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Catriona’s accident has made of us minor celebrities in the village
Three weeks ago Catriona was going to the village shop when a building site security fence fell on her. Wire…
The EU has banned a miracle cure for laminitis
Once upon a time, in a country that didn’t run itself, a horse supplement company invented a cure for laminitis.…
Is there anything that can’t be put down to a ‘condition’?
I suppose it is overstating the case to suggest that dyslexia is simply a term coined to assuage the disappointment…
My jailhouse diet
Gstaad It’s written in the Declaration of Independence, so it must be true: the pursuit of happiness is an…
How Captain Mainwaring lightened my mother’s dying days
On Saturday evening I showered, shaved and, prompted by a strange impulse, put on my going-out clothes. Then I cycled…
A mysterious case of fly-tipping immunity
When is fly-tipping not fly-tipping? I think I can explain, now the pile of rubble has finally moved from the…
An all-female cabinet? Insert your own joke here
I wonder what Jacques Derrida would have made of the new leader of the UK Independence party? In the philosopher’s…
Another birthday has got me down, but the alternative is being dead
If it hadn’t arrived I’d be dead, but it was hardly welcome: another birthday — 38 years old on 11…
A day spent in Oncology
A 20-minute drive through quiet country lanes then suddenly a madcap roundabout and teeming new ring road and finally the…
I’ve always enjoyed myself on Wayfair – but this time I’ve had enough
One thing Lorraine Kelly does not say in the Wayfair advert is: ‘What if I fancy getting my money back…
Standing on the Acropolis brings out the Greek in me
Athens I am struggling up the slippery marble steps of the Acropolis with the Geldofs and the Bismarcks. We gaze…
Do I have cancer in my left eye?
My luck had to run out one of these fine days. Everybody’s does sooner or later. I’ve had a fantastic…
The travellers could teach the locals a thing or two about being responsible citizens
The travellers were blamed for fly-tipping when all that was left on the common after they went back up north…
Boris may end up delivering Corbyn
Alastair Campbell has written a longish ‘open’ letter to Jeremy Corbyn, helpfully explaining why he has decided not to contest…
Chatting to Bob Geldof about Boris and Brexit
Coronis We are steaming on Puritan towards the private isle of Coronis for a long Pugs weekend and the…
A trip to Dartmoor Prison with my grandson and his cousin
My grandson Oscar (nine) shares a bedroom with his cousin Lucas (eight) and sits next to him at school. Before…
The village fête has been cancelled due to an ‘unauthorised incursion’
The village fête had to be cancelled because of what they called an ‘incursion’ on to the green. The way…
We’ve made morons of our police force
I never believed Carl Beech’s allegations that he had suffered multiple depravities, including sexual abuse, at the hands of various…
The ethnicity pay gap just doesn’t add up
I suppose it was a bit naive to wander on to Newsnight having been booked to talk about Brexit and…
Let’s choose our politicians by random selection
Athens Standing right below the Acropolis, where pure democracy began because public officials were elected by lot, I try to…
Italy, in seven hours and five trains
The train standing at platform 1A had no air-conditioning and the heat was stupefying. Latecomers pressing into the carriage reacted…
Why won’t the police acknowledge that speeding coppers are a liability?
For a while, it seemed as if the only words my beloved would ever say again were ‘chicken Kievs’. Two…
I’m starting a trade union for intellectuals
I have just returned from Minneapolis after attending the annual conference of the International Society for Intelligence Research. That’s ‘intelligence’…
End this hate speech against my community
I am a football fan. Each fortnight I go to watch my club and, like the overwhelming majority of the…
Coco Gauff won fair and square, but she played terrible tennis
Martina Navratilova has never been shy about telling it like it is. She came out when other athletes were hiding…
