How I learned to love audio books
According to a charity called Fight For Sight, 38 per cent of people who’ve been using screens more during lockdown…
The conservative appeal of drug gangs
According to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick, the easing of lock-down will be accompanied by a rise in crime…
The secret code of the ruling class
I naively hoped that last year’s statement by the Equalities Minister explaining why unconscious bias training was being phased out…
My advice for the next ‘free speech champion’
I was delighted to hear the government plans to appoint a ‘free speech champion’ to the board of the Office…
Abstinence makes the heart grow fonder
The wine has been flowing in the Young household this week. The reason I’ve been celebrating is because I managed…
What more do I have to do to get a peerage?
Watching Lord Hannan of Kingsclere being introduced in the House of Lords on Monday was a bittersweet moment. On the…
Quarantine heralds the death of Mid-Atlantic Man
As an ambitious journalist making my way in Fleet Street, I dreamed of becoming a Mid-Atlantic Man. Tom Wolfe came…
Farewell to my dear friend Richard, the very best of us
I heard the shocking news last week that one of my oldest friends — Richard Edwards — had died suddenly…
Meal kits are a recipe for mayhem
Caroline was pretty heroic during the first lockdown. She’s used to having no children to deal with between the hours…
A dog is not just for lockdown
The Dogs Trust charity received 114 calls on 27 and 28 December from people wanting to offload their puppies. No,…
The unlikely Schindler who saved my wife’s family
As I gaze at my four children on Christmas morning, clambering on to the bed with their stockings, I will…
Am I a cuck?
‘You’re a cuck, Tobes, an absolute cuck.’ My friend James Delingpole was furious. ‘Honestly, I thought I could depend on…
Can £3,000 make me as pretty as Emily Maitlis?
If you’re a journalist with a fondness for appearing on television — and, let’s face it, most of us are…
The battle for Eton’s soul
When trying to get my head around the row that has engulfed Eton College in the past two weeks I…
My kids think my move into the garden shed means divorce
I’ve moved out of my home. No, Caroline and I haven’t broken up. It’s just that we’re having the house…
The dangers of censoring anti-vaxxers
Earlier this week, the Labour party wrote to the government urging it to bring forward legislation so that social media…
Will my kids report me for hate speech?
When Humza Yousaf, the SNP’s cabinet secretary for justice, announced that his new Hate Crime Bill would remove the ‘dwelling…
What I’ll miss most in Lockdown II
A second lockdown won’t cause me much suffering. I don’t have a shop selling ‘non-essential’ goods (e.g. books) that will…
There’s nothing neutral about Wikipedia
A couple of weeks ago Newsweek ran an article attacking Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, for engaging in a…
Why are the devolved nations so ungrateful?
One of the things I hadn’t anticipated about the pandemic is that it would turn me into an English nationalist.…
The paranoid style in left-wing politics
Did Donald Trump fake his battle with coronavirus to boost his standing in the polls? No, obviously not. He spent…
Why can’t we talk about the Great Barrington Declaration?
You probably haven’t heard of the Great Barrington Declaration. This is a petition started by three scientists on 4 October…
Boris Johnson’s human shield
At a Conservative party conference fringe event last Sunday, Lord Bethell, a health minister, was asked where he thought Britain…
Laurence Fox is a political force to be reckoned with
From the moment I started criticising the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis people have been urging me to start…
The creep of internet censorship
Kristie Higgs, a 44-year-old school assistant, didn’t realise that criticising the sex education curriculum at her son’s school on Facebook…
