Roman censors
Students eager to pull down statues and silence debate on topics of which they disapprove — and vice-chancellors who pusillanimously…
A matter of life and death
Before he died, the former Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, reassured his diocese that he was ‘at peace and…
Frater, ave atque vale
As his obituaries pointed out, my brother David made a name for himself with his unrideable bicycle; his ‘perpetual motion’…
Trump and his empire
All the news emerging from the White House seems to suggest that the USA is in that state so beloved…
Beauty and the beasts
Doctors have analysed how the mucus of a certain type of slug gives it protection against its being levered off…
Health and personal choice
Public health specialist Sir Michael Marmot has blamed ‘the cuts’ for the rise in dementia among the elderly, resulting in…
The post-truth is out there
In a political ‘post-truth’ world, currently the subject of a slew of books, emotions and personal belief are said to…
Power and the middle class
When the centre disappears, equality vanishes with it
Aristotle vs the civil service
The civil service is to be allowed to find out what job applicants’ ‘socio-economic background’ is. What abject drivel is…
Plutarch and the EU
Boris Johnson argues that the current European Union is yet another failed attempt to replicate the golden age of a…
How Rome did immigration
Last week it was suggested that the questions asked of London mayor Sadiq Khan had nothing to do with racism,…
Rome, racism and Sadiq Khan
‘Racism’ refers to the belief in racially determined inferiority, most often recognised in body-type, about which, by definition, nothing can…
Pliny on the joy of elephants
In order to deter poachers, hundreds of tons of elephants’ tusks are being incinerated in Kenya. But even for Romans,…
Henry III vs EU law
It is no surprise that the laws imposed on the UK by a European parliament in Brussels should so infuriate…
The Treasury’s prophecies
The Treasury has announced that an EU exit ‘could leave households £4,300 a year worse off’. Since that only ‘could’ be…
Tax returns to boast about
As Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell whinge away about how rich David Cameron’s family is, they might consider that in…
How Seneca got to sleep
As if we did not have enough to cause us sleepless nights, the Royal Society for Public Health has demanded…
The Greek Donald Trump
Why does the Republican party loathe Donald Trump? Because Trump is the ultimate loose cannon, beholden to no one. And…
Cicero on regulating MPs
As Sir Kevin Barron, chair of the MPs’ ‘Standards’ committee, steps down so that his own MP-packed body can adjudicate…
Safe space in ancient Athens
Brilliant Oxford undergraduates argue that it is right to prevent us saying things they object to, because speech they do…
Governor Cameron and the Brussels empire
Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the EU Commission, made a typically brilliant intervention in the EU referendum debate by arguing that…
People power then and now
It does seem extraordinary that the increasingly puce-faced Mr Cameron offered us an ‘in-out’ referendum and is now telling us…
Seneca on bouncers
The papers are full of top stories about important people who cannot get into important parties because the doorman does…
Oscar vs Augustus
There was something admirable about the spirit of careful mockery behind the doggy bags on offer to the finalists in…
Cleisthenes and the EU
One feels that Sir Stuart Rose, leader of the EU referendum ‘In’ campaign, should really try a little harder. First…
