Qatar
We’re better off with Hamas in Qatar, than out
The news that Qatar is ‘re-evaluating’ its role as mediator in the ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas, amid claims by the…
Qatargate and the dubious moral authority of NGOs
The Qatargate scandal haunting the European Union is not merely about corrupt politicians and officials. The deplorable role of a non-governmental organisation is at the heart…
How Prince Charles’s €1m bagman infiltrated the British establishment
The Queen rarely – if ever – accepts invitations to dinner at private houses, no matter how grand. But in…
The burden of being a Newcastle United fan
The second thing I learned about football, after moving to London, is that you can never, ever switch your allegiance.…
The folly of American imperialism
Gstaad Mercedes Benz heir Mick Flick and I have been friends for more than half a century. We both married…
Will England pull out of the World Cup?
I wonder if the moral guardians of our country — the England football team — intend to participate in the…
Pompeo: Biden will give ‘hundreds of billions of dollars to a theocratic, corrupt regime’
Washington DC Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned on Monday that if Joe Biden wins the November elections, an incoming…
Did Jared Kushner punish Qatar because of a building on Fifth Avenue?
New York Talk about high life this is not. I smelled a rat long ago, but then the scent got…
It’s not just the Russians – there is no morality in top-level sport
Why do transgendered people need separate toilets? I thought, according to the prevalent orthodoxy, that the new gender they had…
The Heckler: architecture would be better off without Zaha Hadid
Zaha Hadid is the most famous woman architect in the world. Would women or, indeed, architecture, be better off without…
Let’s read the riot act to the kleptocrats who are buying us out
I have signed an affidavit for a hearing in the High Court stating that Janan Harb was, to my knowledge,…
Driving test advice from 80 years ago
First test The driving test celebrated its 80th anniversary. The first person to take the test, R.E.L. Beene of Kensington,…
Football’s elite deserve the foulness of Fifa
My favourite moment in the crisis engulfing football’s governing body, Fifa, came with the intervention of a man called Manuel…
Bet on a swift Grexit
‘Will Greece exit the eurozone in 2015?’ Paddy Power was pricing ‘yes’ at 3-to-1 on Tuesday, with 5-to-2 on another…
Those ancient Greeks were bores — but things are looking up
Thick snow is falling hard and heavy, muffling sounds and turning the picturesque village postcard beautiful. I am lying in…
Are the Qataris ready for the curse of Canary Wharf?
I’ve written before of a ‘curse of Qatar’ that might explain misfortunes attending the Gulf state’s UK investments, of which…
What will it take for us to stop doing business with Qatar?
Qatari money has flooded into London – but also into much less savoury places
If we won’t talk to John Cantlie’s captors, then why not have Qataris to do it for us?
It is a horrible thing to say, but I suspect that sooner or later we will begin to get irritated…
What is to be done about a world where everything is for sale?
Next time you read about an auctioneer’s gavel coming down on a $150 million painting bought by some flunkey representing…
You can't make friends with Uncle Sam and survive for long
Can somebody tell me when America last got it right? Uncle Sam’s track record in selecting leaders in faraway places…
How dare they sell the beaches where I played as a child
Porto Cheli Nothing is moving, not a twig nor a leaf, and I find myself missing the cows, the mountains…
Now even Fifa’s dinosaurs have learned to cry racism
Are all white women really prostitutes who should be avoided, as some children at those schools in Birmingham were apparently…
Did anyone really think that Qatar won the World Cup fairly?
I suppose the appalling shock to the soul that was occasioned by the allegation that Qatar bribed its way to…
Is Hamas finally losing its grip on Gaza?
The party is out of favour with its foreign neighbours and with ordinary Gazans
The end of snow? Not in Gstaad
Gstaad The American newspaper that prints only news it sees fit to poison good things recently announced ‘The end of…
