The Byrds without the drugs: Teenage Fanclub's Endless Arcade reviewed
Grade: B– Advancing age has smoothed the edges of Bellshill’s finest lads, once — back in the early 1990s —…
Why I spoilt my ballot paper
The headline ‘Government to allow people to hug’ one might have expected to hear on early evening news bulletins in…
Who is more upset about Labour's results: Starmer or the BBC?
It’s not just the Labour Party which is institutionally incapable of understanding why the Conservative Party kicked the hell out…
The problem with Britain’s mental health
Experts tell us that we are facing a mental health ‘time bomb’ in the UK, partly as a consequence of…
Tom Jones is as nuanced a vocalist as Ian Paisley
Grade: C Revisionism has been extraordinarily kind to Tom Jones, ever since he barked his way through Prince’s ‘Kiss’ with…
Football’s billionaires will always win
Who’s afraid of capitalism and football?
Demi Lovato makes Taylor Swift resemble Dostoevsky
Grade: Z If you wish to experience the full hideousness of Now, of our current age, condensed into one awful…
How I’ll remember Shirley Williams
Shortly after the news of Prince Philip’s death was announced by Buckingham Palace, a woman called Karen Geier tweeted the…
The dilemma of vaccination
We have a government which is basically libertarian in its instincts, despite its current affection for telling us what we…
Why will nobody publish my religious cartoons?
I am having very little success in getting my collection of cartoons of great religious founders published. Perhaps it is…
My eight ‘good reasons’ for leaving the country
We commemorated one year of lockdown by sacrificing a goat to the Highly Revered Virus Deity on a hastily assembled…
The politicisation of Sarah Everard’s death
A woman called Jenny Jones, now elevated to Baroness Moonbeam, or something, in the House of Lords has proposed a…
‘My’ truth about Meghan and Harry
Caroline Rose Giuliani, the daughter of the former mayor of New York, Rudy, has been talking to the press about…
The real reasons children are going hungry
‘We’re idiots, babe, it’s a wonder we can even feed ourselves.’ I listened to The Food Programme on Radio 4…
In defence of Piers Morgan
The Liberal Democrat party’s foreign affairs spokesgoblin, Velma from Scooby-Doo — or ‘Layla Moran’ as she is known to close…
Where will vaccine passports take us?
Desperate to find someone to commemorate with a statue for having done great things, but who isn’t a white male,…
Facts are now history
Your quiz for the week is to make the connection between the following people: fun-loving Greek hack Homer, veteran US…
What if Covid had struck in the 1970s?
We have reached Covid-19’s first anniversary in the UK — and I really think we should do something fitting to…
A criminally underrated songwriter: Matthew Sweet’s Catspaw reviewed
Grade: A– The early 1990s were a lovely time for rock music: Beck, Sparklehorse, Sugar, Green on Red and Royal…
The big tech bullies
I was in the kitchen preparing the family’s dinner when the inauguration of Joe Biden was on TV, so I…
What makes us think they’ll release lockdown after vaccines?
Has the coup happened yet? You have the advantage over me. It was supposed to have taken place on Sunday.…
As pretty as anything he’s written in four decades: McCartney III reviewed
Grade: A- The greatest songwriter of the 20th century, or just one of the top two or three? Who…
Who volunteers to be lectured by children?
The screenwriter Russell T. Davies has said that only gay actors should be cast in gay parts, believing this leads…
The age of de-enlightenment
Depictions of Thomas Carlyle and David Hume in the Scottish Portrait Gallery will be altered to make it clear they…
This has been the year of epic derangement
I wonder if British universities will follow Cornell’s innovative approach to ensuring students are protected from wretched viruses? The American…
