The true cause of the public’s anger
What Keir Starmer should have said, but didn’t, was that he had indeed drunk some beer in a frowsy Labour…
The truth about that No. 10 party
People seem surprised and a little doubting that the Prime Minister is incapable of remembering if he attended a party…
Lovely and wistful: Neil Young and Crazy Horse's Barn reviewed
Grade: A I have persisted in buying everything Neil Young releases since I first heard On the Beach as a…
A barking approach
We are considering privatising or selling off our dog, Jessie. She seemed a rather wonderful idea when we got her…
Truly godawful: Ed Sheeran's = (Christmas edition)
Grade: C= My wife’s ill with Covid and demanding inexhaustible libations and difficult meals, which she will leave uneaten. The…
My meeting with the Durham University mob
My abiding memory of this fairly appalling year is of the face of the young student at Durham University who…
My plan for young people
I have been reading 39 Ways To Save The Planet by the BBC journalist Tom Heap, which includes such ingenious…
Life online is about to get even worse
No sooner had an inch or two of snow fallen on our upland areas last week than the climate-change Morlocks…
Why the northeast could benefit from the ‘Waitrose Effect’
A Church of England primary school in Richmond, London, has junked Sir Winston Churchill and J.K. Rowling as names for…
It was cheap schlock then, and it's expensive schlock now: Adele's 30 reviewed
Grade: C The problem I have is that I thought she was pretty awful before — when she was just…
The importance of stigma
Exciting news from Durham University, which is helping its students to become ‘sex workers’. This noble institution is offering two…
Decent dream pop: Beach House’s Once Twice Melody reviewed
Grade: B+ Everything these days devolves to prog — and not always very good prog. Where once synths were vastly…
Kamala Harris and the problem with racist trees
I was intrigued to learn that Kamala Harris, the Vice President of the US, is worried about racist trees. I…
Oh dear, Abba’s new album is a bit of a dog: Voyage reviewed
Time has been very kind to Abba. No one back in the 1970s thought of them as geniuses. But they've even lost the talent for writing memorable tunes
Who owns the language?
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, is giving local residents £25,000 grants to enable them to change the names of…
The ideology of madness
On the wooden jetty from which the ferry used to depart for the little island of Utoya, there stood for…
Israel has been spared Sally Rooney
I have not watched the BBC’s new period drama Ridley Road because I knew it would be impossible for the…
Blame it all on the middle-class drug users
We can suffer a lethal pandemic with lockdowns, petrol shortages and supermarket shelves almost entirely denuded of sausages. But when…
Labour has gone back to 1983
One day quite soon someone at a petrol pump is going to get a tyre iron wrapped around their head.…
God, it's slight: Lindsey Buckingham's new album reviewed
Grade: B– The first time Lindsey Buckingham had a big falling out with Stevie Nicks we at least got some…
The war against intelligence
Two weeks have passed and somehow James Conway is still in a job. He is the director of the English…
In defence of Jess Brammar
I noticed with interest that Gigalum island — off the Kintyre peninsula in Argyll — was up for sale for…
The political power of Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown
There is a rather sweet moment in the middle of each Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown show where, after some magnificently obscene…
Repetitive, spiritless, god-bothering music: Kanye West's Donda reviewed
Grade: C– The nicest thing one can say is that this is a marginally better album than we would have…
The Nobel truth
I suspect that there are no people in the world quite so right-on as the Nobel prize committee members. A…
