Sam Leith

Is it too much to expect the Home Secretary to obey the law?

7 November 2022 5:00 pm

As Home Secretary, on the whole, you’ll want to stay on the right side of the law, right? I mean, you’re in charge of the…

It’s not too late for footballers to boycott Qatar’s World Cup

31 October 2022 7:56 am

If you go to Fifa’s website, you’ll find all sorts of things to make your heart sing and tears spring…

Even Rishi Sunak can't save the Tories

24 October 2022 3:58 pm

Once again, 357-odd Conservative MPs have complete control over what happens next in this country. There are three questions that…

Can you feel sorry for Liz Truss?

17 October 2022 5:00 pm

It is not easy to feel sorry for Liz Truss. She has a deeply unattractive streak of vanity – when…

A baby boom won’t solve Britain’s labour shortage

10 October 2022 6:21 pm

Quite the scoop in yesterday’s Sun. An anonymous cabinet minister has briefed the paper that to secure Britain’s economic future,…

Liz Truss's cliché-ridden speech was saved by Greenpeace

5 October 2022 11:38 pm

Liz Truss has, if nothing else, been working on her delivery. Her first speech to conference as Prime Minister was…

What’s so funny about Elon Musk?

3 October 2022 5:00 pm

At the end of last week, at an AI event in California, Elon Musk unveiled his latest project: a humanoid…

What does it mean when Giorgia Meloni quotes G.K. Chesterton?

1 October 2022 9:00 am

Is it fascist or anti-fascist to quote G.K. Chesterton, or neither?

In praise of the speeding crackdown

26 September 2022 6:05 pm

We all needed a laugh, what with the pound tanking and inflation running away, my old pal Kwasi delivering a…

The midlife crisis spread: why are the affluent so depressed?

19 September 2022 3:00 pm

‘You are here’, as those signs in windswept carparks unhelpfully point out. Yup. No mistaking it, you will tend to…

Charles III will reign in an age where feeling trumps duty

17 September 2022 9:00 am

Charles III will reign in an age where feeling trumps duty

I’ve become a war addict

12 September 2022 5:00 pm

It is an almost unquestioned orthodoxy that war is hell, and that every needless death in a needless war diminishes…

Is Liz Truss a Tory Jeremy Corbyn?

5 September 2022 6:49 pm

Many years ago, when the earth was young and leaving the European Union was a position espoused only by those…

We still love our failing NHS

29 August 2022 8:00 pm

A new poll about the NHS, the Sunday Times tells us, has discovered ‘a decline in support’ for the National…

Sanna Marin and the rise of fake controversy

22 August 2022 7:10 pm

With an honourable exception for the Beastie Boys, I can’t stand the use of ‘party’ as a verb. It immediately…

Salman Rushdie and the incitement of violence

15 August 2022 3:28 pm

When I met Salman Rushdie in New York a couple of years ago, he told me that the days in…

Our long, vulnerable childhoods may be the key to our success

13 August 2022 9:00 am

Could our long journey to adulthood actually be the key to our success, wonders Sam Leith

Does the Met have a racism problem?

8 August 2022 5:00 pm

Back in the winter of 2012, a postal worker named Zac Sharif-Ali was taking a lunchtime stroll with his dog…

Should Apple snoop on your iPhone?

1 August 2022 8:32 pm

Should Apple use software to scan the photo library of every individual iPhone in search of images of child abuse?…

Is technology killing nostalgia?

30 July 2022 9:00 am

Making memories is different in the digital age

The curse of ‘deadmin’

25 July 2022 9:03 pm

George Monbiot has gone to war. Some readers may know this fellow by his nickname ‘Moonbat’ – he’s a Guardian…

The latest Tory leadership debate was a grim spectacle

18 July 2022 3:00 pm

The eyes had it, in last night’s leadership debate. Penny Mordaunt and Rishi Sunak took turns directing to the camera…

The fatuous idea that politicians must be ‘in touch’

11 July 2022 5:25 pm

I was in Hyde Park on Friday watching an open-air Pixies show with very great delight when somewhere between ‘Vamos’…

Nick Bostrom: How can we be certain a machine isn’t conscious?

9 July 2022 9:00 am

Philosopher Nick Bostrom on the AI threat

The past stinks

4 July 2022 5:20 pm

‘Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could,’ says Jeff Goldblum’s character in Jurassic Park, ‘they didn’t stop to…