Lizzo and the problem with Fat Activism
Remember when we all loved Lizzo? In 2019 ‘Juice’ (the last great party anthem BP – Before Pandemic) was a…
The sinister truth about the war on cars
When I was a girl in the 1970s, we didn’t have a car. We always took the train from our…
Who killed comedy?
Wading into the Sadiq Khan #HaveAWord brouhaha, Laurence Fox had a pop at Khan’s ally Romesh Ranganathan thus: ‘You are…
The cruelty of a trans beauty queen
BeKind is one of the Great Icks – to use the vivid word so beloved of Love Islanders – of…
Andy Murray and the unstoppable rise of the sporting bores
When I was a girl, sportsmen were amiable dolts. If they were old-school, they liked blokes and beer; if switched-on,…
The Transmaid’s Tale
It’s generally agreed that sex-selection is a Bad Thing. In India and China, sons are favoured over daughters – but…
Solid, drab grey
Count Maxim pursues his former cleaner Alessia to Albania – but sex in badly plumbed bathrooms while senseless on raki doesn’t sound that thrilling
It’s becoming ever clearer that climate change is a class issue
It’s not news that we live in a New Medieval age of Magical Thinking, when the Enlightenment is seen as…
The stupidity of the Oscars’ diversity quotas
Is anyone actually watching the Oscars anymore? Until ‘The Incident’ between Messrs Smith and Rock last year the direction of…
The downfall of Prince Harry
With festival season just around the corner, it is fitting that Prince Harry’s Worldwide Privacy Tour is coming to a…
Proud to be British
Sunder Katwala, of Indian-Irish heritage, analyses the whiteness of the Remain vote, seeing Britain’s pro-European movement as a case of cosmopolitanism without diversity
The sad truth about Phillip Schofield
You hear a lot about Artificial Intelligence (AI) taking over professions in the near future – and I think television…
This coronation is making me a republican again
I was never a monarchist. One of my earliest memories is of being a bolshy little girl refusing to stand…
Blairite ‘nepo babies’ are the worst of the lot
When the singer Lily Allen found herself flak-catching recently, she was quick to point out she was the OK kind…
Self-obsession will be the death of music
Though I’m not the most avid fan of her oeuvre, I was cheered recently to see that Ellie Goulding wanted…
The Guardian has wrecked itself
It’s so strange now to think that I spent several happy years as a Guardian columnist, the only billet from…
The ignorance of Gary Lineker
When I was a girl, footballers had a somewhat limited vocabulary. That wasn’t to say that they were seen as…
Dirty work
How did modern sex become so unsexy?
Nicola Bulley and the shame of the TikTok ghouls
Ghoul – ‘a person morbidly interested in death or disaster’ – is such a descriptive word. There are a lot…
Why I’m glad to see the back of Nicola Sturgeon
I see Scotland as the brain of the UK, with Wales as the soul and Northern Ireland as the heart.…
From babe to matriarch
Even the serious abuse she suffered as a small child and a teenager is described without a trace of self-pity
We are living through a golden age of misogyny
I hope I’ll be forgiven for not dropping my dog-eared copy of The Female Eunuch in sheer molten awe upon reading in…
Why I’m sceptical of the ADHD epidemic
Just a quick plea to those who know me; if you’re going to burst upon me with a revelation, make…
Last orders
The sad decline of drunkenness
The insipid cult of saint Jacinda Ardern
Watching Jacinda Ardern’s departure speech, I reflected that even though I invented the word cry-bully – ‘a hideous hybrid of…
