Columns
My hour tuning in to the night
‘That element of tragedy which lies in the very fact of frequency,’ wrote George Eliot in Middlemarch, ‘has not yet…
University is supposed to be hard
If I seem to be bashing universities lately, they’ve asked for it. The prestigious New York University in lower Manhattan…
Resistance isn’t futile
Two lessons learned from the breakfast buffet at the Hilton Hotel, Deansgate, Manchester. First, the plates are no longer minuscule,…
The new rules of sex
There are times when I feel like certain rakes must have done when they realised that the Regency period was suddenly…
Truss is hurting the free-market cause
In theory, I should be delighted about the Liz Truss project. She is saying the things I’ve been arguing for…
Things can always get worse
As I was saying, way back in July, it is hard to love the Conservative party. Every time it tries…
Giving up smoking was an absolute doddle
I gave up smoking one year ago this week, as part of a series of pitiful capitulations to the forces…
Rishi by Christmas?
What was supposed to be a recovery moment for the Conservatives instead looks like a collective nervous breakdown. The Prime…
I’m in trouble with the police
There is almost nothing I like more than a running battle. As my friend Julie Burchill also says, when a…
Maybe Nanny does know best
Not least among the shivers down my spine as I listen to Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng pump up the…
Shame should not be heritable
Vice-chancellor Stephen Toope claims it was ‘inevitable’ that a university ‘as long-established as Cambridge’ would have links to slavery. Now…
How high a price will Truss pay?
This year’s Conservative party conference was supposed to be a moment of celebration for the new Tory leader. Instead there…
No such luck
There was an article recently in the increasingly woke but still useful New Scientist which attempted to gauge the degree…
The poly-problems of polyamory
The saddest thing I saw this week was a dating advert written by a woman – let’s call her Jane…
Labour has a problem – but it’s not Keir Starmer
I see that Green campaigning groups are angry that the Conservative party has received donations from the aviation industry, because…
Truss’s first big test
Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng are determined to show that Britain’s economy is under new management. They want to indicate…
Leicester and the downside of diversity
As I have said many times in recent years, if you import the world’s people you import the world’s problems.…
Must Charles change?
When something starts to be said with such frequency that it fast becomes the conventional wisdom, one should pause, step…
Dynasty rules in the US too
I suppose it was inevitable that with the death of HM the Queen certain floodgates would open. During her reign…
Don’t blame the badgers
My dog was bitten by an adder last week. Jessie had been snuffling around in bracken a few yards from…
Politics is on pause
Politics is in suspended animation. The only proceedings in parliament are the tens of thousands of mourners moving through Westminster…
Not all Americans are so crass
In the face of American snark about the Queen’s death, many a British newspaper reader was disgusted. With bad tidings…
The BBC’s new direction
I am becoming terribly worried about the people of Sunderland with regard to how they will cope in this coming…
Kill badgers to save hedgehogs
Until last month I hadn’t seen a hedgehog for close to 30 years, though they were part of everyday life…
Truss’s Downing Street refit
How 10 Downing Street works – or doesn’t – always reflects the character of the prime minister who inhabits it.…
