Status anxiety
Who watches the broadcast watchdog?
At the beginning of April, I became so frustrated by the supine coverage of the government’s response to the coronavirus…
The antibody test that proved my wife wrong
Back in April, The Spectator ran a feature in which the partners of regular contributors wrote about what it was…
The protestors have brought down the lockdown
I wasn’t surprised to see that a woman whose father died at a care home in Bicester in April has…
Why is YouTube so afraid of free speech?
On Sunday, the hosts of Trigger–nometry, a YouTube show, posted an interview they’d done with Peter Hitchens. They labelled it…
Unfortunately our new puppy is not just for lockdown
Will the huge surge in demand for puppies and kittens during lockdown lead to a lot of abandoned pets when…
Liberal fears are contagious
It has become a commonplace among social psychologists that one of the characteristics that unites conservatives is our sensitivity to…
This lockdown may kill me
I have a new job, which is maintaining a website called Lockdown Sceptics (lockdownsceptics.org). It’s a compendium of evidence that…
Professor Lockdown’s spell has been broken
I originally had Neil Ferguson down as a kind of Henry Kissinger figure. The professor of mathematical biology at Imperial…
Did anyone really believe what my wife wrote about me?
One of the nice things about having a column in The Spectator is that I get a chance to reply…
If you really want to lose friends, start a magazine
I’m more impressed than most that The Spectator has racked up 10,000 issues, because I used to be a magazine…
Our puppy has no respect for the two-metre rule
Since the beginning of the lockdown, Caroline has been congratulating herself for having bought a puppy ‘just in time’. She…
I’m recovering – but I glimpsed the coronavirus cliff edge
So I’ve had the virus. Or rather, I think I have. Ordinary mortals can no longer get tested by the…
Dissent over coronavirus research isn’t dangerous – but stifling debate is
One of the paradoxes of the coronavirus crisis is that the need for public scrutiny of government policy has never…
How Oxford taught the no-platformers a lesson
Three weeks ago Amber Rudd travelled to Christ Church, Oxford, to speak to students about her experiences of being a…
Quarantine with our new puppy will send me barking
When the news leaked at the weekend that the government was considering telling those aged 70 and over to self-quarantine…
Cartoonists have a right to free speech
I’m no fan of Steve Bell, the Guardiancartoonist. I can’t say I’ve ever laughed at one of his squibs, which…
My night in A&E left me worried about the NHS’s coronavirus response
I wish I shared the Prime Minister’s confidence about the ability of the NHS to cope with coronavirus. ‘I have…
How far should we go to defend free speech?
This week sees the official launch of the Free Speech Union — an organisation that stands up for the speech…
Why on earth did I volunteer to do stand-up?
It was on my ‘bucket list’, but that doesn’t mean it was a sensible thing to do. Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro…
Even the Oscars after-parties have lost their shine
Reading about the Oscars this week, I couldn’t help thinking back to a time when they actually meant something. When…
Labour won’t win voters back by denigrating Britain’s past
They never learn, do they? Lisa Nandy, the dark horse candidate in the Labour leadership race, has demanded the word…
Climate doomsayers keep putting sell-by dates on their credibility
I was slightly surprised when Greta Thunberg announced at Davos that we had eight years left to save the planet.…
George Orwell would have been a Brexiteer
I’ve been reading a new biography of George Orwell that’s been published to coincide with the 70th anniversary of his…
The delusion of the born-again Brexiteers
As 31 January looms, I’ve been thinking about how to bring the country back together again after we’ve left the…
I’ve found the perfect family film (eventually)
As a member of Bafta, I get sent about 75 ‘screeners’ during the awards season, which is always a treat…
