I’m a sucker for Tucker Carlson
I was asked on Tucker Carlson Tonight only once, while in New York about two years ago, and I turned…
How to lose sales and alienate people
In some quarters, American enterprise is alive and well. Established in 1929 to promote consumer protection, the conservative non-profit Consumers’…
Why Democrats want Trump
Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg’s indictment of an even more prominent fat man seems a big win for Donald Trump,…
The high price of low interest rates
You’ll recall that I’ve railed for years against zero interest rates, which transplanted a cancerous marrow into the very bones…
Despotic social controls cost lives
Look, I realise you don’t want to read this column. I’m unenthusiastic about writing it. For most of us, any…
My list of banned words
North America’s Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Language Project has released yet another list of Bad Say. Scientists are to swap…
The pervasive timorousness of publishing
After publishing 17 books, I’m no stranger to the publicity campaign. In my no-name days, my publicist would purr that…
The war against words
The University of Washington technology department has banned the word ‘housekeeping’. Not because the ‘problematic’ noun is overtly ist (ableist,…
Are we kidding ourselves over Ukraine?
Optimism can be surprisingly hilarious. In my last novel, two spouses agree to quit the planet once they’ve both turned…
Xi, Covid and seasonal schadenfreude
’Tis indeed the season to be jolly. Over the holidays, we can all put our feet up to view a…
What Trump really wants
Over the years, I’ve received my share of green-ink author’s mail. You know, from folks who’ve discovered an exciting variety…
Should the better-off pay more for everything?
Once the energy price cap expires in April, the Chancellor is apparently considering the levy of ‘social tariffs’ on the…
Kamala’s blagging it
We throw around pejoratives such as ‘Idiot!’ a bit too carelessly, because then when we need to flag up genuinely…
Money is rotting
Punters and pundits alike reacted to rising mortgage rates in the wake of Truss’s mini-Budget with indignant horror. Leaving aside…
Should failing students really graduate as doctors?
If I seem to be bashing universities lately, they’ve asked for it. The prestigious New York University in lower Manhattan…
Shame should not be heritable
Vice-chancellor Stephen Toope claims it was ‘inevitable’ that a university ‘as long-established as Cambridge’ would have links to slavery. Now…
Not all Americans are so crass
In the face of American snark about the Queen’s death, many a British newspaper reader was disgusted. With bad tidings…
Why didn’t more people resist lockdown?
Last week’s Spectator interview with Rishi Sunak conveyed the anti-science ‘science’, the paucity of even fag-packet cost-benefit analysis and the…
The shameful truth – terrorism works
This is a bleak version of looking on the bright side, but what’s astonishing about last week’s vicious stabbing in…
Good riddance to the Tavistock
Most push notifications that pop up on my tablet concern impending catastrophe. But last week, one newsflash made my day.…
Why I won’t have a Covid booster
In the news recently, we’ve heard from multiple Britons who’ve lost family members or sacrificed their own health to Covid’s…
The age of the anti-natalists
As of 2023, the novel for which I may still be best known will have been out for 20 years.…
The case for hiking interest rates
Check out these hyperventilating headlines from last week: ‘What the Fed’s largest interest rate hike in decades means for you’…
Does advertising matter?
‘Stop! Don’t fast-forward. I love this advert!’ How often do you say that? Considering that some commercial breaks run to…
Why I was almost thrown out of South Africa
On my 2 p.m. arrival for a week-long work trip to South Africa a fortnight ago, an immigration agent flapped…
