World
Britain has won the biggest Brexit prize of all
In the end, the fish were only of symbolic importance. Neither does it matter that much what happens to Scottish…
At last: we have a Brexit deal
Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen have both confirmed that we have a deal: one with zero tariffs, zero quotas. The…
Christmas raises the most basic political question
A few years ago, around this time of year, I overheard a nice exchange in a charity shop (I was…
Is there a Brexit deal?
Tonight we are still waiting for confirmation that a Brexit deal has been done. But the noises coming out of…
Who would want to be Joe Biden’s attorney general?
Whoever Joe Biden picks for attorney general is in a lose-lose situation. Why is that job so hard? At least…
The BBC should be ashamed of its reporting on trans teenagers
This is an article about some difficult, complex subjects: suicide, mental health, support for transgender children. It’s also about something…
Could 30 per cent of Brits have some Covid immunity?
How big is the job of vaccination? The aim is herd immunity, to protect enough people so that the virus…
No deal isn't what Paris thinks it is
The Brexit waiting continues. The negotiators are still talking but, according to one of those close to the negotiations on…
Trump supporters never stood a chance
New York There are times, living in this here dump, when I doubt if anyone’s heard of the word magnanimity.…
We must stop militant liberals from politicizing artificial intelligence
What do you do if decisions that used to be made by humans, with all their biases, start being made…
Eddie Izzard and the denigration of women
I’m done with being white. It’s boring. From now on I choose to identify as black and I insist that…
Why Boris Johnson can't solve the UK's crisis
The Brexit and Covid crises have merged into one. As of today, 21 December, France has blocked trucks from crossing…
Elvis and Nixon, the odd couple
If you were called upon to invent the human antithesis of rock and roll, you couldn’t do better than our nation’s 37th president,…
No-deal Brexit planning has been a lifesaver
The port of Dover has been closed down. The Eurotunnel isn’t carrying any freight for a couple of days. The…
Boris now faces a terrible choice over Brexit
Ten thousand lorries usually travel through the port of Dover in the run-up to Christmas. Now, Dover is completely shut.…
What the new strain means for our fight against Covid
‘What’s going on in Swale?’, asked a health journalist who I often speak to. This was back in November. I responded…
Snopes versus Abraham Lincoln
One of the most dreadful developments of the Donald Trump era has been the rise of the fact-check mafia. Every…
Donald Trump has made showers great again
President Donald Trump is the best. I already thought he was great, but I became even more convinced of his…
UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock suggests Tier 4 could stay until vaccine 'rolled out'
As 16.4 million people wake up to the first day of Tier 4 restrictions, many are asking for how long…
How sure can we be that Britain's Tier 4 lockdown will work?
How certain should we be of the government’s claim that the new variant of SARS-CoV-2 is 70 per cent more transmissible…
John le Carré’s London of exiles is alive and well
‘I’m an Englishman born and bred, almost.’ So says Karim Amir, protagonist of Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of…
The new strain of Sars-CoV-2: what we know
What do we know about the new Covid strain? Like all viruses, Sars-CoV-2 changes. Like a manuscript that is being endlessly…
The fight for liberalism
The world has many island nations, and sometimes the United States counts itself among them. We have water on either side of us,…
The case Brexiteers should make for Brexit
Why are Brexiteers rubbish at making the economic case for Brexit? On a whole range of things from three pin…
Liz Truss is right to take on the ‘equalities’ cartel
Yesterday the equalities minister, Liz Truss, gave a speech in which she attempted to lay-out a new direction for the…
