Abortion should not be just another culture-war ding dong
The overturning of Roe v. Wade is an American story, and a global one. What the hell – it’s asked…
How Meghan Markle can shake off the bullying allegations
She must be fit to be tied, the Duchess of Sussex. I know I would be. It was reported yesterday…
Are we ignoring AI’s ‘lived experience’?
Number Five, as the old film’s catchphrase went, is alive. A whistleblower at Google called Blake Lemoine has gone public…
Imperial measures are culture war bait
The idea of reintroducing imperial measures in honour of the Queen’s Jubilee has one quality that will have commended it to No. 10’s…
Should a trans woman inherit a peerage over their older sister?
It’s House of Lords reform, Jim, but not as we know it. Matilda Simon has applied to contest the next…
In praise of smartphones
The online PE teacher Joe Wicks has announced, in a fit of self-reproach coinciding with the launch of his new…
Let’s turn on SafeSearch for the Houses of Parliament
It really is quite easy to click on internet pornography by accident. There’s a persuasive argument that the whole of…
It sucks to be a Christian who doesn’t believe
Easter Sunday. I went to church for the first time in ages. The little parish church has stood for 900…
Bono's 'poem' was an insult to the craft of verse
‘Poet’, said Robert Frost, ‘is a praise-word’. So it is. That explains in part the unabashed delight with which Colm…
Britain's shameful response to the Ukraine crisis
Perhaps you’re of the opinion that Ukrainian refugees aren’t our problem, that the world has always been full of foreigners…
Remember the Russians who will really suffer from sanctions
When I was in Russia in the very early 1990s, there was a generic figure who seemed to stand at…
Has Putin resurrected the West?
I think Putin will have been surprised. I mean: I was surprised. Weren’t you? Not, necessarily, that Ukraine should have…
What if we aren’t ready to live with Covid?
Quite the constitutional twist, yesterday. Just as what Walter Bagehot called the efficient side of our ruling set-up was merrily…
Politics isn’t a branch of the entertainment industry
Rudy Giuliani has had quite the trajectory in public life. Those of us who remember the days after 9/11 will…
Eugenics will never work — thankfully
The creation of a master race is an ancient idea which, thankfully, can never work, says Sam Leith
You can’t really ‘cancel’ anything
‘When parents give Maus…to their little kids, I think it’s child abuse. I wanna protect my kids!’ Who do you…
Pre-crime has arrived in China
The idea of ‘pre-crime’ was popularised by Philip K. Dick’s story ‘The Minority Report’ and the 2002 Steven Spielberg film…
Downflood: the Good Ship Boris is sinking
In Sebastian Junger’s book The Perfect Storm, there’s a near-matchless description of how big boats go to the bottom. ‘The crisis…
What Meccano taught me
Elsewhere in England this weekend, grimly sweating middle-aged men were planning Operation Save Big Dog, Operation Red Meat and Operation…
We should be thankful for the Sackler family's philanthropy
When the whole opioid crisis blew up, the Sackler family — whose fortune was substantially built on getting thousands of…
Prince Andrew is fighting a PR battle – and losing
My late grandfather, the editor and columnist John Junor, nurtured fondly throughout his career the conviction that nobody could be…
The modern economy is built on addiction
Two stories, side-by-side in theSunday paper I was looking at online. The first — ‘Strip Dame Dopesick ofher title’ —…
My fight with Viagogo
My wife had a brilliant idea for my 12-year-old daughter’s Christmas present: tickets to go and see Sigrid (a pop…
How Noddy and Big Ears conquered the world
Love her or loathe her, Enid Blyton and the safe, sunny world she cleverly marketed will remain a publishing phenomenon, says Sam Leith
Meghan woz right
The Duchess of Sussex’s legal ding-dong with the Mail on Sunday (which published her private correspondence with her father) has…
