Columns
The free world’s new reality
We are about to see brutality in Europe on a scalethat will be almost beyond our comprehension. Russia is turning…
Has Putin saved Boris?
It was with some relief that I heard that Labour’s Diane Abbott was opposed to the Russian invasion of Croatia,…
What the right gets wrong about Putin
A fracture on the international right may seem small fry given everything that is going on right now. But it…
I’ve found a little Eden in London
I’m not one of life’s early risers but an exception had to be made on Wednesday last week. In an…
The return of Actual Badness
In the spring of 2020, I advanced an abnormally hopeful proposition: that one blessing that might arise from a pandemic…
Women-only train carriages insult us all
Sooner or later, somewhere in the UK, we’ll have trains with women-only coaches. It’s an idea which keeps rolling around,…
The tyranny of Trudeau
Early in the corona era the historian David Starkey gave some thoughts on Covid. ‘We’ve got a Chinese virus,’ he…
In defence of Shakespeare
My most important new year’s resolution was cast aside this week. I had vowed that in 2022 I would eschew…
For Russian sanctions to work, they must hurt the West too
No British soldiers will go to fight in Ukraine. The UK’s military involvement will be limited to weapons shipments and…
No one has done more to save Boris than Keir Starmer
Boris Johnson has a lot of people to thank for his survival in 10 Downing Street, but Keir Starmer should…
Work is no place for your ‘whole self’
One of the few things I have learned in this life is that Dante Alighieri was wrong. In the Inferno…
We blew our chance to befriend Putin
You have the advantage over me. It may be that you are reading this now in your makeshift fallout shelter,…
Taking Ukraine would finish Putin
‘Never interrupt your enemy,’ said Napoleon, ‘when he is making a mistake.’ A Russian invasion and occupation of Ukraine would…
Our monetary bubble is about to burst
OK, I finally watched Netflix’s Don’t Look Up. Surprisingly, I enjoyed it — especially before its effective subtitle for us…
Is Britain heading for an opioid crisis?
Almost everyone here that I’ve spoken to about it assumes that the opioid crisis in the United States won’t ever…
In defence of bad jokes
I was once at a terrific Shabbat dinner where late in the evening one of the other guests suddenly said:…
The battle for the Tory party’s soul
When news broke over the weekend that former minister Nick Gibb had become the 14th Tory MP to publicly call…
Nicola Sturgeon’s last laugh
I was delighted to discover that the University of Bristol has been advising students how to address those who identify…
Boris will never recover from partygate
When a political party is hit by a crisis, the tendency these days is for both the politicians and their…
The Chancellor's horrible task ahead
Whether Rishi Sunak is prime minister or still chancellor this spring, fate is handing him a poisoned chalice. Looking back,…
Is our Ukrainian ambassador OK?
I know the following sentence is going to get me into trouble. Still, there are times when you wonder whether…
Kamala Harris and the problem of affirmative action
In lauding Joe Biden’s promise to fill the upcoming vacancy on the US Supreme Court with a black woman, last…
Boris Johnson is drifting
Tory MPs only have one topic of conversation: the fate of Boris Johnson. They huddle together in offices in Portcullis…
The ceaseless self-pity of cyclists
I know that all must have prizes in the Victimisation Olympics these days, but when I heard a bicycle-rider on…
This government’s greatest failure is economic
‘The main job of a government is to ensure that the economics don’t go wrong.’ So argued an economist friend…
