Columns
The age of de-enlightenment
Depictions of Thomas Carlyle and David Hume in the Scottish Portrait Gallery will be altered to make it clear they…
Why can’t Justin Welby praise a Tory?
Justin Welby is having a holiday and people are unhappy about it. He plans, in May, to take a three-month…
Sturgeon has become the real opposition leader
A few months ago, Tory aides spotted a suspicious pattern. If they agreed on a new Covid policy to be…
History shouldn’t be used against us
Can you feel the fascism yet? You ought to by now, more than a week after Britain leaving the EU.…
This has been the year of epic derangement
I wonder if British universities will follow Cornell’s innovative approach to ensuring students are protected from wretched viruses? The American…
My cure for the common cold
You really don’t want to know about my coughs and sneezes, particularly during the festive season, but bear with me…
Why charity begins in shops
When everything re-opened after the first lockdown, I didn’t immediately head to a restaurant, bar or hairdresser. I went to…
It’s completely rational for girls to want to be boys
I’ve always been perplexed why anyone lucky enough to be born male would want to swap sexes. But it seems…
How Britain will counter China’s wolf-warrior diplomacy
The most significant and lasting change brought about by Covid is that it has woken the West up to the…
The importance of giving offence
As dons at Cambridge vote on a new protocol on constraints to free speech, we mark this month the 500th…
Can Mike Ashley defy high street reality?
Separating heroes from villains in the great retail survival struggle is like spotting bent coppers in Line of Duty —…
In defence of the booing Millwall fans
It is an enormous shame that the Millwall fans who booed their players for ‘taking a knee’ in support of…
No one wins in the race race
After the explosion of international self-abasement over George Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis, much theatrical soul-searching ensued. So your basic man…
The deal-or-no-deal debate is different this time
When a deadline is missed for Brexit negotiations, it is tempting to think there will be another chance to keep…
The Tavistock is a national scandal
How noble of the British Library to have apologised to the family of the late Poet Laureate Ted Hughes for…
The texture of our country is changing before our eyes
On Saturday night we sat around the kitchen table, my family and I, and had a takeaway from the Turkish…
The case for Chinese reparations
It is time we started to talk about reparations. I am not of course referring to the demands made by…
Can Boris win round his rebel MPs?
The beginning of the end for Theresa May was when she tried to see if she could pass her Brexit…
The public sector delusion
I wonder how much more money we will have to bung the teachers in order to inculcate within them an…
We need a dose of vaccine realism
One of my geniuses as both a commentator and a character is to confront what for most normal people amounts…
Soft-left squatters have taken over the Lib Dems
I was never afraid of Jeremy Corbyn, never afraid of Momentum. I’ve never really feared Britain’s hard left at all.…
Here comes President Joebama
‘So you’re seeing a team develop that I have great confidence in,’ said former president Barack Obama this week when…
Donald Trump won’t leave me alone
Ever since I saw him in Pensacola, Florida the other week, Donald J. Trump will not leave me alone. Each…
More devolution in England could save the Union
Tory MPs are already starting to talk about May’s various elections. Boris Johnson’s first post-Covid electoral test will take place…
How moral is it to refuse a vaccine?
Well thank goodness for that, eh? Just as we reached our darkest hour and resigned ourselves to an endless series…
