Columns
My list of Britain’s national character flaws
Before we start, let’s firmly establish my long-standing affection for the United Kingdom. Why, some of my best friends are…
The BBC’s obsession with youth
At long last the state of Oregon has got around to installing tampon machines in the male lavatories of its…
The truth about Britain’s Covid deaths
There has been a considerable hoo-hah in the press about the recent World Health Organisation report estimating Covid-related deaths internationally…
Why silly scandals suit our politicians
I wonder if we will ever be able to resist fixing the suffix ‘gate’ to the end of any not-yet-sufficiently-salacious…
Can the Tories bounce back before the next election?
When David Cameron was prime minister, the Tories flirted with the idea of a Queen’s Speech with no bills in…
Will Putin go nuclear?
A ghastly tragedy Ukraine may well be, but it is coming to the rescue of a number of British Conservative…
How did we fall for the junk science of forensics?
I grew up in the golden age of forensic science, at a time when expert witnesses were becoming celebs, each…
What America gets right about the abortion debate
There are two things non-Americans can almost never understand about America and should probably never speak about. The first is…
The quiet dignity of Angela Rayner
In those gentle days before internet pornography there was a book you could buy which listed the precise moment in…
EU: normal disservice resumes
In the past few months, relations between the UK and the EU have been the best they have been since…
America has betrayed its young
Two articles last weekend made me feel sorry for American young people. We in the anti-woke brigade can be awfully…
Has Carole the tarantula cured my arachnophobia?
I’ve been an arachnophobe my whole life. I can’t remember a time when videos of spiders, or even photos or…
The Tories’ summer of discontent
Mid-term unpopularity is a given in British politics. Veterans from the Thatcher era like to joke that a government that…
My phone call with God
Got slightly wrecked over the bank holiday weekend and had hoped to kind of glide through the early part of…
The art of changing your mind
Some years ago there was a study at Harvard that tried to find out what people did when they held…
The cult of sensitivity
I was extra pleased to have swerved the modern curse that is Wordle when I read that ‘sensitive’ words have…
What Rishi Sunak could learn from George Osborne
I was walking last week from Canary Wharf tube station to my flat in east London – not far, little…
A question of bravery
Joe Biden announced in November: ‘Transgender people are some of the bravest Americans I know.’ When Conservative MP Jamie Wallis…
Durham’s maths problem
More exciting news arrives from Britain’s dimmest university, Durham, which is embarking on a programme to ‘decolonise’ mathematics. About time.…
Rishi Sunak’s political naivety
Before the war in Ukraine, ministers and Tory MPs believed a fixedpenalty notice for the Prime Minister would mean the…
I feel sorry for Rishi Sunak
Perhaps I should stress from the get-go that I do not know Rishi Sunak. So far as I know, we’ve…
Can I convert you to my opinion?
I see that on the issue of gay conversion therapy, the Prime Minister has been floating around all over the…
How to lose an election
I have remarked here before about our era’s tendency to accept election results if your side wins but to reject…
Our children are at breaking point – and it’s our fault
I think it’s time we stopped scaring the children. I think they’ve had enough. They’re at breaking point now, every…
The changing face of No. 10
David Canzini has made quite an impression since he joined No. 10 as the Prime Minister’s deputy chief of staff…
