Let’s appoint a Ministry of Scandalous Ideas
My children have a phrase called ‘fomo’ — which stands for ‘fear of missing out’. It is a constant, mildly…
How to pick the perfect present
I had always attributed it to bad luck in the genetic lottery. I am three-eighths Welsh and a quarter Scottish,…
Have the people who design trains and airports noticed that laptops exist?
It’s taken years to work this out, but there is a subtle art to designing an airport lounge. 1) Install…
Why does Amazon think my friend is a kidnapper?
About four years ago, an irate father in Minneapolis walked into his local Target shop with a complaint. He wanted…
S&M&B&Q: Why aren’t there sex-and-shopping novels for men?
I never got beyond page 20 in Fifty Shades of Grey. No one got shot in the first chapter, and…
The best navigation idea I’ve seen since the Tube map
I stopped using London buses when some coward put doors on them. Twenty years ago, you could board any bus…
Why everywhere should be more like Essex
Apart from the Wye Valley, where I grew up, there are only two places in Britain I’d consider living: Kent…
Was the phrasing of the Scottish referendum question designed to create division?
It is a trick which often works on children. Do not tell them to eat vegetables; instead ask whether they…
Why is nationalism OK when prefixed by the word ‘Scottish’ but not ‘British?’
My second favourite religious joke is an old Jewish joke (which I read in the Harvard Review, so I assume…
Why don’t more non-smokers try e-cigarettes?
I was waiting on an office forecourt recently puffing on an e-cigarette when a security guard came out. ‘You can’t…
How oneupmanship wrecks things for everyone
‘There’s a little bit of a fascist in all of us. For some, the tragedy of human want may provoke…
Four gadgets to take on holiday — and two to leave behind
One inarguably good thing about electronic publishing is that it solves that old quandary about what books to pack for…
Why we’ll never go back to smoking indoors
What would happen, I wonder, were we to rescind the smoking ban as Nigel Farage wants? My guess is not…
Adam Smith is the father of more than one sort of economics
Gandhi would test his resolve by sleeping between two naked virgins, an avenue not really open to me, as my…
The six things that'll change when I rule the world
But why did the food [in England] stay so bad after refrigerated ships, frozen foods and eventually air-freight deliveries of…
How user-friendly is your house?
Old Glaswegian joke: ‘Put your hat and coat on, lassie, I’m off to the pub.’ ‘That’s nice — are you…
This strategy won Eurovision. It could also save your life
Oskar Morgenstern grew up in Vienna, John von Neumann in Budapest. Clearly the same Austro-Hungarian intellectual spirit which gave rise…
Why I no longer want to live in America
A few years ago I would have quite liked to live in America. I’m not sure now. For one thing,…
What do you get if you cross a suitcase with rollerblades?
A 14-year-old at an American school recently caused a stir when he claimed that the US government could save over…
You can buy happiness. Here’s how…
If you are reading this article online, perhaps you could go to the comments section and let us know what…
The engagement-ring theory of property bubbles
Google ‘the bread market’ and you get 135,000 hits, mostly from specialist food industry websites. Google ‘the property market’, however,…
The plan with three brains
A good human chess player with a good computer trounces the best human or computer playing alone
What the O.J. Simpson jury didn’t know (and schools should teach)
During the O.J. Simpson trial, the prosecution made much of the fact that Simpson had a record of violence towards…
Will self-driving cars know what to do in the middle lane?
I am convinced that when I took my driving test in 1983 I was asked by the examiner, ‘What lane…
What I learned in a Qatari jail cell
This column nearly didn’t appear. Another 24 hours and I would have trumped the late Jeffrey Bernard with the single…
