Columns

My messiah complex

8 April 2023 9:00 am

In June 1999, I described on this page jameitos, tiny, blind, albino crabs on the sea bottom in a cave…

Sanna Marin and the female leadership myth

8 April 2023 9:00 am

It is with great sadness that I must report the departure of the world’s only female head of state who…

Why Democrats want Trump

8 April 2023 9:00 am

Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg’s indictment of an even more prominent fat man seems a big win for Donald Trump,…

Is the English countryside racist?

8 April 2023 9:00 am

I don’t know what your plans are for Easter. Mine generally include a nice walk in the English countryside. There…

Why Humza Yousaf is the Union’s best hope

1 April 2023 9:00 am

After the narrow victory of the Brexit campaign in 2016, it was often said that the result would lead to…

The rule of lawyers

1 April 2023 9:00 am

Have you had your fourth Covid booster jab yet? They are being very quiet about it these days. I used…

Beware the AI voice thieves

1 April 2023 9:00 am

After years of blissful indifference, finally I’m scared of AI. I’ve been complacent, slept soundly beside my husband as he…

Our poor deluded MPs

1 April 2023 9:00 am

They say that death and taxes are the only certainties in life. But I would add a couple more things…

Why No. 10 fears Boris’s banishment

25 March 2023 9:00 am

Even now, months after he was forced to resign, Boris Johnson has a potency that no other British politician can…

Childcare: an inconvenient truth

25 March 2023 9:00 am

Wyndham Lewis once said that ‘the ideas of a time are like the clothes of a season’ – but that,…

What I’ve learned from a lifetime of travelling

25 March 2023 9:00 am

In the language of the Mapuche people of Patagonia, futa (I’m told) means ‘river’ and leufú means ‘big’. So Spanish–speaking…

The high price of low interest rates

25 March 2023 9:00 am

You’ll recall that I’ve railed for years against zero interest rates, which transplanted a cancerous marrow into the very bones…

The joke is on America

25 March 2023 9:00 am

I was brought up on Dan Quayle jokes. You know the ones – like the gag that the then vice-president…

Budget 2023: Restraint now, reward later?

18 March 2023 9:00 am

The paradox of Rishi Sunak’s premiership is that even though he became Prime Minister because of the economy, it’s the…

The overuse and abuse of ‘fascism’

18 March 2023 9:00 am

I would be very happy if I never had to hear the name Gary Lineker again. He was a vague…

Michelle Yeoh and Britain’s invisible East Asians

18 March 2023 9:00 am

This week Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian to win Best Actress at the Oscars – and not by playing…

Why shouldn’t BBC staff express opinions?

18 March 2023 9:00 am

There was a kind of peak BBC Radio 4 moment last week when the network put on a play called…

Why small boats are a big election issue

11 March 2023 9:00 am

Rishi Sunak started the year with a speech announcing his five priorities. That was quickly followed by Keir Starmer, who…

What I make of Sue Gray

11 March 2023 9:00 am

I am at a bit of a loss to understand the hoo-ha about the civil servant Sue Gray. She has…

Why ‘safe routes’ to asylum can’t work

11 March 2023 9:00 am

I have never met Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, but I have not the least doubt…

Despotic social controls cost lives

11 March 2023 9:00 am

Look, I realise you don’t want to read this column. I’m unenthusiastic about writing it. For most of us, any…

Jonathan Coad and British TV’s most catastrophic interview

11 March 2023 9:00 am

‘Coad. Coad.’ I wracked my brain. Distant bells began to tinkle as I turned the name over. As though performing…

Rishi’s new momentum

4 March 2023 9:00 am

When Rishi Sunak appeared in the House of Commons to outline the details of his new agreement on the Northern…

Unmasking the truth about Covid

4 March 2023 9:00 am

You want some tomatoes? Come up here, we’re inundated. We’ve got a tomato mountain. That’s because nobody in the north…

Is your child a cake?

4 March 2023 9:00 am

It was announced last week that another gender has been added to the list: nominalgender. Most news sites reported this…