Features
Left in the shadows
In the early hours of 9 June 2017, Jeremy Corbyn conceded defeat. For the luckless political journalists forced to cover…
Faute de mieux
Who will win the French presidential election? Does it even matter? Nothing in the programmes or personalities of the leading…
The suburban battleground
In Westminster, all the general election chatter is about Brexit. Will Tory Remainers turn Lib Dem? Will Labour leavers desert…
Proud to be a prude
What advice would you give to this modern moral question posed by my friend’s younger sister? A boy at school…
Anti-social media
On Tuesday morning I was thinking to myself how oddly pleasant social media seemed. Then Theresa May dropped her election…
Save aid!
Bill Gates is worried about Britain. For years, the UK government has been one of the world’s largest donors in…
Genoa
Some say Genoa takes its name from Janus, the two-faced god of time and doorways. Perhaps. What’s certain is the…
Theresa’s party tricks
Theresa May has long been clear about what sets her apart from other politicians: she doesn’t play political games. When…
Putin’s Syria problem
For Vladimir Putin, Syria has been the gift that kept on giving. His 2015 military intervention propelled Russia back to…
Do you know a flake fatale?
It was the third time in a row that she had cancelled our date for drinks. The first time she’d…
Bias and the BBC
Last week, Nick Robinson wrote an article in the Radio Times saying Radio 4’s Today programme no longer has an…
Side-saddle is sexy
These days there are more than 1,000 members of the Side Saddle Association. Well, of course there are. People go…
The Benedict option
Hannah Roberts, an English Catholic friend, was once telling me about her family’s long history in Yorkshire. She spoke with…
Trump, the emptiest mind
Howard Jacobson awoke to the news of Trump’s victory in November. He had no newspaper column so, what could he…
Frank Matcham
Go inside the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham, preferably when it is empty. Look round. Look up. And there it is, with…
Marmalade
Marmalade’s had a rough old time of it lately. A recent report in the Telegraph declared it is dying out;…
Inmates and Islamism
In response to the Westminster attack, a 100-strong new counter-extremism taskforce has been announced to deal with the terrorist threat…
War-war, not jaw-jaw
It’s often said that the Trump administration is ‘isolationist’. This is not true. In fact, we are now witnessing a…
My towering problem
Why don’t tall people get the same sympathy as short people? Everyone feels sorry for minnows, cutting them slack when…
Trump’s plan for Pyongyang
On several foreign policy issues, Donald Trump has mellowed since taking office. His administration still has concerns about the Iran…
In defence of Ken
We never loved each other, Ken Livingstone and I. We first clashed in public more than a decade ago, and…
Kaiser Donald
Germany’s Great War leader was a blustering, reckless gambler who took the world over the abyss. Sound familiar?
North Berwick
My home town is better than yours. Don’t take my word for it. This month North Berwick was crowned ‘best…
An actor’s notebook
It is delightful to be writing for a magazine I’ve read, man and boy, since I was 15. Such is…
The friendly alliance
Leaving the EU is the signal for a new form of cooperation with Europe
