The Week
Letters: Why net zero is impossible
Carbon deceit Sir: At this week’s climate change conference, countries will be urged to follow the UK’s ‘lead’ in setting…
From the archive: the nature of Japan
From ‘The rule of taste’, Anthony Thwaite, 6 March 1959: The society of aristocrats, connoisseurs, wise men and heroes which…
Would the ancient Greeks have agreed that children are born evil?
The ‘social mobility tsar’ Katharine Birbalsingh has suggested that children, born evil, ‘need to be taught right from wrong and…
Are there more over-seventies or twenty-somethings behind the wheel?
Another minute Addressing COP26 in Glasgow, the Prime Minister claimed it was ‘one minute to midnight’ in the fight against…
Why I didn’t get a hug at COP26
COP26 is not your typical power summit, because world leaders, NGOs and hacks are all in the same scrum. Outside…
Portrait of the week: Fishing friction, Greta’s singalong and terror in Tokyo
Home Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, told delegates to the 26th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework…
The flaw in Britain’s net-zero plan
The COP26 summit is unlikely to be an outright flop. There has been no shortage of drama, with speakers seeming…
Letters: The contentious issues of religious conversion
Hard to reconcile Sir: Although not an Anglican, I appreciate Michael Nazir-Ali’s dilemma (‘A change of mind and heart’, 23…
Portrait of the week: Queen stays home, Boris rubbishes recycling and pay freeze thaws
Home The Queen will not attend the COP26 meeting in Glasgow next week; she had resumed light duties after having…
Rishi Sunak’s change of direction
The Conservative party has always sold itself to voters as the party of low taxation, but it has now pushed…
My night of nostalgia with Boris and co.
Rishi Sunak had a pre-game Twix and a Sprite to prepare for this week’s impressive Budget. I used to have…
The Globe, Plato and the corrupting force of art
The Globe theatre’s project to ‘decolonise’ Shakespeare, as if that would make plays like The Tempest ‘acceptable’ to them and…
What’s more expensive – petrol or fizzy drinks?
Filming fatalities The actor Alec Baldwin accidentally shot a cinematographer on set when mistakenly given a gun loaded with real…
The government’s net zero strategy doesn’t add up
The commitment to reach ‘net zero’ emissions by 2050 is the most expensive government proposal in modern history. Yet it…
Letters: How to feed the world
Doom and gloom Sir: The depressing article by Tom Woodman (‘You must be kidding’, 16 October) confirms my growing fears…
Why won’t the US media talk about trans issues?
The wonderful thing about woke narratives is that you only have to wait a while until they collapse. The core…
What are the Queen’s favourite tipples?
Drinks at the palace The Queen was reported to have given up regular drinking. What do we know about her…
Twitter has taken the place of the ancient curse-tablet
Twitter and other easily accessible means of online communication have encouraged the public to believe that Their Voice Will Be…
Portrait of the week
Home Sir David Amess, aged 69, the Conservative MP for Southend West, was stabbed to death while taking a constituency…
Portrait of the week: power failures, toy shortages and Boris’s Marbella mountain villa
Home In an extraordinary wrangle between government departments, the Treasury accused Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, of ‘making things up’…
In praise of Irn Bru
Gasbags Sir: Seb Kennedy tells us that, like Covid, our looming energy crisis came from China (‘Power grab’, 9 October).…
Aristotle’s account of hatred perfectly fits Sussex University students
Professor Kathleen Stock of Sussex University is accused by a group of students of being transphobic and a danger to…
What will history have to say about lockdowns?
Coronavirus may have fallen out of the news cycle but the threat of the virus has certainly not passed. Britain…
In defence of King George III
I’m on a book tour which involves 65 speeches in 60 days in Britain, Washington, Philadelphia, Virginia, Mexico, California and…
Are people still wearing masks?
Wrong place, wrong time The name of the village of Nelson, north of Cardiff, was described as ‘problematic’ in an…
