In defence of bad jokes
I was once at a terrific Shabbat dinner where late in the evening one of the other guests suddenly said:…
Oh ambassador, you’re spoiling us
I know the following sentence is going to get me into trouble. Still, there are times when you wonder whether…
The blame games are about to begin
‘The main job of a government is to ensure that the economics don’t go wrong.’ So argued an economist friend…
Meat of the matter
Are you ready for ‘Operation Red Meat’? If not, then you should brace yourself. For it looks set to be…
Why I don’t walk under ladders
Well, I did warn you. As I typed my column last week on the imminent end of Covid I said…
I’m calling it – Covid is over
If anyone had any doubts about the wisdom of tempting fate then they probably haven’t considered the case of Betty…
History is less clear as you are living through it
I was recently reading the works of the 17th-century antiquary John Aubrey, who at one point mentions a ghost craze…
America’s vice
Is it rude to refer to the Vice President of the USA as the world’s most famous diversity hire? Possibly.…
The type of person who makes the world work
I’m not sure how many readers know the name of Anthony Smith, who died on Sunday aged 83, but a…
America’s identity crisis
There was no reason for the world ever to hear the name Kyle Rittenhouse. Except that in the summer of…
Why parliament is in such bad order
I see that the most boring conversation in the nation is back. The one even worse than people in the…
Could a truthful Clinton have saved the US?
What if Bill Clinton had told the truth? Would America’s sexual and political history be different? The thought occurs because…
Radical error
Britain’s fatal unwillingness to confront Islamic extremism
The pandemic has made cynics of us all
A report by MPs into the spread of the coronavirus has concluded that the government’s approach constituted one of this…
The tactics of victimhood
Late last week the Labour deputy leader was the subject of a glowing profile in the Times. The piece described…
The truth about lies
There were two remarkable things about Emma Raducanu’s wonderful win at the US open last week. The first was the…
A farewell to arms
It was quite the handover at Kabul airport this week. The last American troops to exit Afghanistan reportedly left facing…
It’s not just Biden who’s kidding himself
One of the most interesting aspects of President Biden’s speech on the American withdrawal from Afghanistan is that it shows…
Looking for enchantment
Most social occasions now seem to kick off with a wasted hour or two. The time is spent discussing Covid:…
Turning the tide
How Britain can stem the stream of illegal arrivals
Get ready for the Boring Twenties
Earlier this year, I noted the suggestion (made by an American academic and run with by a swathe of the…
The confusing case of Oli London
Not everyone will have heard of Oli London, a British social media influencer who made news for two reasons last…
Why we don’t say it
The official review into the Manchester Arena bombing was published this week. Four years after 22 mainly young people were…
Cambridge deserves better than Stephen Toope
Regular readers may be aware that in recent months I have been having a running-spat with a Canadian lawyer called…
Our great blanket of doubt
Now that the government has kindly allowed us to go out again, I wonder if anyone has discovered the same…
