Married at First Sight and the unkindness of strangers
Critics ask, ‘why MAFS’ – and it is certainly a polarising topic. This take, for example: ‘Fucking hard hitting journalism…
The EU and UK are one sentence away from a Brexit deal. Why the games?
Even the most fervent Brexiteer would have to admit to being impressed at the cohesion and chutzpah of the European…
Portrait of the week: More Brexit talks, more French protests and less horse racing
Home Theresa May, the Prime Minister, returned from a trip to Brussels and Dublin and hurried to the Commons to…
Jess Phillips: The message I’ve been forced to send Luciana Berger too many times
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‘You OK?’ was the message I sent to Luciana Berger last week. As I scroll back through our previous WhatsApp…
Brexiteers have ‘a special place in hell’ – but who else has a spot there?
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Places in Hell President Donald Tusk said there must be a ‘special place in Hell reserved for those who promoted…
How to get away with being a tyrant
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Last week, in an effort to understand what that left-wing hero Nicolás Maduro, President of Venezuela, must be suffering, Hieron,…
It turns out I sound much cleverer in French
On Tuesday, Le Monde published a piece it had commissioned from me to explain why, from a British point of…
If Corbyn’s not in the lead now, he never will be
Statistically, a Tory victory at the next election is unlikely. British voters tend not to grant a fourth term to…
My diversity targets for the BBC
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Terrible news for gay broadcasters — the BBC has only one year to meet a diversity target which says that…
The day I had enough of experts
‘Don’t even try,’ said the man on the car deck as Brittany Ferries’ Finistère tied up on the dock in…
Without forgiveness, we’re all doomed
![Virginia governor Ralph Northam, who is facing calls to resign after admitting he had worn blackface [WIN McNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES]](https://spectatorau.imgix.net/content/uploads/2019/02/Ralph_Northam.jpg?auto=compress,enhance,format&crop=faces,entropy,edges&fit=crop&w=410&h=275)
Over Christmas, I digitised slides from my twenties. In many an unidentified photograph, I didn’t recognise the scene. Where was…
What would Keynes make of a looming no-deal Brexit?
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‘It is seldom wise to sacrifice a present evil for a doubtful advantage in the future,’ wrote John Maynard Keynes…
The Corbyn crack-up
To say that the May administration is ‘the worst government anyone can remember’ is to abuse the English language. It…
Jeff Bezos isn’t a resistance hero – he’s a ruthless monopolist
It is tempting to view the blow-up between Amazon’s billionaire owner Jeff Bezos and David Pecker, publisher of the tabloid…
Europe’s culture clash: Macron vs Salvini is a battle over a continent’s soul
Two weeks ago Luigi Di Maio, Italy’s vice-premier and Labour Minister and the top politician of the Five Star Movement…
I was forced to wear a hijab. It wasn’t liberating
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It was World Hijab Day earlier this month. You probably missed it, but you can imagine the idea: ‘global citizens’…
How the cult of victimhood took hold of the royal family
Over the centuries, the British royal family have been many things: conquerors, vanquishers, tyrants and buffoons. They have been denied…
The eerie beauty of London’s abandoned Tube stops
If you’ve ever travelled on London’s Piccadilly Line, you may have noticed that on the stretch between Green Park and…
John Ruskin: the making of a modern prophet
At the time of his death in 1900, John Ruskin was, according to Andrew Hill, ‘perhaps the most famous living…
How fear and loathing of Nixon sent Hunter S. Thompson crazy
Hunter Stockton Thompson blazed across the republic of American arts and letters for too short a time. When in February…
Seeing and believing: the best spiritual films of Europe’s golden age
The Italian film director Federico Fellini was not known for his piety (far from it), yet towards the end of…
The unearthly powers of the North Pole
Having spent too much of my life at both poles (writing, not sledge-pulling), I know the spells those places cast.…
Fiction for the #MeToo age: Victory, by James Lasdun, reviewed
James Lasdun is my favourite ‘should be famous’ writer, his work extraordinarily taut and compelling. His eye-boggling psychological thrillers are…
The powerful magnetism of James Clerk Maxwell
Chances are, you are reading these words in some room or other. Build a wall down the middle of it,…
Hitting the bull’s-eye: Hark, by Sam Lipsyte, reviewed
This is an ebullient, irreverent and deeply serious novel in the noble tradition of Mark Twain, Sinclair Lewis (especially Babbitt…
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