Features
My shameful confession: I’m not a good baker
Contrary to popular conception, I’m not a great baker. I was hired by Bake Off for my judging experience, not…
Trump has underestimated the Pope
Donald Trump’s latest clash with the Catholic Church stunned even the most hardened veterans of culture-war Twitter. According to the…
Flat out: the property squeeze crushing the young
Last month, a new account called London Price Drop appeared on X. It has already gained more than 14,000 followers…
Treasure Britain’s last railway dining car while you still can
The 17.48 from Paddington does not, on first sight, seem exceptional. Over-hard seats, over-bright lights and a scrum at the…
What’s Britain’s place in the post-Iran world order?
Midway through James Joyce’s Ulysses, the character J.J. O’Molloytips his hat to ‘Our watchful friend, the Skibbereen Eagle’, a playful…
‘People are at breaking point’: on the road with the Irish fuel protestors
A fuel protestor stood on top of a tractor waving a tricolor. In Ireland, everything is about nationhood and the…
Americans will never understand Marmite
‘I fucking hate Marmite,’ said Andy McLeod, a young ad man who at some point in the mid-1990s was tasked…
Gentleman’s Relish is no more
It is the early hours of the morning and an email drops into my inbox. Lacking any kind of willpower,…
Welcome to the Taco presidency
Among the many gifts the Watergate scandal gave us was Nixon’s White House press secretary declaring: ‘This is the operative…
Benefits treats: how Britain became a freeloader’s paradise
Plastered around Westminster this Easter were adverts for the Tower of London. ‘The perfect place for troublemakers – pre-book now,’…
Starmer must drop this terrible Troubles bill
As we mark another anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, we should be less inclined to celebrate and more disposed…
De Gaulle or nothing: lessons from the General
The first time I set foot in the White House as a Labour political adviser, in spring 2024, to see…
A journey to the dark side of the Moon
The climax of the Artemis II mission lasted just a few hours. The capsule, named Integrity, rounded the Moon, the…
Is time up for Viktor Orban?
For a country of ten million people that spent most of the 20th century occupied and impoverished, Hungary today is…
Let teenage boys discover the English countryside
When I was four, the progressive teachers at my primary school thought it would be wise to teach us how…
Who would ever run a marathon?
Like many good ideas, the London marathon was conceived over a drink in a pub. Inspired by their experience running…
Religion has been resurrected in British politics
British history is littered with elections and Elections. The first type, common or garden elections, are fought with prosaic issues…
Do you have the patience to own an EV?
There’s a distinctive glow of virtue that emanates from people recharging their electric cars in public places. I call it…
Gen Z are turning to the Book of Common Prayer
‘No one pretends that modern services will fill the churches. But adult converts ought to be able to step naturally…
Russia has its eyes on Svalbard
Svalbard The quiet hillside by Longyearbyen’s church gives visitors to the capital of Norway’s Svalbard archipelago an austere but beautiful…
Britain must recognise Somaliland
Somalia has been a byword for failed statehood and violence for so long that the calm of Somaliland, its neighbour…
How Pope Leo XIV is quietly reshaping the Vatican
On the afternoon of Easter Sunday last year, Pope Francis was driven through St Peter’s Square in an open-topped Popemobile.…
Why the Green party abandoned its environmental roots
In the summer of 1972, Lesley Whittaker walked into a pub in rural Warwickshire. She had something for her husband…
The UAE and Oman could be the big winners from the Iran war
Sixty years ago, I first gazed out on the Strait of Hormuz from the Musandam peninsula of Oman. I was…
Potatoes are one of life’s great simple pleasures
My wife found the list in the back pocket of my gardening trousers. That ought to have been a clue,…
