The January 6 hearings are partisan political theatre
Is it possible to hold two ideas in our heads at once? If so, I should like to put forward…
A win for the film critics of Bradford
As a general rule, you should never talk about a film you haven’t seen. But The Lady of Heaven is…
Not all masculinity is ‘toxic’
Anyone who has passed through an education in thepast decade will have encountered the term ‘toxic masculinity’. It is one…
Monkeypox, Covid and the trouble with our species
I hate to be one of those columnists who says ‘I told you so’. But I told you so. Looking…
The dishonesty of how we respond to tragedies
It isn’t hard to notice that some crimes are more important than others. Or at least more politically advantageous. It…
Why silly scandals suit our politicians
I wonder if we will ever be able to resist fixing the suffix ‘gate’ to the end of any not-yet-sufficiently-salacious…
What America gets right about the abortion debate
There are two things non-Americans can almost never understand about America and should probably never speak about. The first is…
Fractured: can the West fix itself?
So why be ashamed of ourselves?
The art of changing your mind
Some years ago there was a study at Harvard that tried to find out what people did when they held…
I feel sorry for Rishi Sunak
Perhaps I should stress from the get-go that I do not know Rishi Sunak. So far as I know, we’ve…
How to lose an election
I have remarked here before about our era’s tendency to accept election results if your side wins but to reject…
How should Prince William respond to questions about slavery?
It is uncanny how swiftly British culture imitates the worst of American culture. Take Whoopi Goldberg, who distinguished herself again…
The day I nearly brought RT down
It is interesting to watch Ofcom finally remove the broadcasting licence from the Russian propaganda channel Russia Today (RT). I…
The West has rediscovered its purpose
Over recent days I have been reflecting on War and Peace. Or Special Operation and Peace as it must now…
Why C.S. Lewis was right about war
Well, at least Covid is over. No sooner had Vladimir Putin’s tanks rolled into Ukraine than the UK’s Covid advisory…
What the right gets wrong about Putin
A fracture on the international right may seem small fry given everything that is going on right now. But it…
The tyranny of Trudeau
Early in the corona era the historian David Starkey gave some thoughts on Covid. ‘We’ve got a Chinese virus,’ he…
Work is no place for your ‘whole self’
One of the few things I have learned in this life is that Dante Alighieri was wrong. In the Inferno…
In defence of bad jokes
I was once at a terrific Shabbat dinner where late in the evening one of the other guests suddenly said:…
Is our Ukrainian ambassador OK?
I know the following sentence is going to get me into trouble. Still, there are times when you wonder whether…
This government’s greatest failure is economic
‘The main job of a government is to ensure that the economics don’t go wrong.’ So argued an economist friend…
‘Operation Red Meat’ won’t beef up the government
Are you ready for ‘Operation Red Meat’? If not, then you should brace yourself. For it looks set to be…
I tempted fate – and got Covid
Well, I did warn you. As I typed my column last week on the imminent end of Covid I said…
I’m calling it – Covid is over
If anyone had any doubts about the wisdom of tempting fate then they probably haven’t considered the case of Betty…
Our growing unwillingness to understand the past
I was recently reading the works of the 17th-century antiquary John Aubrey, who at one point mentions a ghost craze…
