Columns
There’s something very wrong with children’s history books
The first editor I worked for was Charles Moore and, like many of his old and ageing former staff, I…
The return of Douglas Alexander
It’s a sunny Friday afternoon in Gullane, an affluent seaside town on the Firth of Forth. For political campaigners, golden…
Why Britain isn’t following Europe rightwards
My father was fond of telling anyone who would listen that Britain would never entertain fascism because we all had…
The trouble with calling everyone ‘far right’
There is a favourite Fleet Street story about the legendary Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie. While editing the paper, he discovered…
The moment Starmer lost control of the Labour left
‘Tony Blair walks on water.’ Decades ago this statement led a Times photographer and me to the front door of…
Another election boost for Trump
Last Thursday evening a companionable London dinner party was just wrapping up when our hostess returned to the table brandishing…
Reform wants the Tories destroyed
There was a very excitable young man on Sky News last week, talking about the Sky/YouGov MRP poll which suggested…
Vote Rod!
It suddenly occurred to me that I need to stop dressing like a radical lesbian bag lady if I am…
The right must unite
I mentioned here recently that to my mind Boris Johnson bears a fairish similarity to Dr Faustus, as Christopher Marlowe…
I’m taking mental notes for my old age
I know straight away, from the look on my friend Alice’s face, whether it’s a ‘bad carer’ day. Five years…
My message for Columbia’s protesting students
There are several frustrating things about American college campuses, just one of which is the sheer volume of column inches…
What will Europe look like in the future?
This year, several articles in mainstream papers have sounded the alarm that the global human fertility rate will soon cross…
Inside Labour’s fight with the unions
By the end of the year, Britain may be one of the few countries in the democratic world where the…
Obesity isn’t an ‘illness’
About 20 years ago, Burger King stopped selling its magnificent Double Mushroom Swiss burger, an act of corporate vandalism matched…
Are ultra-processed foods really so bad?
Last week saw a flurry of media reports, of whose headlines one of the worst preceded one of the best…
Will Labour fall into the migration trap?
Brexit was the issue that won the last general election for the Tories but botching it may well lose them…
Why is it so hard to be a Christian in public life?
Is it any longer acceptable to be a Christian? News reaches me of a strange case involving the Liberal Democrat…
The asexual revolution
Who could have foreseen that half a century after the sexual revolution we’d be facing its exact opposite: an asexual…
Be more tiger mum!
‘What’s it to do with me if your boyfriend wants to break up with you? Or if you cried, or…
Save us from the plague of plastic tree protectors
Can nothing protect us from a plague of plastic tree protectors? They’ve descended on us like locusts, covering our hills,…
The battle of the pollsters
There was plenty for Rishi Sunak and his cabinet to discuss on Tuesday morning. The Conservatives had lost half of…
In defence of my friend Kevin Spacey
I am looking for a way to get £80,000. The sum would come in handy. I could put it towards…
I hate hate speech laws
I originally intended to observe that American universities’ anti-Israel protestors and Hamas terrorists deserve each other, because they’ve so much…
