Why I won’t buy a Tesla
I loved the Ford Mustang Mach-E which I had on loan for four days. It was gorgeous to drive, and…
A battery of joy
Where do you want to go? China or India? I have always found India infinitely more fascinating — for a…
Taking charge
As a wise colleague once said: ‘Yesterday is a great time to buy a computer, because you have already enjoyed…
Routine procedures
Among the horrors, some aspects of lockdown were bizarrely less gruelling than expected; indeed for some people, the experience was…
The tech trap
Back in late 2019 I met someone from Zoom who was visiting London. The company, then as now, offered free…
Internet connection
Dear Sir, I beg to introduce myself to you as a clerk in the Accounts Department of the Port Trust…
Language barriers
I haven’t yet read the report published by the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities. But, looking at the recommendations,…
The power of the Oxford brand
I am writing with a mild pain in one arm, having received my first dose of the Oxford vaccine yesterday…
Cross purposes
I was once asked by a previous editor of the Timeshow to increase sales of the paper. I was slightly…
Opportunity knocks
There is a kind of conversation which sounds intelligent, and which makes sense at first hearing, but which deeper thought…
Powers of persuasion
The art of the public information ad
City limits
The phrase ‘rich people’s problems’ has its uses. I once overheard a group in a Knightsbridge restaurant sympathising with a…
Hotel rooms
A few Spectator readers may soon find themselves confined to quarantine hotels, so the magazine thought it timely to find…
Urban legends
In March last year, the world made an interesting discovery. We found that a high proportion of knowledge-work could be…
Flights of fancy
Soon after the pandemic hit, the world’s airlines turned off their pricing algorithms and resumed pricing flights manually. Everything the…
A brief history of luck
One of the staples of crime drama is the ‘cold-case squad’. This allows programme-makers to add period detail to the…
Bureaucracy is everywhere
Having grown up in a family business, my earliest exposure to corporate life was often baffling. I remember the first…
Meal kits have changed my life
Ford’s Kumar Galhotra once remarked that carmaking is 100,000 rational decisions in search of one emotional decision. You spend five…
The power of networks
In 1989 I answered my first mobile phone call on Oxford Street using a brick-sized Motorola borrowed from work. Several…
Calculated risks
Classes of people at moderate risk from Covid-19. Addenda to current NHS guidelines. Those at risk from coronavirus now include…
The Covid challenge
The Covid problem lies as much in the delayed action of the virus as in the virus itself. Since symptoms…
The road to new realities
Here’s the quandary. How in future can we make the kind of rapid advances we have made during the Covid…
Have big cities had their day?
About 15 years ago I noticed a few surviving chattel houses in Barbados and wondered what they were. As it…
Remote workers of the world, unite!
A few nights ago on Twitter, I quipped that I was planning to launch a trade union for remote workers.…
Certainty is overrated
I have decided to divorce my wife after 31 years on scientific grounds. Though perfectly happy, on reassessing my original…
