Philip Patrick

Jeremy Clarkson’s time has come

20 November 2024 11:43 pm

It’s a reasonable bet that if Jeremy Clarkson stood for prime minister tomorrow, he’d win by a country mile. Some…

Gary Lineker’s opinions were never welcome at the BBC

12 November 2024 5:36 pm

Having thought it was all over, several times, it is now – for Gary Linker as presenter of Match of the…

Kamala Harris and the death of the celebrity endorsement

8 November 2024 5:00 pm

Poor old Bruce Springsteen. The legendary rocker bet the farm on an endorsement of Kamala Harris and may well have…

Japan could soon lose one of its best assets

29 October 2024 2:56 am

What now? This is the question on everyone’s lips here in Tokyo after a dramatic general election which looks to…

Newcastle, Saudi Arabia and desperate decline of English football

22 October 2024 4:30 pm

Is a major scandal over the sale of Newcastle United to a consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund…

A day of violence in Tokyo

20 October 2024 12:14 am

It has been an alarming day in Tokyo as political terror returned to the streets of the capital. A man was arrested for throwing…

Does it matter that Thomas Tuchel isn’t English?

16 October 2024 9:32 pm

Thomas Tuchel has been confirmed as the next manager of the England national football team, to take over from the…

Wimbledon won’t be the same without line judges

10 October 2024 8:28 pm

It will soon be the end of an era at Wimbledon. From 2025, the All England Club has announced that…

Japan’s next prime minister is a bit of a maverick

27 September 2024 9:02 pm

The 67-year-old Shigeru Ishiba will become Japan’s new prime minister on 1 October after winning a surprisingly exciting play-off vote…

The tragic cost of Japan’s floods

23 September 2024 11:41 pm

Yet another natural disaster has struck in Japan as floods and landslides in the Noto peninsula, precipitated by ‘unprecedented’ rainfall,…

The trouble with the Champions League

17 September 2024 4:00 pm

The revamped Champions League kicks off this week with all the gushing hyperbole we have come to expect from this…

Hot springs have doomed Japan’s net zero ambitions

10 September 2024 4:00 pm

Most people know that Japan is a country cursed with considerable seismic activity; frequent, and very occasionally devastating, earthquakes and…

Why won’t the England manager sing the national anthem?

7 September 2024 10:42 pm

England’s interim manager Lee Carsley has intimated that he will not be singing the national anthem as his team takes…

Why are Britain’s diplomats virtue-signalling to South Korea?

3 September 2024 2:22 am

An important international conference will take place this week in South Korea, focused on the peninsula’s security concerns. The UK…

Scottish Nats still haven’t worked out why they lost

2 September 2024 4:01 pm

Unlike a slightly more high-profile reunion event, the ticketing website for the Scottish referendum tenth anniversary show is not expected to crash.…

Shanshan may be the strongest typhoon in Japanese history

30 August 2024 6:54 pm

The Japanese are battening down the hatches – again – as typhoon Shanshan wreaks devastation to the south-west of the country, with…

The allure and terror of Mount Fuji

25 August 2024 4:00 pm

Six men have died on Japan’s iconic Mount Fuji since the start of the climbing season in July. This figure,…

Japan just can’t find the staff

20 August 2024 6:40 pm

‘Kanko kankai’ (tourism pollution) is the latest buzz phrase here in Japan as the double-edged samurai sword of the visitor…

How scandal brought down yet another Japanese leader

14 August 2024 10:15 pm

Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida has announced he will be stepping down as leader of the Liberal Democratic party next month. This…

Nagasaki shouldn’t have snubbed Israel from its A-bomb ceremony

10 August 2024 3:37 am

Nagasaki’s Peace Park held a ceremony today to mark the 79th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on…

Japan’s volatile stock market is causing panic

6 August 2024 10:30 pm

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index registered its biggest ever daily fall on Monday, plummeting by over 12 per cent and continuing…

Japan is running out of rice

4 August 2024 5:00 pm

Japan is running out of rice. Stocks have fallen to their lowest levels in decades, prompting fears that emergency reserves…

What’s the problem with playing Premier League football in the US?

29 July 2024 3:00 pm

Sadiq Khan has suggested that the long rumoured prospect of Premier League fixtures being played in the United States is…

Why the punishment fits the ‘crime’ for Japan’s smoking gymnast

22 July 2024 9:14 pm

Japan’s Olympics have got off to the worst possible start. The captain of their women’s gymnastics team Shoko Miyata has…

Should the BBC be mocking Ronaldo’s tears?

3 July 2024 12:28 am

Portugal squeezed through to the Euros quarter finals last night after a penalty shoot-out victory against plucky Slovenia. Or perhaps…