What Darcy the demented sheepdog taught me about life
I met the late Darcy ten years ago, and wrote about him. I was 59 and he was 12. I…
The cuddly new John McDonnell is more dangerous than Corbyn
‘Wherever Sir Stafford Cripps has tried to increase wealth and happiness,’ wrote the Conservative Scottish journalist Colm Brogan, ‘grass never…
Must ‘the will of the people’ always be respected?
I’ve always respected Alistair Darling and cannot imagine him saying anything ill-considered. But listening to him interviewed last Monday on…
Jeremy Corbyn’s bumbling has silenced legitimate criticism of Israel
If I were Benjamin Netanyahu (and I’m not) I would be thanking whatever gods there be for sending me, at…
Obsessed with politics? Then your life is going seriously wrong
Timeless in its wisdom, the book Parkinson’s Law is of course famous for Parkinson’s law itself: that ‘work expands to…
Ukip should return – our politics depends on it
‘The return of Ukip’ declared the headline on our cover story last week. The polling boffin Matthew Goodwin to whose…
Brexit is in chaos. It’s time to delay it – then stop it
Omissions can be as instructive as inclusions. I noted a curious example in a column Nick Timothy wrote last month…
The term ‘marriage’ needs to be untangled
Rebecca Steinfeld (37) and Charles Keidan (41) have a moral objection to marriage. They’ve been together since 2010, have two…
How does anyone manage to navigate the maze of our second-rate NHS?
Next month the National Health Service turns 70. The institution is greatly loved, and not for nothing. The fear of…
Sweet sorrow: the only grief we mention is that with comfort buried inside it
It was the phrase ‘sad sweet feeling in your heart’ that arrested my attention. But who would have thought it…
Is ‘woman’ now an offensive word?
I do not know whether the Speaker of the House of Commons called the present Leader of the House a…
I suspect that Brexit is driving me mad – but I will not shut up
Rosé wine is, I know, considered naff. Were you unaware of this you’d fast conclude as much from the incidence…
They say Enoch Powell had a fine mind. I’m not so sure
Enoch Powell has been in many minds this month. It’s the 50th anniversary of his famous ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech…
I can never resist a trip to the rubbish dump
I was back at the tip on Sunday. I cannot help it. What art galleries or rock concerts or online…
All was calm at the elephant safari camp. Then the river began to roar…
When Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s deputy, ejected from the aeroplane he was flying solo to Scotland, he parachuted to the ground…
To those with a taste for desolation, Lake Turkana may be the most beautiful place on Earth
As I write, a great gale is blowing in from Lake Turkana. The dry hills on the other side, always…
It’s not all Twitter mobs – the internet can be a force for good
Few readerships of any intelligent national magazine will be more alive to the perils and downsides of 21st–century cyber-life than…
I miss Auberon Waugh. He’d know what to say about relentless women’s issues
Every now and then one suddenly misses somebody. I miss Bron, who died 17 years ago last month. There’s an…
There is no housing crisis. It would be easier if there were
Britain does not have a housing shortage. We have a problem with the cost not the availability of homes. This…
Nigel Farage is wrong: the French are doing us a big favour in Calais
Last week Nigel Farage described the deal we’ve done with France over the refugee camp near Calais as a ‘humiliating…
Victims of crime should not decide justice
Hard cases make bad law. The release on parole of the ‘black cab rapist’, John Worboys, is a hard case.…
Leave Brexit alone and get on with governing
I return often to Cambridge and was there recently. Julian Glover, my partner, was talking to the History Society at…
How I learned to stop worrying and love the monarchy
Prince Harry does not exist and soon Meghan Markle will cease to exist too. None of the royal family exist.…
The era when you could love a car is over
There are four of us in this relationship: my partner and I, his horse and my truck. His horse is…
The Westminster sex scandal is what psychologists call ‘displacement activity’
There are three reasons why Britain’s political and media world finds itself in the present ludicrous uproar over sexual misbehaviour…
