What adults don’t get about children’s books
Children’s writing has been having a bit of a moment over the past couple of weeks, after a conversation on social…
‘Loss is a thing that we become’
Nick Cave on grief, faith and why he’s a conservative
ChatGPT: a world-class BS machine
Two weeks ago, like most people, I hadn’t so much as heard of ChatGPT. By last week, I was hearing of practically nothing but. After OpenAI…
The shabby dishonesty of Matt Hancock’s ‘diaries’
‘Standing in my kitchen in Suffolk after a quiet New Year’s Eve, I scanned my newspaper for clues as to…
Why ‘Uber for the countryside’ is a great idea
The disappearance of rural bus routes is one of the small tragedies of our time. It isn’t, alas, a very glamorous…
Elon Musk, Donald Trump and the trouble with free speech
The Cursed Ratio strikes again. Twitter users have voted 52-48 in favour of Elon Musk allowing the return of Donald Trump to…
Would the real Matt Hancock please sit down?
‘Politics,’ as the old quip has it, ‘is showbusiness for ugly people.’ That quote was minted in the good old…
Is it too much to expect the Home Secretary to obey the law?
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
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
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?
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
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
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?
At the end of last week, at an AI event in California, Elon Musk unveiled his latest project: a humanoid…
The prince of paradox
Is it fascist or anti-fascist to quote G.K. Chesterton, or neither?
In praise of the speeding crackdown
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?
‘You are here’, as those signs in windswept carparks unhelpfully point out. Yup. No mistaking it, you will tend to…
King of hearts
Charles III will reign in an age where feeling trumps duty
I’ve become a war addict
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?
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
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
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
When I met Salman Rushdie in New York a couple of years ago, he told me that the days in…
Children have a lot to learn
Could our long journey to adulthood actually be the key to our success, wonders Sam Leith
Does the Met have a racism problem?
Back in the winter of 2012, a postal worker named Zac Sharif-Ali was taking a lunchtime stroll with his dog…
