The case against koalas
There was a reason 18th-century rulers were eager for their subjects to grow and eat potatoes: the miraculous tuber offered…
Why are beds flat?
Last month in a Swiss hotel, I came across an idea so beautifully simple that I felt it would be…
What the British could learn from the French
If I ran the British government, to promote more heterodox thinking I would employ a small cadre of French people…
Why should everyone have an electric car?
Some excellent thinking this month from the Italian complexity theorist Luca Dellanna: Two days ago, the EU parliament approved a…
How to dress for air travel
Even though I fly a lot, I retain the notion that air travel should be treated as a special occasion…
How to outperform ChatGPT
Much of the magic of Curb Your Enthusiasm comes from the show being plotted but not scripted. The direction of…
Seeking autonomy
I recently heard a tip from an older colleague on managing a department. ‘Everyone is primarily interested in one of…
The dwindling case for living in London
The recent debate around ‘levelling up’ may be missing something. I would argue that there is another way to consider…
The case for maths to 18
Recently Chinese 11-year-olds faced the following question in a maths exam. ‘If a ship has 26 sheep and ten goats…
Why work is no longer working
It is often said that Rishi Sunak has no idea what it is like to survive on a low income…
Why should I be compensated for a delayed train?
In early 2020 my family and I were due to fly home from visiting a friend in Oman when the…
What the media is doing to our politics
An American academic told me that during the 2016 presidential election nobody in academia believed there was the faintest chance…
The allure of ‘delight qualities’
If you were to ask which single business concept deserves to be more widely known, I would be hard-pressed to…
The case for ‘premium economy’ train carriages
A few years ago I wrote here about the unexpected symbiosis between economy passengers and business travellers on commercial flights.…
The genius of bottomless brunch
I’m rather fond of the many service stations on the M4, since I am convinced they are all named after…
The hidden benefits of smart motorways
In 2015, Holborn Underground station was suffering from serious overcrowding at peak hours, with a bottleneck forming in the space…
Why we pick the wrong holiday destinations
Having returned from a fortnight’s break, I wonder if we get holidays all wrong. In northern Europe, the custom is…
The Conservative case for remote working
Some years ago, an Australian neurologist was in the habit of walking barefoot across his lawn. This being Australia, the…
What Bob Dylan can teach us about economics
The problem with attempts to make everything in life more scientific is that reality hates generalisation. You can try to…
The case for theft-tanks
The Conservative party leadership contest is a milestone for diversity and inclusion. This time, we get to choose between someone…
The hidden benefit of an electric car
Hello, and welcome to episode one of What’s in My Frunk?, the first in an occasional Spectator series of news…
The unhappy truth about holidays
In the 1980s, the great advertising writer John Webster described the following paradox. As he saw it, the dream of…
Buying a brand-new car is the ultimate good deed
The Department for Transport recently ended a £1,500 subsidy towards the price of new, lower-priced electric cars one year earlier…
Working from home could have been the reset we needed
‘It is vital that we see a return to face-to-face meetings to foster the dynamic collaboration that creates breakthrough ideas.’…
Why sat navs are a conversation killer
When my daughters learned to drive, I suggested they take their tests in automatics as driving manual cars would soon…
