The myth of intersectional politics
A few years ago I mentioned the profusion of moaning women on BBC Radio 4, after a longish car journey…
The trouble with teachers
A teacher once told me that he couldn’t stand Pakistanis ‘because of the smell’. I was 13 at the time…
The judgment of Carla Foster
‘No one has the right to judge you’ was one of the last posts made on Facebook by Staffordshire ‘mum’…
What terfs get wrong
The recreational use of psychedelic drugs, such as LSD or peyote, declined with some rapidity from the 1980s onwards as…
My northern honours list
Exciting news arrives. The Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has let it be known that he wants more northerners nominated for…
Welcome to the theatre of the absurd
Iam on the horns of a dilemma, I am in a moral quandary. I had intended to spend this morning…
My verdict on Eurovision
I had the sudden suspicion, at about ten o’clock on Saturday night, that I was the only straight male in…
Who gets to decide what is ‘harmful’?
Three years ago this week marked my first misgivings about the government’s Covid lockdown. Sure, I was late to that…
What King Charles gets wrong
Marooned in London for a day between meetings, I walked for miles in an attempt to find something good to…
I’ve missed you, Diane Abbott
I thought I had forgotten about Diane Abbott, but in fact there has been a Diane-sized hole in my life…
I shed a tear for the SNP
For people who take politics seriously and very earnestly, such as myself, the present debacle within the Scottish National party…
The police are a law unto themselves
The journos weren’t very impressed with Nicola Sturgeon’s house. Never mind the plod staring like morons at her barbecue or…
Sanna Marin and the female leadership myth
It is with great sadness that I must report the departure of the world’s only female head of state who…
The rule of lawyers
Have you had your fourth Covid booster jab yet? They are being very quiet about it these days. I used…
Childcare: an inconvenient truth
Wyndham Lewis once said that ‘the ideas of a time are like the clothes of a season’ – but that,…
Why shouldn’t BBC staff express opinions?
There was a kind of peak BBC Radio 4 moment last week when the network put on a play called…
What I make of Sue Gray
I am at a bit of a loss to understand the hoo-ha about the civil servant Sue Gray. She has…
Unmasking the truth about Covid
You want some tomatoes? Come up here, we’re inundated. We’ve got a tomato mountain. That’s because nobody in the north…
Cancel the Vikings
A little late in the day, perhaps, it has been pointed out to the intellectual colossi of South Tyneside Council…
A sense of entitlement
How are you coping during this cost- of-living crisis? Have you made your way to the food bank yet? I…
‘Truth’ is not subjective
Once upon a time, a fox with a large bushy tail and a disingenuous smile changed his name from Reynard…
The Tories’ poisonous culture wars
Aretha Franklin’s 1967 hit ‘(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman’ should be removed from the music streaming network…
