Features
Is it okay to laugh at dwarfs?
You’re planning a party. You’ve hired the vaults of a former bank, Le Caprice is doing the catering, and a…
Abbaye Saint-Michel, a little corner of England that’s forever France
‘A little corner of England which is for ever France, irreclaimably French.’ That is how the Catholic priest Monsignor Ronald…
Theresa May must lead or go
The Brexit ‘inner cabinet’ met on Monday. It was meant to be an important meeting, one which made some real…
In the face of strongmen, conservatives are letting their principles vanish
In 1989, the year Soviet communism collapsed, John O’Sullivan, Margaret Thatcher’s former speechwriter, gave the world O’Sullivan’s First Law of…
In chaotic Venezuela, life is better in prison
‘I murder people!’ says Elanger matter-of-factly in response to my question about what he does for a living. From the…
Can I be taught how to become a #MeToo Man?
These are tough times for what I call the #MeToo Men — those white, liberal, high-minded men who pride themselves…
What will it mean for mankind when robots start caring for us?
‘I gotta be me,’ Sammy Davis Jr. croons as the android Dolores Abernathy (Evan Rachel Wood) steadies her horse, stands…
Boris Titov doesn’t want to be president but he’s still taking on Putin
Boris Titov is running to be president of Russia, but he’s eager to talk himself out of the job. ‘I…
Playful, adorable – and with a real nose for trouble: In praise of the beagle
Harvey’s finest moment, he would tell you, was the chicken kiev. I’d just made the garlic butter and inserted it…
East vs West: the new battle for Europe
The occasion was a central European conference on the subversive disinformation campaigns of Putin’s Russia (which, incidentally, are real, subtle,…
This is Ukip’s Britain. The rest of us just live in it
The continuing saga of Henry Bolton’s notional leadership of Ukip continues to amaze and amuse and appal in equal measure.…
A day of reckoning is coming for America’s muddled Middle East policies
Beirut ‘If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense,’ said Alice. ‘Nothing would be what it…
The #MeToo fury has spilled over into a feminist war
The #MeToo movement began, I thought, primarily to allow women to speak out about harassment from men, which they had…
Momentum isn’t hard left. It’s a theatrical cult
Hard left, my arse. Sorry to be vulgar, but surely that’s how Jim Royle, couch-potato patriarch of that glorious sitcom…
Why I’ve been written out of Anthony Powell’s history
You’re in the index, but not in the book. This ghostly sensation has been my experience since 1990 after commissioning…
From a war-zone A&E to hellhole wards, my dispiriting week in an NHS hospital
I am in a good position to report from the NHS frontline, having been in hospital with pneumonia for just…
The salty charms of Leigh-on-Sea
I have fallen in love with the c2c, a whisker of a train that is never delayed. It operates between…
Revealed – the truth about plastic
Has an albatross ever wielded so much influence? The bewildered chick who regurgitated a plastic bag in front of Sir…
What do proper communists really think of Corbyn?
Last year, more than 15,000 communists gathered in the Russian seaside town of Sochi for a week-long commemoration of the…
Amazing grace
Last week, Peregbakumo Oyawerikumo, aka ‘The Master’, was finally caught and shot by the Nigerian army. Oyawerikumo and his Egbesu…
Real men bathe together
With my friend Maurice, I have long frequented the Ironmonger Row baths behind Moorfields Eye Hospital. As married men, we…
The curious star appeal of Jordan Peterson
Last Sunday night a capacity crowd of mainly young people packed into the Emmanuel Centre in London. Those who couldn’t…
Parole is unfair and unworkable. Let’s abolish it
The furore over the parole granted to John Worboys, the rapist taxi driver, misses the point entirely — that the…
Why the sleepy old CoE is just a greedy, moneygrubbing property tycoon
Holy smoke! The sleepy old Church of England is a greedy, money-grubbing property tycoon. This month, it emerged that since…
Padel power! But will this crazy new sport ever be a hit?
When we arrived, we discovered that our villa had a padel court. Few of us had seen one before and…
