Columnists
Why is the National Trust trying to downplay its established purpose?
Hilary McGrady, the new director-general of the National Trust, sent me (and no doubt other journalists) a nice email hoping…
Theresa May should fear a Brexiteer who feels betrayed
It is sometimes tempting to imagine that the Brexit negotiations will follow the course of a Sunday night TV drama:…
The origins of Labour’s racism
Another word which has gained a new meaning in the present decade, along with ‘vulnerable’ and ‘diverse’: survivor. Once it…
They say Enoch Powell had a fine mind. I’m not so sure
Enoch Powell has been in many minds this month. It’s the 50th anniversary of his famous ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech…
The Home Office nearly deported my husband
What I remember about preparing to leave for my husband’s appointment with the Home Office in Croydon in 2007 is…
Bank AGMs are an opportunity to shout about branch closures
The season of high-street banks’ annual general meetings is with us and I urge you to turn up and make…
What the Windrush scandal reveals about Theresa May
Everyone speaks about the Windrush. The boat was actually called the Empire Windrush. The full name reveals what the story…
Corbyn’s profoundly anti-western worldview is fully exposed at last
The Tories’ great worry after the last election was that they had effectively vaccinated the electorate against Jeremy Corbyn. They…
A joke about Welsh vowels is a hate crime, say the tuppenny panjandrums
It took four days to actually see the pine marten in the flesh. We caught it on a trail cam…
Why I have succumbed to sourdough mania
This ought to be the perfect time for a rant about how we’ve reached peak sourdough. It’s been all the…
An odd new feeling has crept up on me – sympathy for the police
Spring has come to my local park in its usual way. First the magnolias, then the cherry blossom, then the…
I’m an optimist for trade despite the idiocies of politicians
I’m proud to be a member of the 661-year-old Company of Merchant Adventurers of the City of York, having qualified…
The Good Friday Agreement is not a peace but a truce
The Good Friday Agreement (GFA), which celebrates its 20th anniversary this week, is not a peace, but a truce. This does…
Will Britain find a new role in the world after Brexit?
Britain’s imperial past distorts the debate about our place in the world, but not in the way that is commonly…
I can never resist a trip to the rubbish dump
I was back at the tip on Sunday. I cannot help it. What art galleries or rock concerts or online…
Why catastrophising is my idea of a good time
When, on a test of general knowledge, the highly educated score far worse than chimpanzees, university degrees may be overrated…
The US Treasury shows London how to cold-shoulder Putin’s cronies
A decade ago I commissioned an article about Vladimir Putin’s business cronies. Among other lines of enquiry, it sought to…
Labour moderates are desperate to leave – but there’s nowhere to go
The case for Labour moderates leaving their party strengthens by the day. Jeremy Corbyn’s behaviour demonstrates that he is not…
Corbyn, anti-Semitism and the righteous vanity of Tony Benn
What is it, psychologically, that makes it so hard for Jeremy Corbyn to recognise that some of his supporters are…
The DPP’s Alison Saunders was never much cop
An interesting development for our police force, then. In future they do not have to believe everything someone tells them,…
Has Virgin trains lost the plot?
Twelve minutes till the train. That had seemed like quite enough time as I approached the Virgin ticket machine. Two…
Why a Big Oil row tells us it’s time to stop fetishising experts
Something extraordinary and largely unreported has just happened in a court in San Francisco. A federal judge has said that…
Call this US-China tit-for-tat a trade war?
‘Stocks plunge as China hits US goods with tariffs,’ said a headline after the long weekend, and the FTSE100 duly…
At last, Labour’s anti-Semitism has caught up with Corbyn
At last Jeremy Corbyn is being made to pay a price for Labour’s anti-Semitism under his leadership. It has now, for…
What will it take for Labour MPs to act against Corbyn?
One of the mistakes Theresa May made in calling an early election was not anticipating the effect it would have…
