Virtuosic but slight – always prog’s problem: The Pineapple Thief's latest reviewed
Grade: B– Of all the various subdivisions in that wheezing and crippled phenomenon that we call rock music, prog has…
Falsehoods are running amok
I don’t know how much of a shock this will come to you as — perhaps none, because you are…
How a lie becomes truth
Teachers were told to exclude children who made ‘inappropriate’ jokes about Covid when they returned to school this week. These…
Our Belarusian blind spot
I’d always rather liked the Finns, until I came across the conductor Dalia Stasevska. When I asked my mother what…
Brits aren’t idiotic – but our institutions are
Two headlines from the same news-paper, less than three weeks apart. So, the Guardian on 31 July: ‘The Guardian view…
My pronouncement on the BBC
Radio 4 recently ran an adaptation of Albert Camus’s The Plague in which the protagonist, Dr Bernard Rieux, was transformed…
There's scarcely a dull track: Deep Purple's Whoosh! reviewed
Grade: B+ Less deep purple than a pleasant mauve. Ageing headbangers will note a lack of the freneticism that distinguished…
We are living in a post-truth society
Activists wish to change the name of a school in north London because it is named after a road which…
Fine tunes and spacey, quiet grandeur: Taylor Swift’s Folklore reviewed
Grade: A- This is worrying — like listening to a speech by David Lammy and finding yourself, against your better…
Fat-shaming didn’t do me any harm
One of the genuine pleasures I always take in arriving back in the north-east after being in London is that…
Young people have never paid attention to the BBC
In January, the director-general of the BBC, Lord Hall of Birkenhead, announced that the corporation intended to shift away from…
Why I will wear a face mask
We are enjoined by certain experts to wear face masks while having sexual intercourse. No change there, then, for me.…
When is a democracy not a democracy?
Displaying the pristine neutrality that has made her such a popular figure, Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis apparently tweeted the following last…
Ranges from the slight to the first-rate: Neil Young’s Homegrown reviewed
Grade: B+ Neil Young has been mining his own past very profitably for a long time now, disinterring a seemingly…
To understand the past, you need to inhabit it for a while
‘It’s no go my honey love, it’s no go my poppet; Work your hands from day to day, the winds…
The police have become too politicised to function
Forces have become too politicised to function
Contains the loveliest new song I've heard in decades: Bob Dylan's new album reviewed
Grade: A ‘Rough’ in terms of the mostly spoken vocals, but only ‘rowdy’ if you’re approaching your 80th birthday, which…
Does anyone think Boris has handled this well?
I don’t know what’s happened to our football hooligans. The modern malaise, I suppose. A gradual descent into ineffectuality. Back…
A rabbi stabbed, but no hate crime?
A mystery has occurred. In The Affluent People’s Republic of North London, a rabbi was stabbed on the street multiple…
The closing down of debate worries me most
The Eastern Orthodox Church has decided that yoga is incompatible with Christianity. This is an enormous problem for me, as…
Skates on the edge of parody: The 1975's Notes on a Conditional Form reviewed
Grade: B+ Just what you wanted. An opening track that matches banal piano noodling to an address by Greta Thunberg.…
The real problem with Newsnight
The Twitter feed of BBC Newsnight editor Esme Wren (remember, I read this stuff so you don’t have to) is…
We can’t see the wood for the trees
I was relieved to discover, earlier this week, that the Prime Minister’s special adviser, Dominic Cummings, was a symbol of…
Why schools should stay shut
Has the stock of any politician fallen more sharply, these past three or four years, than that of Shami Chakrabarti?…
In defence of the lockdown
I realised things were getting back to normal when I threw away a third of a tin of chopped tomatoes…
