Cycling
The origin of The Spectator’s Parliamentarian of the Year Awards
Forty years ago, a whisky company, Highland Park, which advertised its Famous Grouse in The Spectator, approached us with a…
Who works as a bouncer or security guard?
Farewell, Chagos The government announced that it would hand sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. There are 13 other…
Why Keely Hodgkinson is the one to watch at the Olympics
The Olympics have been creeping up on us through the forest of top-class sport this summer. But now they’re here,…
What Jeremy Vine gets wrong about cyclists
I can’t believe we need to say this, but here goes: Motorists should not pull over to allow cyclists to…
Real cyclists don’t use e-bikes
The curse of e-bikes
The case against Ulez – by a cyclist
Whether you’re more afraid of the forces of order or the forces of chaos is generally a matter of disposition.…
The embarrassing truth about how I got injured
I had a bicycle accident last week. Not terrible, but not great either. Of the five I’ve had since I…
I just can’t face one more argument with anyone, ever again
The cyclist was on the wrong side of the road coming towards me head-on. It was a winding country lane…
Is any sporting event more brutal than the Tour de France?
That great Frenchman the Marquis de Sade would have been justly proud of the Tour de France had he lived…
Graham Robb deserves to be a French national treasure
Philip Hensher is enthralled by Graham Robb’s evocative new history of France
Letters: What happened to bells on bikes?
Jesus wept Sir: Sam Dunning’s brilliant exposure of the corrupting links between Jesus College, Cambridge and the Chinese Communist party…
The ceaseless self-pity of cyclists
I know that all must have prizes in the Victimisation Olympics these days, but when I heard a bicycle-rider on…
The real sporting star of this summer
Think of a punishing distance for a bike race. Double it, multiply by ten, throw in two of the world’s…
The Richard Freeman affair casts a cloud over British cycling
For those with neither the time nor inclination to plough through a PhD in the intricacies of the scandals surrounding…
The war on cars is backfiring
For most London-based politicians, there’s a threat that’s worse than Covid. You’ll begin to notice it as we ease out…
Letters: Is cycling really conservative?
Veritas vincit Sir: Professor Dawkins eloquently and engagingly defines true truth for us (‘Matters of fact’, 19 December). It seems…
Come back, doggers, all is forgiven
Bring back the men having sex in the undergrowth. This was the thought that occurred to me and my friend…
Jeremy Vine: Save our cycle lanes
‘Stopping the diary/’ wrote Philip Larkin, ‘Was a stun to memory,/ Was a blank starting.’ I never really understood those…
How do we stop the Lycra dads using our stable yard as a toilet?
The cyclist pulled into our gateway, got off his bike and grabbed hold of the electric fencing. Installing game cameras,…
You wait ages for an ambulance, then five come along at once
‘I need an ambulance!’ yelled the builder boyfriend into his mobile phone as the cyclist lay bleeding from a head…
The abominable selfishness of the Surrey middle classes
‘Have you met the man who keeps his horses in this field?’ said one silver-haired lady to the other, as…
This is not a natural disaster, but a manmade one
Should our future permit an occupation so frivolous, historians years from now will make a big mistake if they blame…
We don’t have lockdown in Surrey
The man was unloading cycles from the boot of his car just as I was about to take the turning…
A young Rwandan scholar left a profound impression on me
In the Rwandan Genocide Memorial gift shop I bought a handy Kinyarwanda–Kiswahili–English phrase book. The tipping point in the decision…
When Brexiter meets Catalexiter
After the hostel breakfast, I stood on the tropical grass lawn smoking the first fag of the day and mulled…
