Status anxiety
Why we’re lying to ourselves over trans rights
On 21 November, a debate took place in the House of Commons about proposals to reform the Gender Recognition Act…
My wife has gone back to work – and I’ve turned into a SADDO
When I proposed to Caroline back in 2000, she was a trainee solicitor and I was a freelance journalist. In…
Free speech is officially dead in British universities
When I first read about plans for a new academic periodical called The Journal of Controversial Ideas, I got the…
Roger Scruton becomes the latest victim of the Twitchfork mob
‘Once identified as right-wing you are beyond the pale of argument,’ wrote Sir Roger Scruton. ‘Your views are irrelevant, your…
I like the idea of meritocracy as much as my father hated it
Last week I spoke at an event at Nottingham University to commemorate the 60th anniversary of The Rise of the…
Science is on the side of the trans activists
Some interesting scientific research on gender differences was published last week. Two social scientists studied the preferences of 80,000 people…
Why are faceless accusations allowed to end men’s careers?
On 11 October 2017 an anonymous Google spreadsheet began doing the rounds of American newspapers and magazines — a document…
Shouldn’t the police be chasing down theft and assault, not thought crime?
West Yorkshire Police hit the headlines twice this week. First we learned that the fourth-largest force in England and Wales…
Alexa, who is Toby Young?
My oldest friend Sean Langan came to lunch last Sunday and, rather disappointingly, he seemed more interested in playing with…
Of course the young like socialism – they’re taught to
It beggars belief that Jeremy Corbyn can, with a straight face, announce that capitalism has failed and we’d all be…
It’s as I suspected – my defects can’t be cured
I’ve just finished making a one-hour documentary about character for Radio 4 that’s due to be broadcast on Saturday at…
Dr Toby’s booze advice: the better the wine, the less bad it is for you
I don’t hold out much hope for Drink Free Days, a new campaign launched by Public Health England and the…
The neo-Marxist takeover of our universities
According to Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, America’s universities have succumbed to ‘safetyism’, whereby students are protected from anything that…
Why is a BBC executive calling for the removal of middle-aged white men from television?
Cassian Harrison, the editor of BBC Four, told the Edinburgh International Television Festival last week that no one wants to…
Jamie Oliver’s jerk rice comes with a side serving of insanity
Earlier this week, the Labour MP Dawn Butler ‘called out’ Jamie Oliver for ‘appropriation’. His sin, according to the shadow…
Vocational schools are not to be sneered at
When I was 16 I failed all my O-levels, bar a grade C in English Literature, and concluded I wasn’t…
Thanks, Ryanair, for wrecking our holiday
The Young family’s annual summer holiday could not have got off to a poorer start, thanks to Ryanair. As veteran…
Joining the Twitchfork mob is not the answer
This summer has seen yet another group of thought criminals being mobbed on social media. Some of them are the…
War and monsters: my new favourite author
If you’re looking for a good beach read this summer, look no further. A few weeks ago I was reading…
Teen Vogue and the rebirth of Radical Chic
Are we witnessing the rebirth of Radical Chic? That was the term coined by Tom Wolfe in his 1970 essay…
Video games like Fortnite are fun — so they must be bad
It was only a matter of time. The headteacher of a primary school in Ilfracombe in Devon has banned ‘Flossing’,…
In the crazy world of identity politics, facts don’t matter
According to a poll of 538 experts on women’s issues, the United States is one of the ten most dangerous…
The problem with deciding that popular culture is ‘problematic’
A controversy has erupted in Folkestone over a forthcoming screening of Zulu, the classic British war film. A charity has…
This junk study proves nothing about helicopter parenting
An academic paper by a group of child psychologists caused a stir earlier this week. ‘Helicopter parenting is bad for…
Paying women for housework? Here’s a feminist proposal I actually like
According to a new study published by some feminist academics at the Australian National University, women risk damaging their health…
