Coffee House
Will Afghanistan fall to the Taleban?
A last-ditch effort to broker peace in Afghanistan will be made in the Qatari capital of Doha this weekend. A…
A salt and sugar tax doesn’t make much sense
What is the point of the National Food Strategy? When Henry Dimbleby was hired as Britain’s ‘food tsar’ several years…
Cancelling To Kill a Mockingbird is a step too far
It often feels like we’re living through the revenge of the talentless. Cancel culture is essentially a war of no-marks…
Oxford, 'sensitivity readers' and the trouble with safe spaces
The list of things that students must apparently be protected from grows longer every day. Controversial speakers, rude comedians, sombreros…
Is the EU breaching its UK treaty by failing to protect LGBT rights?
Has the EU Commission lost any sense of moral value? This week, Hungary, an EU member state, voted to impose…
Dominic Cummings still needs to back up his allegations
When Dominic Cummings, the Prime Minister’s former chief advisor, gave evidence to the Covid-19 ‘lessons learned’ joint select committee last…
Putin and Biden need one another
Does Joe Biden think that Putin is a killer? asked ABC host George Stephanopoulos. ‘Mmm-hmm, I do,’ answered the President.…
The collapse of the Brexit scare stories
The collapse in UK-EU trade after 1 January was widely reported. What has not been reported nearly as much is…
The two elites squeezing the life out of football
So, all of a sudden the chattering classes care about football fans? Yesterday, the kind of people who usually wring…
Boris scraps daily White House-style briefings
Boris Johnson has axed plans for televised White House-style press conferences. The announcement came six months after Allegra Stratton was unveiled…
The music at the heart of the Duke's funeral
Every detail of today’s funeral of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, is likely to be pored over in the days…
Is Welsh devo-scepticism beginning to unravel?
Calls to abolish the Welsh parliament are nothing new: Wales rejected devolution in 1979 and voted only by the smallest…
Europe's human rights judges are right not to ban compulsory vaccines
If you think public health authorities in England are overbearing, spare a thought for the Czechs. Parents who fail to…
Will Lindsay get his chariot back?
As Speaker, John Bercow could never be accused of underselling his position. During his tenure the diminutive parliamentarian attracted criticism…
Why the UK shouldn’t engage in vaccine nationalism
There is a big, big hole in Ursula von der Leyen’s strategy of threatening to ban exports of the Pfizer…
What would a conversion therapy ban mean for gay Christians like me?
As a gay Christian, I’m worried about the calls to ban ‘gay conversion therapy’. Of course, it’s right that gay…
The danger of mocking Nigel Farage
He’s gone. Again. Even casual watchers of UK politics will be used to Nigel Farage quitting…and then returning.But this time,…
Are loyalists plotting a return to violence?
What are we to make of Loyalist paramilitary groups withdrawing support for the Good Friday Agreement over the invidious trade…
Why does this activist think a white person can't translate Amanda Gorman?
She is the darling of the nation, the star of the inauguration, the first US National Youth Poet Laureate: she…
Ian Blackford and the hounding of Charles Kennedy
BBC Alba, Scotland’s Gaelic language channel, is not normally required viewing for the political classes. This week, however, Lib Dems…
Watch: Boris on the problem with journalists
What’s the phrase? Poacher turned gamekeeper? Boris Johnson was once the arch poacher — a journalist at the Telegraph before taking on the editorship…
The SNP's transphobia muddle
For a party so devoted to trans rights, it seems strange that the SNP is less than forthcoming over its…
What Starmer can learn from Miliband's mug
Since becoming Labour leader, Keir Starmer has single-mindedly been trying to persuade red wall voters that Labour is ‘patriotic’, just like…
How did an enigma like Theresa May become PM?
Theresa May is not the easiest person to speak to in Westminster. She is reluctant to get drawn into a…
Why are so many health workers turning down the vaccine?
On Saturday the government hit its target of administering a first vaccine dose to 15 million of the highest-risk groups…
