Columns
Anticolonialists have their myths too
Much is now being made of the evils of empire. As a child of empire I bridle. I acknowledge the…
Will we ever learn to ‘live with the virus’?
Comparing Saturday’s Downing Street press conference to Groundhog Day would insult one of my favourite films. The hilarious, multifarious strategies…
The Tories face their biggest problem yet
Up until a few days ago, ministers could see how the government might regain its footing in the polls after…
'The type of person who makes the world work': remembering Anthony Smith
I’m not sure how many readers know the name of Anthony Smith, who died on Sunday aged 83, but a…
Why the northeast could benefit from the ‘Waitrose Effect’
A Church of England primary school in Richmond, London, has junked Sir Winston Churchill and J.K. Rowling as names for…
Has Covid turned us into a nation of hermits?
If there’s one thing I misjudged completely, it’s how creepy and long-lasting the effects of lockdown on all of us…
The American identity crisis
There was no reason for the world ever to hear the name Kyle Rittenhouse. Except that in the summer of…
Why the next election will be harder for the Tories
Ever since Boris Johnson’s disastrous decision to try to stay the standards committee’s guilty verdict against Owen Paterson, things have…
The importance of stigma
Exciting news from Durham University, which is helping its students to become ‘sex workers’. This noble institution is offering two…
Why can’t we remember our first few years?
I begin this column on a train from Paris to London. Opposite me are a mother and baby. I don’t…
The sleaze row is a crisis made for Angela Rayner
Almost no MP has emerged with dignity from the sleaze debacle of the past three weeks. Boris Johnson’s botched attempt…
The absurd theatre of vaccine passports
When a column highlighting under-appreciated breaking news has had absolutely no impact on the course of events (per usual), the…
Can Boris weather this new storm?
The row over MPs’ outside interests has landed Boris Johnson in one of the most uncomfortable positions a prime minister…
The dangerous pleasure of hating men
I have Netflix, and in particular the series Maid, to thank for the startling discovery of how easy it is…
Kamala Harris and the problem with racist trees
I was intrigued to learn that Kamala Harris, the Vice President of the US, is worried about racist trees. I…
MPs aren’t the elite – faceless bureaucrats are
I see that the most boring conversation in the nation is back. The one even worse than people in the…
A re-gift to Donald Trump
For Democrats, like the ‘insurrection’ of January 6th, the Trump policy of separating illegal-immigrant parents from their children in 2018…
Three little words that could cost Boris
Boris Johnson knows the value of three-word slogans. ‘Take back control’ and ‘get Brexit done’ helped propel him to his…
Do you really need to see the GP in person?
Only later, perhaps even a decade later, as the pandemic of 2020-22 shrinks in our rear-view mirror, may we be…
The burden of being a Newcastle United fan
The second thing I learned about football, after moving to London, is that you can never, ever switch your allegiance.…
What this Budget tells us
The Budget and the spending review gave the clearest indication yet of what the post-Covid government might look like. During…
Who owns the language?
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, is giving local residents £25,000 grants to enable them to change the names of…
What if Clinton had come clean?
What if Bill Clinton had told the truth? Would America’s sexual and political history be different? The thought occurs because…
My advice to Dave Chappelle
I’m accustomed to a sense of urgency in relation to Netflix offerings because the streaming service often buys short-term rights…
The case for road pricing
Thornton Wilder remarked that there are individuals who fall in love with an idea long before its appointed rendezvous with…
