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…
Does Kamala Harris deserve to be vice president?
Is it rude to refer to the Vice President of the USA as the world’s most famous diversity hire? Possibly.…
'The type of person who makes the world work': remembering Anthony Smith
I’m not sure how many readers know the name of Anthony Smith, who died on Sunday aged 83, but a…
The American identity crisis
There was no reason for the world ever to hear the name Kyle Rittenhouse. Except that in the summer of…
MPs aren’t the elite – faceless bureaucrats are
I see that the most boring conversation in the nation is back. The one even worse than people in the…
What if Clinton had come clean?
What if Bill Clinton had told the truth? Would America’s sexual and political history be different? The thought occurs because…
Britain’s fatal unwillingness to confront Islamic extremism
Britain’s fatal unwillingness to confront Islamic extremism
The pandemic has made cynics of us all
A report by MPs into the spread of the coronavirus has concluded that the government’s approach constituted one of this…
The tactics of victimhood
Late last week the Labour deputy leader was the subject of a glowing profile in the Times. The piece described…
Where has the truth gone?
There were two remarkable things about Emma Raducanu’s wonderful win at the US open last week. The first was the…
America, the Taliban and a farewell to arms
It was quite the handover at Kabul airport this week. The last American troops to exit Afghanistan reportedly left facing…
The flaw at the heart of humanitarian intervention
One of the most interesting aspects of President Biden’s speech on the American withdrawal from Afghanistan is that it shows…
The path to re-enchantment
Most social occasions now seem to kick off with a wasted hour or two. The time is spent discussing Covid:…
Turning the tide: how to deal with Britain’s new migrant crisis
How Britain can stem the stream of illegal arrivals
The 2020s will be boring, not roaring
Earlier this year, I noted the suggestion (made by an American academic and run with by a swathe of the…
Oli London and the trickiness of being ‘trans-racial’
Not everyone will have heard of Oli London, a British social media influencer who made news for two reasons last…
Why we don’t always say what we see
The official review into the Manchester Arena bombing was published this week. Four years after 22 mainly young people were…
Cambridge deserves better than Stephen Toope
Regular readers may be aware that in recent months I have been having a running-spat with a Canadian lawyer called…
The polarising power of plague
Now that the government has kindly allowed us to go out again, I wonder if anyone has discovered the same…
When exactly did harpsichords become racist?
It’s a dangerous thing when you import the worst aspects of another culture. And an even worse thing when you…
Why do parts of Britain erupt whenever Israel defends itself?
There has been a huge amount of comment in recent days on the latest round of exchanges between Israel and…
The wrath of Nicola Sturgeon
I can’t seem to find the Oracle of Delphi’s complete works. The libraries remain shut and when I go to…
Carrie Symonds and the First Girlfriend problem
One of the least attractive aspects of American politics is epitomised in the ‘Office of the First Lady’. The office…
