The contagious madness of the new PC
It’s becoming pretty clear, as the year rolls on, that some of our brightest youngsters have gone round the bend.…
‘Not to worry, just a gang killing’: the mantra of the metropolitan middle classes
Another stabbing in my new neighbourhood, not with an axe or with a samurai sword this time, but a machete.…
Are schoolgirls still fair game for teachers?
Mr Malcolm Layfield, the former violin teacher at Chetham’s music school, will have been celebrating this week after being found…
Eritrean migrants face many dangers. Are we one of them?
A few weeks ago someone very dear to me passed on a question about The Spectator, asked them by a…
In praise of the pit bull terrier
Last night I saw a woman dancing with a pit bull terrier. It was about 9 p.m. and her curtains…
Original sin makes us better people. I wish Muslims believed in it
These days, on the subject of Islam, non-Muslims have mostly divided into two camps — though there’s a little wandering…
How do bright schoolgirls fall for jihadis? The same way they fall for Justin Bieber
How could they? How could girls brought up in the wealthy West abandon their families and their own bright futures…
Do I really care about Ebola? Do you? Does Oxfam?
It’s strange how quickly we all forgot about Ebola. Speak for yourself, you might say — and I will. Until…
The real reason GPs are grumpy: the robots are coming for them
There’s something wrong with the relationship between patients and their GPs. I’ve spent much of this winter in my local…
Are old fairy stories too scary for kids?
Moving house, stacking books in boxes, I came across a clutch of fairy books, Andrew Lang’s folk tales from around…
Patriotism isn’t uncivilised - it’s what makes civilisation possible
Is it racist to be patriotic? Is patriotism, by definition, small-minded and exclusive? When you strip away the onion layers…
What are 16-year-olds supposed to learn by making posters?
My niece, Lara, 15, has a mind like a surgical blade. On any subject, from calculus to The X Factor,…
Why there’s no such thing as an Etonian
Finally, just in the last few years I’d say, we’ve all begun to accept the role of nature in the…
Is forgiveness a weapon in the war on terror?
Could you ever torture someone? Could you, under different circumstances, in a different world (I hope) than the one which…
The perfectionist builder I always wanted
I have a friend who is perhaps best described by that old-fashioned phrase ‘ladies’ man’. He’s not a cad or…
Revealed: The hidden crisis in Britain's ambulance services
Last month I wrote about the weird exodus of paramedics from London’s ambulance service. Flies would blanch at the rate…
The ambulance service is in a state of emergency
Tom leant back against the bathroom wall, his face streaked with blood from the nosebleed, eyes half shut like an…
The voice of Big Mother does more for women than any Twitter feminist
Feminism in modern Britain is not for the faint-hearted. Only the smartest, mouthiest girls on the social media scene dare…
Please, Cameron – no moral grandstanding over Iraq
If there’s a bright spot in the murky mess of Iraq, it’s that finally we have a war that it…
Why don't my generation care if Britain fails?
In my late thirties, I have become patriotic. It’s one of those things that’s happened with age, like cooking to…
How the Suzuki method changed my life
Do you ever wonder, as your little darling balks at doing her violin or piano practice again, what all the…
Being rich makes you mean: here's proof
It’s all the rage these days to worry about the growing gap between rich and poor. Our fretting was fuelled…
Is there any part of human life that hasn't been turned into a medical condition?
When Greg, my old uni pal, came to stay from NYC he brought with him an extra bag for his…
Theresa May's right: the police need radical reform. Here's why
One fine morning early this year I had tea with Stephen Greenhalgh, Boris’s pleasant if perspiring deputy mayor for policing,…
In defence of self-deprecation
I think the ancient English art of self–deprecation may be dying. I don’t mean self-deprecation in its distorted and most…
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