Peter Jones

The privations of Diogenes

29 October 2022 9:00 am

Nine exceedingly passive ‘activists’ glued themselves to the floor of a Volkswagen factory in Germany and complained about being humiliated,…

Liz Truss and the art of rhetoric

22 October 2022 9:00 am

Liz Truss was spot-on in arguing that the only way in which a state can flourish is by combining low…

How would the Romans have defined Meghan Markle?

15 October 2022 9:00 am

Meghan Markle has been urging women to define themselves as they see fit, with ‘your full, complete, whole-layered, sometimes weird,…

A lesson for Rupa Huq from the ancient Greeks

8 October 2022 9:00 am

The Labour MP Rupa Huq, of Pakistani heritage, has been suspended for suggesting that Kwasi Kwarteng, of Ghanaian heritage, was…

Peta, Lysistrata and the comedy of a sex strike

1 October 2022 9:00 am

The German branch of the ‘green’ organisation Peta (‘People for the ethical treatment of animals’) is demanding that, until men…

The police have learned to treat republican protests the Roman way

24 September 2022 9:00 am

Public dissent, from riots to republicans objecting to homage to the Queen, is dealt with by the police, a force…

Augustus and a lesson in self-publicity

17 September 2022 9:00 am

The death of Her Majesty raises the question of a commemoration of her extraordinary years of service. Augustus ruled the…

Does Cincinnatus have anything in common with Boris?

10 September 2022 9:00 am

On retiring from office, Boris Johnson described himself as a sort of Cincinnatus, returning to his plough. This famous story…

The Roman roots of Tony Blair’s approach to education

3 September 2022 9:00 am

Sir Tony Blair’s Tone-deaf suggestion that Stem subjects should dominate the curriculum of all schools would paradoxically take education back…

How the ancients treated gout

27 August 2022 9:00 am

Medical problems come and go in the media, and at the moment the flavour of the month appears to be…

What Truss and Sunak could learn from Cicero

20 August 2022 9:00 am

As Miss Truss and Mr Sunak spray policies around on a range of topics which they hope will appeal to…

The ancient problem of the man who threw away £150m in bitcoin

13 August 2022 9:00 am

James Howells has spent years trying to persuade Newport council to allow him to spend millions digging up a rubbish…

Do we need a Roman-style Water Czar?

6 August 2022 9:00 am

It is clear that the country will soon need a Water Czar. Augustus’s right-hand man Agrippa would be the one…

The unflattering truth about the battle for No. 10

30 July 2022 9:00 am

The battle to be PM raises the question: in a functioning democracy, how should arguments be won? Surely, by persuasion.…

The Roman roots of ‘colony’

16 July 2022 9:00 am

The word ‘colony’ meets with a sharp intake of breath these days, but ‘province’ raises no eyebrows. How very odd.…

The ancient Greek art of theatre criticism

2 July 2022 9:00 am

Last week Lloyd Evans was wondering whether it was about time audiences started booing dramatic productions of which they disapproved.…

The ancient art of love spells

25 June 2022 9:00 am

An Oxford don has raised the prospect of producing a cocktail of hormone pills that would help you to fall…

How the Romans dealt with mutineers

18 June 2022 9:00 am

The RMT union is threatening strikes to bring the country to a halt. Such activities have a long history in…

The true birth of communism

11 June 2022 9:00 am

Nostalgia wars are all the rage at the moment, but an extraordinary example appears to have been missed: a hammer…

30,000 gallons of wine, 2,000 golden bulls and a three-month party: how the ancients celebrated

4 June 2022 9:00 am

The ancients certainly knew how to put on a celebration. Let us hope the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee comes up to…

Putin is repeating Emperor Vitellius’s mistakes

28 May 2022 9:00 am

Given Putin’s less than triumphant operation in Chechnya, where the Russian army suffered catastrophic losses, it is hardly surprising that…

The ancient Greek ship that was too big for any harbour

21 May 2022 9:00 am

The biggest cruise ship yet builthas just been launched, but in like-for-like terms, it comes nowhere near the Syracusia,built c.…

Putin’s emperor complex

14 May 2022 9:00 am

Did Vladimir Putin ever use his infamous ‘historical’ account of Russia-Ukraine relations to consider how Ukrainians might react to his…