in a top university in Shanghai and asked the assembled class of…
Is Gordon Brown back?
Last week, there was a surprise visitor to the Treasury: Gordon Brown. The former prime minister and chancellor secretly returned…
Rachel Reeves is right to cut the winter fuel payment
Gordon Brown introduced the winter fuel payment shortly after becoming Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1997, following his party’s landslide…
A new chapter for The Spectator
For the past year or so, I’ve been involved in selling The Spectator as well as editing it. A long…
Portrait of the week: State pension to rise, prisoners released early and a new owner for The Spectator
Home The government won by 348 to 228 a Commons vote on limiting the winter fuel allowance for pensioners to those…
How to manage migration like the Swedish
In the end, the German state of Thuringia did not fall into the hands of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland…
