Are we kidding ourselves over Ukraine?
Optimism can be surprisingly hilarious. In my last novel, two spouses agree to quit the planet once they’ve both turned…
Xi, Covid and seasonal schadenfreude
’Tis indeed the season to be jolly. Over the holidays, we can all put our feet up to view a…
What Trump really wants
Over the years, I’ve received my share of green-ink author’s mail. You know, from folks who’ve discovered an exciting variety…
Should the better-off pay more for everything?
Once the energy price cap expires in April, the Chancellor is apparently considering the levy of ‘social tariffs’ on the…
Kamala’s blagging it
We throw around pejoratives such as ‘Idiot!’ a bit too carelessly, because then when we need to flag up genuinely…
Money is rotting
Punters and pundits alike reacted to rising mortgage rates in the wake of Truss’s mini-Budget with indignant horror. Leaving aside…
Should failing students really graduate as doctors?
If I seem to be bashing universities lately, they’ve asked for it. The prestigious New York University in lower Manhattan…
Shame should not be heritable
Vice-chancellor Stephen Toope claims it was ‘inevitable’ that a university ‘as long-established as Cambridge’ would have links to slavery. Now…
Not all Americans are so crass
In the face of American snark about the Queen’s death, many a British newspaper reader was disgusted. With bad tidings…
Why didn’t more people resist lockdown?
Last week’s Spectator interview with Rishi Sunak conveyed the anti-science ‘science’, the paucity of even fag-packet cost-benefit analysis and the…
The shameful truth – terrorism works
This is a bleak version of looking on the bright side, but what’s astonishing about last week’s vicious stabbing in…
Good riddance to the Tavistock
Most push notifications that pop up on my tablet concern impending catastrophe. But last week, one newsflash made my day.…
Why I won’t have a Covid booster
In the news recently, we’ve heard from multiple Britons who’ve lost family members or sacrificed their own health to Covid’s…
The age of the anti-natalists
As of 2023, the novel for which I may still be best known will have been out for 20 years.…
The case for hiking interest rates
Check out these hyperventilating headlines from last week: ‘What the Fed’s largest interest rate hike in decades means for you’…
Does advertising matter?
‘Stop! Don’t fast-forward. I love this advert!’ How often do you say that? Considering that some commercial breaks run to…
Why I was almost thrown out of South Africa
On my 2 p.m. arrival for a week-long work trip to South Africa a fortnight ago, an immigration agent flapped…
My list of Britain’s national character flaws
Before we start, let’s firmly establish my long-standing affection for the United Kingdom. Why, some of my best friends are…
America has betrayed its young
Two articles last weekend made me feel sorry for American young people. We in the anti-woke brigade can be awfully…
A question of bravery
Joe Biden announced in November: ‘Transgender people are some of the bravest Americans I know.’ When Conservative MP Jamie Wallis…
How to avoid heating your house
Spring commonly augers a quickening warmth, but for Britons this year the season coincides with a chilling marker: a 54…
Why are so few Americans willing to defend their country?
For many of us war voyeurs watching the news with a glass of sherry, admiration of the little-engine-that-could Ukrainian fighters…
The return of Actual Badness
In the spring of 2020, I advanced an abnormally hopeful proposition: that one blessing that might arise from a pandemic…
What’s to become of Africa’s teeming youth?
Demographers are attached to their theories. The field’s most enduring is the ‘demographic transition’, whereby modernisation inexorably lowers a society’s…
Our monetary bubble is about to burst
OK, I finally watched Netflix’s Don’t Look Up. Surprisingly, I enjoyed it — especially before its effective subtitle for us…
