Columns
I’m taking in a Ukrainian
Delighted though we all are that Benedict Cumberbatch has decided to allow a Ukrainian family to live in one of…
How to avoid heating your house
Spring commonly augers a quickening warmth, but for Britons this year the season coincides with a chilling marker: a 54…
The three stumbling blocks to a Ukraine peace deal
A month in, and the war in Ukraine looks very different to how anyone expected. On the first day of…
How should Prince William respond to questions about slavery?
It is uncanny how swiftly British culture imitates the worst of American culture. Take Whoopi Goldberg, who distinguished herself again…
In defence of healthy opposition
Glasses chinked. From massive chandeliers, lights glittered beneath the high vaulted ceiling; heroic statuary around the carved stone walls stared…
The day I nearly brought RT down
It is interesting to watch Ofcom finally remove the broadcasting licence from the Russian propaganda channel Russia Today (RT). I…
What schools should be teaching
The state of Florida recently passed a piece of legislation making it illegal for teachers to hold discussions with pupils…
The Chancellor’s difficult choices
The Office for Budget Responsibility was designed to protect the Chancellor from accusations that he is cooking the books. If…
What can save China from Covid?
It is tempting to believe that we have gone from one crisis to another: Russia invaded Ukraine hours after Covid…
Why are so few Americans willing to defend their country?
For many of us war voyeurs watching the news with a glass of sherry, admiration of the little-engine-that-could Ukrainian fighters…
Nobody will forget what Russia has done
At the heart of the West’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sits an ambiguity that it is convenient, perhaps…
The West has rediscovered its purpose
Over recent days I have been reflecting on War and Peace. Or Special Operation and Peace as it must now…
The myth that Russia and Ukraine are fighting over
It seems strange now that any of us ever imagined that Putin might not invade. He thinks of Ukraine as…
Why C.S. Lewis was right about war
Well, at least Covid is over. No sooner had Vladimir Putin’s tanks rolled into Ukraine than the UK’s Covid advisory…
Is global warming really more dangerous than Putin’s nuclear threats?
Having just dusted down my Geiger counter and argued with the family about whether or not there is room for…
Rising energy bills are a price worth paying to stop Putin
Nato countries are being careful not to do anything that Russia could claim is an act of war. Just look…
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…
