Status anxiety
Some (tentative) reasons to be cheerful in 2022
Someone sent me a job advert recently for a Junior Research Fellowship at Queen’s College, Oxford. It states: ‘The Queen’s…
Let’s not become Scotland
The Law Commission has published a string of recommendations following its recent consultation on changes to hate-crime laws in England…
Why punish a scientist for defending science?
As a defender of free speech, I sometimes feel like a man falling through a collapsing building. Just when you…
I’ve become a social pariah – just for having children
When Caroline and I got married in 2001, having four kids was not only fashionable, it was the socially responsible…
The day I became a prize contrarian
Something rather unusual happened to me a few weeks ago: I was shortlisted for a prize. Not the GQ Men…
Racism, cricket and the problem with ancient allegations
Last week, the former England cricket captain Michael Vaughan revealed that he’d been accused by another cricketer — Azeem Rafiq…
Sky Sports is ruining my football season
When I promised my 13-year-old son, Charlie, that we would go to as many QPR games as possible in 2021-22…
Why lockdown sceptics like me lost the argument
I’m optimistic that the government won’t implement ‘Plan B’, let alone impose another lockdown — but not because sceptics like…
Virtue signalling is really status signalling
A £19,000-a-year London day school was in the news this week because it has started instructing its pupils about ‘white…
‘Retain and Explain’ won’t end the culture wars
I’m sympathetic to Oliver Dowden’s formula for defusing culture-war disputes about statues of controversial historic figures: ‘retain and explain’. That…
Who let the dog out?
Caroline and I are just back from a weekend break in Scotland and, nice though it was, I hadn’t realised…
The thrill of running late
‘Dad, why is it that whenever we go anywhere, we’re always running to catch a train?’ asked Charlie, my 13-year-old.…
My wife is caught in a web of fear
Even in my shed at the bottom of the garden I can hear the screams coming from the house. Shrieks…
Has Boris Johnson given up on free schools?
For the founders of the West London Free School, of which I was one, last Thursday should have been a…
The stories that are too good to check
Last weekend, Rolling Stone ran a story about an interview an emergency room doctor had given to a local news…
Why Gove’s night on the dance floor is good news
I was pleased to see pictures of Michael Gove at a nightclub in Aberdeen last weekend. According to press reports,…
My eye-opening mini-break in Hull
Given how difficult it is to arrange an overseas holiday, I thought I’d take Charlie and Freddie, my two youngest,…
The Orwell Foundation has let George Orwell down
George Orwell would not have been surprised by the brouhaha surrounding Kate Clanchy. Two years ago, Clanchy published Some Kids…
I took my wife to a Millwall match – and it didn’t go well
The fighting started just as Caroline turned right on to the Uxbridge Road after emerging from QPR’s stadium on Loftus…
Have my suits shrunk in lockdown?
I hadn’t noticed how much weight I’d put on during lockdown until I went out for a business lunch a…
The true cost of my week in Wales
Rather miraculously, my daughter managed to leave the country last week to go on holiday with a group of friends.…
In defence of footballers taking the knee
Before the television presenter Guto Harri took the knee live on air — which cost him his job at GB…
Football’s never coming home
I failed a moral test last weekend. A friend offered me a free ticket to the Euro 2020 final and…
My battle to be top dog
Even a small dog can be quite high maintenance. No, I’m not talking about Mali, our one-year-old cavapoochon, but Bertie,…
My problem with the Euros
I’m struggling to work up much enthusiasm about England’s progress in the Euros. I know, I know, Tuesday night’s victory…
