Columnists
The lesson of Looney: every board should prepare for scandal
Bernard Looney, the fallen BP chief, always had a certain swagger about him. I’ve no idea whether he was unsafe…
How America’s 2024 election will affect Britain’s
There were many potential titles for Liz Truss’s memoir: 49 Days that Shook the World, perhaps, or simply What Happened,…
Covid’s back. Don’t panic!
How terrified should we be of the new Covid variant nicknamed (on Twitter) ‘Pirola’? Out of our wits? Or should…
How to buy influence in Britain
Like all hacks, I sometimes wonder whether I should just screw my self-esteem, do a Jonathan Freedland and start writing…
Mexico’s progressive hell
Every morning I check to see if Rodrigo Iván Cortés has published the ‘apology’ that the court in Mexico has…
Does the public want reheated Blairism?
To understand the political journey of Sir Keir Starmer, look to Liz Kendall. This week the Blairite and one-time leadership…
Right-on Kew
We must all hurry down to the Temperate House at Kew Gardens next month to enjoy Queer Nature After Hours,…
The delicious schadenfreude of Burning Man
If any readers are having those September, back-to-work blues perhaps I might offer them a sure-fire palliative? Just go online…
Children need protection from adult madness
The Texas Supreme Court just upheld a state law banning so-called gender-affirming care for minors, to explosive consternation from predictable…
Britain has an entitlement problem
An Institute for Fiscal Studies paper, published at the end of last month, makes grim reading. Through the prism of…
It shouldn’t be a crime to sniff a goshawk
I notice that the naturalist Chris Packham has been reported to the police for the ‘crime’ of sniffing a goshawk.…
The Tories need a shake-up – and Sunak knows it
When prime ministers sense the end is near, they tend to follow a similar pattern. They change senior civil servants…
George Osborne’s midlife crisis
There should be a term in anthropology for what happens to a certain type of Tory male in middle age.…
Why won’t my British friends see a GP?
Having lived in the United Kingdom for almost my whole adult life, I like to think I’m well assimilated. I…
The joy of French motorways
The news that Heineken, the Dutch brewer, has sold its business in Russia to a local buyer for a token…
What a joke
The award for the funniest joke at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe was won by Lorna Rose Treen, with this: ‘I…
The problem with the Tories’ ‘local heroes’
You know the Conservative party is in trouble when it does not dare use its name on leaflets. Instead, it…
Why everyone thinks they could be President
Who is Perry Johnson? It is a question not many American voters can answer. He has a grand total of…
Therapy has turned on itself
Were I to overcome a lifelong scepticism about the healing powers of talk therapy, I imagine languishing on a psychiatrist’s…
