I’m a fan of the BBC – but even I’m struggling to defend it
Another Director-General bites the dust. And the number two with him. What a facepalm. What a honking, stupid, first-day-in-the office sort of error to…
Welcome to the age of the troll
We’re accustomed, by now, to Catholic priests having eccentric hobbies. Even so, 57-year-old Father Mark Rowles turned out to have a humdinger.…
Why the Children’s Booker Prize is a great idea
The Booker Foundation announced on Friday what it called its most ambitious project in twenty years: the launch of a Children’s Booker…
Why I love blowing up worms
Grade: B+ War, as we all know, is hell. But if it involves small squeaky annelids blowing each-other up with…
Prince Andrew: from playboy to PlayStation
Oh God, not that. That’s all we need, I thought, reading in a long account of Prince Andrew’s current travails…
In defence of the rules-based order
The last time I saw my cousin, the former Tory MP Danny Kruger, I found myself trying to ginger him up…
The joy of university
I log in so infrequently these days that Facebook has, I’m pleased to say, nearly given up on me. Like a half-hearted stalker whose…
We’re all doomed if English literature students can’t read books
The question has changed, as one Oxford don noted wanly on social media, from ‘What are you reading at university?’ to ‘Are…
America, where did it go wrong?
Say what you like about Donald Trump’s former adviser, Steve Bannon, but his ‘flooding the zone’ thing really works, doesn’t…
Was Charlie Kirk’s murder the senseless act of an internet troll?
We are in the grip of old habits. We assume, most of us, that when a prominent political figure is…
Who cares if there’s a blunder in Ian McEwan’s latest book?
Ian McEwan’s new novel What We Can Know isn’t even out yet, and already someone has spotted a goof. In…
Why shouldn’t adults play with toys like Lego?
“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child:…
Angela Rayner’s not-so-scandalous ‘third home’
Angela Rayner, it’s reported, has bought a ‘third home’. The three-bedroom seaside flat on the south coast that she has…
Pacy, fast-moving and graphically lavish: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 reviewed
Grade: B+ Tony Hawk is an old guy these days. The most famous sk8r boi ever to have lived is…
Why Middlemarch is ‘the perfect beach read’
At the time of writing, I am not more than a few hours away from leaving this dismal hell-hole and…
Superman has always been ‘woke’
The moment I heard that there’d been a backlash against James Gunn’s reboot of the Superman franchise on the grounds…
Banning disposable vapes was a waste of time
When we’re debating the introduction of a new law – ban this, ban that, crack down on the other –…
There’s one thing readers enjoy more than a story like The Salt Path
Only last week, I was having lunch when The Salt Path came up in conversation. ‘That’s the one about the…
The bluster and waffle of George Freeman
Retromania is well and truly upon us. Neil Young just headlined Glastonbury. Noel Edmonds is back on the telly. And…
Does anyone really want AI civil servants?
Of course they’ve called it ‘Humphrey’. The cutesy name that has been given to the AI tool the government is…
Will Donald Trump’s defenders finally admit the truth?
So, there we have it. The President of the United States wants to bypass state governors and deploy the National…
Why are NHS staff refusing to be vaccinated?
Some wise person – I have a strong sense it may have been our own Christopher Fildes – once offered…
