How Nextdoor became the new Neighbourhood Watch
Long before the official numbers began to rise, back in 2014, it was clear that knife crime was on the…
The bogus business of stigma-busting
Our society is bristling with social stigmas, we’re told, even in the progressive West, even in London. Life is so…
The word ‘mother’ isn’t offensive. The Catholic church should say so
I’m used to waiting for the Catholic church to make sense. I’m a convert to Catholicism, and Catholic ideas sometimes…
Apple’s cowardly surrender to the mob
A few weeks ago, more than 2,000 employees of Apple Inc. signed a petition that led to the sacking of…
The Proustian power of handwriting
Towards the end of April, my mum sent me a letter. She doesn’t write as a rule — we speak…
‘This was a horrible pandemic – but it wasn’t the big one’: Michael Lewis interviewed
Michael Lewis on the scientists who saw Covid coming – and were ignored
The islanders who met their god – Prince Philip
Some time around 2006 my then flatmate, a filmmaker, had a good idea: why not make a programme of reverse…
Our mental health is going up in smoke
As we creep back into the open, as the Covid wards empty and the mental health clinics fill up, how…
In defence of Flannery O’Connor
I have a thought for the students of Loyola University in Baltimore, Maryland: this Easter, why not resurrect Flannery O’Connor?…
The ‘long Covid’ time bomb: an interview with Tim Spector
Britain’s leading epidemiologist on the ticking time bomb of long Covid
The war on cars is backfiring
For most London-based politicians, there’s a threat that’s worse than Covid. You’ll begin to notice it as we ease out…
The case for immunity passports
For more than 20 years, I’ve been raging away at pointless rules. When my blood’s up, there’s not a foam-flecked…
The importance of daydreams
I miss daydreaming. It’s a small problem to have in a pandemic, but it nags at me. Laptop, cooker, home-school,…
How cults crumble
There’s something creepy about the way we call Donald Trump fans a cult, then watch them hungrily, hoping they’ll do…
Why Merlina, the Tower of London raven, was so remarkable
Merlin (or Merlina), the cleverest and most sociable of the Tower of London ravens is missing. It’s a bad omen…
Why can’t Justin Welby praise a Tory?
Justin Welby is having a holiday and people are unhappy about it. He plans, in May, to take a three-month…
Bring back Westminster Abbey’s bells
It took me several weeks, after returning to the Spectator office, to work out what was missing. It wasn’t the…
The dark side of ‘cute’ culture
I have become allergic to ‘cute’, bad-tempered biddy that I am. Cuteness and the requirement to be cute have spread…
The dismal rise of the modern elopement
I didn’t realise how attached I was to the traditional British wedding — the whole messy, pricey, drunken business —…
How the Catholic church betrayed the dying
Of all the sad and surreal things to happen in the past few months, the Catholic church’s decision to abandon…
The pandemic’s invisible victims
I sometimes pick up some food at Tesco for an 86-year-old pensioner who lives a few streets over. At the…
Are you a lockdown eel or a pygmy goat?
I identify strongly with the garden eels in the Tokyo aquarium. Pre-corona, they were perfectly sociable. Come opening hour, when…
Getting coronavirus does not bring clarity
I had thought that actually getting the coronavirus would bring clarity — that there would be some satisfaction in meeting…
The world of make-believe is stranger than we realise
Last summer, in the bc era, I took my then three-year-old to a new group play session: ‘Lottie’s Magic Box.’…
Why did no one believe Johnny Depp?
When it was first reported that Johnny Depp had been hit and pelted with crockery by his slight, blonde then…
