Life
Long life
It is nearly two years since the police were granted new powers to fine motorists for ‘hogging’ the middle lane…
Low life
Ninety-two readers (thank you!) sent accounts of their worst debacles on drink or drugs. I printed out each one and…
Low life
Ninety-two readers (thank you!) sent accounts of their worst debacles on drink or drugs. I printed out each one and…
On the cusp
‘A stalker who dressed a pillow “mannequin” in his ex’s nurse’s uniform, then sent her a picture, has been told…
Real life
Why won’t the middle classes shout at their dogs any more? My suspicion is that the bleeding heart liberals, having…
Tiger, Tiger, burning out
A car crash is a terrible thing, but hordes of people still slow down to cop an eyeful on the…
In defence of Gove’s grammar
Listen http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/angelamerkel-sburden/media.mp3 Few things are more likely to provoke the disapproval of the bien-pensant left than criticising someone’s grammar. The…
In defence of Gove’s grammar
Listen http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/angelamerkel-sburden/media.mp3 Few things are more likely to provoke the disapproval of the bien-pensant left than criticising someone’s grammar. The…
Simply the best
Nothing pleases the Royal Ascot crowd more than a winner for the meeting’s crucial supporter, the Queen. Imagine, then, the…
The subject of immigration has become a means of entrapment
When I founded the American Conservative 13 years ago — the purpose being to shine a light on the neocon…
The vicar struck the first blow. And then he told us all a joke
Before delivering his sermon, the vicar said we must offer one another the sign of peace. He struck the first…
The police persecution of middle-class women
Aren’t the police getting younger nowadays — and ruder, and scruffier and more intolerant of middle-class women? In other words,…
Alan Rusbridger’s final oath
My friend Alan Rusbridger has just given up editing the Guardian after a distinguished 20-year reign that has climaxed, as…
The Shrewsbury School Hunt very nearly killed me
Laikipia, Kenya Out cross-country running on the farm in Kenya recently, I came face-to-face with a gang of bull…
Bridge
Captaining a bridge team in a knock-out competition can be a thankless task. Sometimes, the hardest thing of all is…
Dark lord
A new book, Opening Repertoire: The Nimzo-Indian and Bogo-Indian by Christof Seilecki (Everyman Chess), focuses on the ever popular Nimzo-Indian…
No. 367
Black to play. This is from Spassky-Fischer, World Championship, Reykjavik (Game 5) 1972. This is probably the most famous ‘dark-square’…
Howzat!
In Competition No. 2903 you were invited to supply a poem incorporating a dozen cricketing terms. English poets love cricket:…
2216: Riddle
Two clues are without definitions; their answers form the name of a person with a leading part in four works…
To 2213: Surprising
The unclued Down lights are books, entered in reverse as indicated by the phrase TURN-UP FOR THE BOOKS (1A 27…
The best way to end the ‘poshness test’
There’s a warning buried in the detail of the new report by the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission on…
Battle for Britain
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The trick that makes self-checkouts almost tolerable
I spent the last few days in Deal and Folkestone with Professor Richard Thaler at Nudgestock, Ogilvy’s seaside festival of…
Dear Mary: Should I follow Cilla Black’s lead on disabled loos?
Q. I was at the theatre recently and bumped into a well-known Liverpudlian crooner coming out of the disabled lavatory.…
Lunch with a claret fit for gods, heroes and David Cameron
I cannot remember a jollier lunch. There are two brothers, Sebastian and Nicholas Payne, both practical epicureans. They have made…
