Features
Forget temples and tea – Sri Lanka is all about its birds
Standing in sweaty silence for an hour on a precipitous sliver of muddy footpath above a waterfall may not be…
Where did it all go wrong for Angela Merkel?
Trier, Rhineland Was it really just a few months ago that Angela Merkel was being hailed as the leader of…
Without Merkel in charge, Europe could fall apart
No leader is indispensable, but it does feel like the future of Europe stands or falls with Angela Merkel. She’s…
Cull the lawyers – there are too many for democracy to work
Last week the Daily Telegraph’s front page showed the 15 Tory MPs who had voted against the government under the…
LA used to be fun – dope has just made it dull
Los Angeles stinks. Not just of the usual things: sex, money, suntan oil, hipster food, surfer wax — odours that…
Norway is hard on migrants – but tough love works
When Angela Merkel invited refugees to Germany in 2015, tearing up the rules obliging migrants to seek asylum in the…
Cottaging in the age of Grindr
There are nights when, crossing the dark parkland by my house, I see a man beneath a remote streetlamp. He…
Politicians want to move us towards a cashless world. It would be a disaster
What could be more terrifying than a return to the 15 per cent interest rates with which homebuyers had to…
The English countryside on two wheels is like the best kind of poem
No seat belts. No airbags. Just air, and coming at you as fast as you like. Motorcycling shouldn’t be allowed,…
Corbyn knows elections are won on social media but the Tories have barely logged on
There is a naive belief at the top of government that because the Tories are only a fart’s yard behind…
The left-liberal media won’t admit it, but Donald Trump has global reach
It’s been a miserable two weeks for our Foreign Secretary. Not only did Boris Johnson trip up over the British…
Real democracy or a tribal bloodbath? Zimbabwe is on the brink
History will curse Robert Mugabe. When he took over as prime minister in the wake of the Lancaster House agreement…
Jeffrey Archer: Jeremy Corbyn will be PM because the voters are sick of us Tories
Always go to a storyteller if you want a sparky answer to a question. What does Jeffrey Archer, bestselling author,…
Kevin Spacey is a nasty piece of work but is it right to expunge him from history?
There are many wonderful scenes in the film version of David Mamet’s play Glengarry Glen Ross, but my favourite comes…
Is Prince Charles so fond of Islam because he distrusts Jews?
It has long been my belief that whereas the quality of gentiles drawn to Judaism is very high (Marilyn Monroe,…
What if the first world war had ended a year earlier?
One hundred years ago this month, my great-great grandfather sat down to compose a letter which would finish a long…
Which town directly inspired the revival of the Olympics? Clue: it’s not in Greece
There were two mascots for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. One was called Mandeville, obviously because Stoke Mandeville’s games…
Saudi Arabia has united with Israel against Iran – and a desert storm is brewing
Until last weekend, the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh’s exclusive Diplomatic Quarter was colloquially known as the Princes’ Hotel. It was a…
How Britain fell for Saudi Arabia’s reforming Crown Prince
There are two ways of seeing the extraordinary rise of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince: the blood-stained debut of a new…
If China backs Trump on North Korea he won’t like the quid pro quo
The first election day since Donald Trump was elected president a year ago brought a funereal mood to Washington that…
Sorry for touching your knee Michael Fallon – I exploited you to get ahead
This one goes out to all the male MPs I’ve taken to lunch. I want to apologise to each and…
The EU must be reformed through sovereignty and democracy. Here’s how I plan to do it
The European Union has languished and become enfeebled — and we are all to blame. There is a noticeable paucity…
Who decided that keeping money in ‘paradise’ is a crime? We should all thank havens
Maybe we should blame John Grisham. In his breakthrough best-seller The Firm, the young lawyer Mitch, played by Tom Cruise…
Forget open-plan kitchens – the traditional dining room is back
Dining rooms have been in the doldrums for decades. Even Mary Berry has given up on hers. ‘Most of us,…
Police thought I was the Putney Pusher and I had to find an alibi – fast
I’m sitting at home working, minding my business, and the mobile rings. It’s DC Lyle from Wandsworth police station. He…
