Status anxiety
How to cope with unsold tickets and empty halls: my advice to Owen Jones
My heart goes out to Owen Jones. The left-wing journalist is one of the headliners at a Labour party fund-raiser…
Why have I bought a car I don’t actually like?
I am currently in Brittany with the family, having made the 11-hour drive from London on Monday. It sounds like…
The BBC makes Jeremy Thorpe’s downfall a very enjoyable scandal
As a conservative, I wasn’t sure what to make of the news that the BBC was adapting A Very English…
The left’s ‘gammon’ slur just shows conservatives are winning
I was disappointed by the reaction of my fellow conservatives to gammon-gate. For those who haven’t been following this mini-scandal,…
What the education system needs is more marketisation, not less
Towards the end of 2009, shortly after I announced my intention to set up England’s first free school, I debated…
Here’s what every incel needs: a sex robot
In a recent blogpost, an American economics professor called Robin Hanson asked why it is that income inequality is regarded…
Uganda is saving its gorillas – but there’s a human cost
I’m currently in Africa, about to go gorilla trekking in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, a large primeval forest located in…
How to get your child into the best state school: an insider’s tips
Monday was ‘national offer day’, which means that more than half a million parents across England were notified about which…
I used to think I was smarter than my wife. Not anymore
According to new research published in Advances in Physiology Education, men tend to significantly overestimate their own intelligence whereas women…
A very British response to a death at a funeral
Something very odd occurred at a funeral I attended last week — somebody died. I don’t mean the person who…
Genetics and the truth about private schools
A paper published last week in an academic journal called npj Science of Learning attracted an unusual amount of press…
If Corbyn wins, emigrating to Israel is my clear escape route
I’m currently in Israel on a press trip organised by Bicom — the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre. Bicom…
QPR beat Sunderland 1-0… but my own score has not been settled
Last Saturday was shaping up to be one of the best days of my life. Freddie, my ten-year-old son, had…
We are being destroyed by tribalism. Let’s get rid of it
Amy Chua’s latest book, Political Tribes: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations, is a difficult read for anyone who…
World Book Day is here again. God help us
For parents of primary school children, the first Thursday in March has got to be the worst day of the…
My children have turned my weight loss into the Stanford prison experiment
I’ve become obsessed with my BMI. For those of you who don’t know, it stands for body mass index and…
Peter Rabbit ‘allergy bullying’? I’m allergic to all this constant outrage
I’m often surprised by what people are offended by. Like the makers of Peter Rabbit, the new animated feature from…
In today’s brave new world, fat is a high-tech issue
I have a confession to make: I’m a yo-yo dieter. For the past ten years, I’ve lost a bit of…
My dislike of Blue Peter made me into the man I am today
When I tell my children about my own childhood, they often express disbelief about how wretched it was. No Xbox?…
Toby Young: I’ve been unmanned by a tennis brute in bright pink
As regular readers will know, Caroline has developed a fanatical interest in tennis and is currently captain of the ladies…
Why my pet dog Leo had to go
Readers may recall that the Young family welcomed a new addition to the household about two years ago: a Hungarian…
Kids addicted to their screens? Don’t worry, there’s an app for that
Over Christmas, Caroline and I finally snapped about the amount of time our children were spending on their screens. If…
The real reason I’m a target for the twitchfork mob
Shortly after midnight on 1 January my phone began to vibrate repeatedly. Happy New Year messages from absent friends? No,…
It’s all shootin’, fishin’ and trufflin’ when lads and dads go out to play
Earlier this year I wrote a defence of driven shooting and ended by saying I hoped my children would have…
The subtle art of showing off at work
This has been an interesting year for me. Back in January, I took up a full-time job as director of…
