Burnham should bin his idea to ban disposable BBQs
Cooking has held little – actually, no – appeal during the steamy days and tropical nights of the past five…
Andy Burnham will regret his working holiday
Here in my office on a quiet Manchester morning, with the air surprisingly warm beneath a gunmetal sky, the conditions…
Why I’m not celebrating Andy Burnham’s northern cabal
Andy Burnham, the man dubbed King of the North, chief evangelist of Manchesterism and pioneer of ‘No. 10 up ’ere’,…
Don’t take down your St George’s Cross
As the country comes to terms with England’s World Cup drubbing, a familiar ritual is now playing out as a…
Andy Burnham is making Manchester look like a joke
It may sound a little naff, but Manchester is a city I’m genuinely proud to call home. Not least because…
Now Ireland wants to boycott Israeli football games
After their spectacular own goal over Eurovision, surely sulking Irish activists would think twice before launching yet another attempt to…
I’m sick of the Manc-splaining about Andy Burnham
Northerners love to chat, especially with complete strangers. Often it takes little more than a tin of tomatoes at a supermarket…
Why the public rejected anti-Israel theatrics at Eurovision
There’s a compelling explanation as to why Israel soared above the din of geopolitical protest to power into second place…
Hatzola isn’t only for Jews
What to do when you wake one morning in such severe pain that you feel as if you’ve been skewered in…
I have so much in common with Angela Rayner, so why can’t I stand her?
Were I ever to share a cuppa with Angela Rayner, a certain spark of kinship might be expected. After all,…
We’re in danger of forgetting the Holocaust
On October 7, 2023, more Jewish people were murdered in a single day than at any time since the Holocaust.…
Why I’m doing wet, rather than dry, January
Rainy grey skies so often compound the gloom of going back to work after the Christmas break. Not least in…
How to break your phone addiction this New Year
As we finally emerge from the food coma of the Christmas blowout, our attention turns to New Year’s resolutions –…
Boycotting Israel could kill Eurovision
What exactly is the point of Eurovision? It can’t be about the music. Britain, the nation that gifted the world…
It’s miserable being an Epstein
It was shortly after my fifteenth birthday that I discovered the music of The Beatles. A school friend and I…
Dawn French’s M&S Christmas ad is an insult to Jews
Being born, shall we say, under a different star, there are no official Christmas celebrations in our house. Sure, it’s…
The case for staying put: why this Jew isn’t leaving Britain
Is it time for the wandering Jews to once again pack up and go? It’s a question that has been…
What’s so bad about ID cards?
Back in 2009, when the Labour government piloted a voluntary biometric identity card, I signed up immediately. In fact –…
Andy Burnham isn’t the answer to Labour’s woes
There was a palpable feeling of euphoria across my home city of Manchester when the Gallagher brothers finally buried years…
Why an overhaul of A-levels is long overdue
It’s been forty years since I took my A-levels. Yet one particular dream still gatecrashes my sleep with irritating regularity:…
The real reason the UK always fails at Eurovision
The UK has a peerless reputation for producing some of the catchiest and most imaginative pop music on the planet.…
Save me from Disney’s Snow White feminism
Controversy surrounding the live-action version of Snow White, which is released on Friday, suggests there is little likelihood of a…
Working from home turned me into a terrible mum
Can the passage of time ever assuage parental guilt? After all, brooding over what can’t be changed is a pointless…
We need to reclaim the word ‘Nazi’
You can tell a lot about a person by their reaction to traffic wardens. Those of a mellow, reflective bent…
Why are so many BBC broadcasters going native?
Of the many characters created by the peerless Victoria Wood, one creation in particular lingers in the mind: namely the…
