Features
An A-to-Z guide to the new PC
Anyone who thought political correctness had croaked, joining neon leg warmers, mullets and MC Hammer in the graveyard of bad…
Under this government, our prison system is falling apart
In the past two years, our prisons have gone from places of rehabilitation to pits of despair
The Tooting poisoner and the relentless rise of the urban fox
In my London neighbourhood, an argument about urban foxes is turning very nasty indeed
Why calling for an ‘Islamic Reformation’ is lazy and historically illiterate
What’s wrong with calls for an ‘Islamic Reformation’
The most expensive typing error ever?
The world’s most expensive typing errors, and how they were made
How to walk along canals in Venice without feeling like a tourist
I arrived in Venice believing it would reek of sewage. It didn’t. The walk into the centre went through cobbled…
Europe’s crisis is Cameron’s opportunity
For Angela Merkel, it’s a crisis. For David Cameron, it’s an opportunity
Study
I’d tell you I came back here, that I’m writing in this room, if you had not found another and…
Confusion, snobbery and Pegida – a letter from Dresden
Sachsenschweine — Saxon pigs — said the graffiti as my train moved out of Berlin on its way to Dresden.…
As a republican, I used to look forward to Charles III. Now I’m scared
The Prince of Wales has shown himself too vain to accept the limits of constitutional monarchy
The Tories have one real success in government – and they’re scared to talk about it
Schools are the one area where this government has made a real, positive difference – but it’s scared stiff of saying so
Why would someone pay hundreds of pounds for one snowdrop bulb? I think I know
The roots of snowdrop fever
The benefits of breeding like a rabbit
Why I’m glad to have five children, with a sixth on the way
Only capitalism can save Nigeria
Is West Africa's powerhouse headed for a boom - or a coup?
History is the art of making things up. Why pretend otherwise?
In a recent interview, the celebrity historian and Tudor expert David Starkey described Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall as a ‘deliberate…
The long ordeal of Mackintosh’s Glasgow School of Art
I was working on the final edit of my book — a fictionalised account of the year Charles Rennie Mackintosh…
Study
I’d tell you I came back here, that I’m writing in this room, if you had not found another and…
Study
I’d tell you I came back here, that I’m writing in this room, if you had not found another and…
Gagging order
Why has politics turned into stand-up?
The Deer
In the summer fields your life left you. She ran out from under the hood of your heart and tottered…
Blame Tony Blair for Labour’s new stupidity about wealth
Labour's attitude to wealth is sliding back into the 1970s - and Tony Blair's new career is one reason why
Why tomorrow’s parents won’t want their children to go to university
Why being a graduate is about to lose its prestige
How Marine Le Pen is winning France’s gay vote
Marine Le Pen’s unlikely rainbow coalition
The war on frat culture
An unruly American tradition may be coming to an end
How to stop being scared of full stops
Modern manners and the fear of the full stop
