World
What happened to the working class?
The Sunday Times’s headline for the obituary of Edward Bond earlier this month was striking: ‘Briton who rose from a…
Why Spaniards celebrate April Fool’s Day in December
On 28 December 1993, after getting off a flight from Barcelona at Madrid’s Barajas airport, 23 year-old actress Maribel Verdu…
The King’s reassuring Easter appearance
Most years, the royal family’s attendance at the Easter Mattins service at St George’s Chapel in Windsor is nothing more…
The problem with Netflix’s Three-Body Problem
How many modern Chinese books, TV shows or films do you count among your favourites? Perhaps Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon comes to…
Euthanasia is coming – like it or not
Throughout the short life of the Assisted Dying Bill which failed in the Commons, the ‘faith community’ (a quaint term…
England’s forgotten Easter traditions
If you get up early enough on Easter morning, according to old English folklore, you might be lucky enough to…
We can’t eliminate all risk for children
The classic book The Railway Children contains several episodes that must seem almost incomprehensible to modern children. None perhaps are…
Save our parish priests!
Go to your parish church this Easter, because the clock is ticking for small and rural parishes. Even if the beauty…
Will the ‘Tik Tok Taoiseach’ undo the damage done by Leo Varadkar?
Simon Harris, the anointed successor to the outgoing Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, has quite the in-tray. Harris, who was the…
The enigma of John the Baptist
You’ve seen him in pictures and maybe also on TV. Dressed in rags, eating bugs, shouting angrily at people. You…
Rishi Sunak only has himself to blame for the rise of Reform
By their rugby analogies shall ye know them: when Boris Johnson was asked about his chance of becoming prime minister,…
How Starmer wants to reverse Thatcher’s legacy
Members of Labour’s frontbench have recently fallen over themselves to acclaim Margaret Thatcher. Hot on the heels of Rachel Reeves…
We’d be wise to ignore the Council of Europe’s transgender nonsense
The Council of Europe might claim to be focussed on human rights, democracy and the rule of law, but lately…
Japan is no country for young men
Another week, another fun fact about Japan’s declining birthrate and ageing population to startle and amuse us. Japan has now…
Why Labour is 99 per cent likely to form the next government
Academic conferences – even ones about politics – rarely make the news. This week’s annual conference of UK political scientists…
Who will take responsibility for our appalling prisons?
We know our prison system is awash with drugs but just what are they smoking at the Ministry of Justice?…
There’s nothing conservative about the Tories’ free childcare rollout
On Monday, the UK welfare state will expand to cover 15 hours of free childcare for working parents with two-year-olds.…
Why I used to hate Good Friday
If you’re of a certain age and you were brought up Catholic, you’ll remember ‘Good Friday’ as the most awful…
How to stop illegal immigration from Afghanistan
Spring is here. For Afghanistan that means more violence by the Taliban and other terrorists – and more refugees leaving…
The French want weed, not wine
Across France this Easter families will gather to eat, drink and, in many cases, smoke drugs. There are five million…
Where have the West’s liberal values gone?
Russia is ramping up preparations for a ‘large-scale’ war with Nato. That’s the verdict of the Washington-based Institute for the…
Who would trust Holyrood with legalising euthanasia?
Would you trust this lot with assisted dying? The Scottish parliament’s record on issues of personal liberty has been pretty…
Barristers should be allowed to join the Garrick
The Garrick Club affair has taken a new and slightly worrying twist, this time courtesy of – of all bodies…
When the gender debate doesn’t belong in the classroom
Kevin Lister has lost his case at an employment tribunal in Bristol. I am not surprised. The former maths teacher…
When will Prince Harry stop punishing British taxpayers?
Wherever you go in the world, there are always two things that are never cheap: lobsters and lawyers. The British…
