Diane Abbott to Donald Trump: Christmas messages from the great and the good
Diane Abbott I spent the entire day searching for those familiar traditional Christmas delicacies which all kids adore – but…
Caroline Flint could have beaten Boris
There were not many moments of gloom on election night. I spent most of it, so far as I can…
I’ll take Russian democracy over ours
Staraya Russa. About two thirds of the way from Moscow to St Petersburg, in the historic Novgorod Oblast, once the…
Who are we kidding – of course terror is a political issue
It was pleasing to see that old clip of Gerry Adams endorsing Jeremy Corbyn re-emerge, just before the acts of…
I’ve found the country’s last Lib Dem voter
In Gerrards Cross, in the rain, dusk falling, attempting to gauge the political mood of the town through the pristine…
Get ready for the Great Lammy Firewall
Many of you will be waiting, with much excitement, for the Great Lammy Firewall, which will be introduced by our…
My charter of fundamental rights
I was chatting to a young medical student, a very bright chap from West Africa, who was nonetheless perplexed by…
Beware the wokeplace romance
I wonder if we are beginning to see the end of assortative mating. For a long while now we have…
Woke slogans welded to incompetent grunge: Neil Young’s Colorado reviewed
Grade: B- Horribly woke boilerplate slogans welded inexpertly to the usual incompetent Crazy Horse grunge. Young and his pick-up band…
If you do one thing this election, stop your kids voting
As I write this, MPs are arguing about whether a general election should be on 9 December or 12 December.…
Patently insincere: Kanye’s Jesus is King reviewed
Grade: B– Kanye West has found Jesus Christ. Lucky old Christ. If I were Christ I’d have hidden out a…
It’s down to the wire – and Boris only has one chance to survive
Here is my ideal scenario. Having failed to push through a deal to leave the European Union, either in the…
How the BBC can achieve real diversity
Exciting news from the BBC, where every employee has just received a flyer from the Director-General, Lord Hall, informing them…
Imagine ZZ Top stuck in a lift with Gary Numan: Sturgill Simpson’s Sound & Fury reviewed
Grade: A– The outlaw country genre has shifted a little over the decades since Waylon and Willie, with each proponent…
Sorry, sir, we only stock books we agree with
I was on my way to the pub the other evening, about seven o’clock, rain lashing down on my head,…
There is only one law: there must be no Brexit
You’re surprised? Really? What are you surprised by? The specifics — that 11 non-elected, mostly public-school-educated judges, and doubtlessly Remainers…
Proggery beyond parody: Iggy Pop’s Free reviewed
Grade: D+ Pleasant memories — of hearing ‘Raw Power’ for the first time and later the amiably shambolic chug of…
The Lib Dems have revealed the extreme side of modern liberalism
A friend’s seven-year-old daughter was asked by her school to write something about the NHS. Her only experience of it…
Theresa May’s honours list makes me sick
The BBC featured a gay wedding on Songs of Praise recently. Of course it did. The thinking was, I assume:…
When it comes to Brexit, everything that can be tried will always fail
It is all beginning to feel like the closing scenes of the 1980 spoof comedy film Airplane! In particular the…
Great title – shame about the songs: Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell reviewed
Grade: B+ Get the razor blades out, Ms Misery is back. Only the truly affluent can immerse themselves in such…
Is there anything that can’t be put down to a ‘condition’?
I suppose it is overstating the case to suggest that dyslexia is simply a term coined to assuage the disappointment…
An all-female cabinet? Insert your own joke here
I wonder what Jacques Derrida would have made of the new leader of the UK Independence party? In the philosopher’s…
Frightful flights, a falling pound: why would you go anywhere but Britain for your summer holiday?
The epiphany came when I was standing in the oxymoron of a speedy boarding queue at Gatwick, waiting to have…
Reliably odd but the deranged proggery grates: King’s Mouth by The Flaming Lips reviewed
Grade: B- So a queen dies as her giant baby is being born. The baby grows very big indeed and…
