My Eurovision winners and losers
I had the sudden suspicion, at about ten o’clock on Saturday night, that I was the only straight male in…
Wrong but not ‘harmful’
Three years ago this week marked my first misgivings about the government’s Covid lockdown. Sure, I was late to that…
What King Charles gets wrong
Marooned in London for a day between meetings, I walked for miles in an attempt to find something good to…
The delicious doublethink of Diane Abbott
I thought I had forgotten about Diane Abbott, but in fact there has been a Diane-sized hole in my life…
Scotch and rum
For people who take politics seriously and very earnestly, such as myself, the present debacle within the Scottish National party…
A law unto themselves
The journos weren’t very impressed with Nicola Sturgeon’s house. Never mind the plod staring like morons at her barbecue or…
The women can’t save us now
It is with great sadness that I must report the departure of the world’s only female head of state who…
The rule of lawyers
Have you had your fourth Covid booster jab yet? They are being very quiet about it these days. I used…
Childcare: an inconvenient truth
Wyndham Lewis once said that ‘the ideas of a time are like the clothes of a season’ – but that,…
Who cares what Gary says?
There was a kind of peak BBC Radio 4 moment last week when the network put on a play called…
No, minister
I am at a bit of a loss to understand the hoo-ha about the civil servant Sue Gray. She has…
Unmasking the truth
You want some tomatoes? Come up here, we’re inundated. We’ve got a tomato mountain. That’s because nobody in the north…
Those naughty Vikings had it coming
A little late in the day, perhaps, it has been pointed out to the intellectual colossi of South Tyneside Council…
A sense of entitlement
How are you coping during this cost- of-living crisis? Have you made your way to the food bank yet? I…
When fantasy meets reality
Once upon a time, a fox with a large bushy tail and a disingenuous smile changed his name from Reynard…
Tory quislings in the culture war
Aretha Franklin’s 1967 hit ‘(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman’ should be removed from the music streaming network…
Everything in Britain is broken
It is rare to find an example of public art which one can applaud, unequivocally, but I think I have…
My DNA results are in
I did not enjoy the Christmas festivities this year: I sang no carols, ate no turkey and failed to watch…
A world of our own making
Two very brief excerpts from Radio 4 last week. First, my wife turned on her radio in time to hear…
The march of the local council dictators
I was impressed with the passion Sir Keir Starmer managed to whip up within himself when presenting Gordon Brown’s interminable…
