Columns
The kids aren’t all right – and the grown-ups are to blame
I think it’s time we stopped scaring the children. I think they’ve had enough. They’re at breaking point now, every…
The changing face of No. 10
David Canzini has made quite an impression since he joined No. 10 as the Prime Minister’s deputy chief of staff…
It’s so hard to do the right thing
Delighted though we all are that Benedict Cumberbatch has decided to allow a Ukrainian family to live in one of…
Lessons from the ice queen
Spring commonly augers a quickening warmth, but for Britons this year the season coincides with a chilling marker: a 54…
The war’s next phase
A month in, and the war in Ukraine looks very different to how anyone expected. On the first day of…
Sorry is the hardest word
It is uncanny how swiftly British culture imitates the worst of American culture. Take Whoopi Goldberg, who distinguished herself again…
It’s time to bang some heads together
Glasses chinked. From massive chandeliers, lights glittered beneath the high vaulted ceiling; heroic statuary around the carved stone walls stared…
The day I nearly brought RT down
It is interesting to watch Ofcom finally remove the broadcasting licence from the Russian propaganda channel Russia Today (RT). I…
What I learnt in sex education
The state of Florida recently passed a piece of legislation making it illegal for teachers to hold discussions with pupils…
Sunak’s choice
The Office for Budget Responsibility was designed to protect the Chancellor from accusations that he is cooking the books. If…
China’s focus is Covid, not a proxy war
It is tempting to believe that we have gone from one crisis to another: Russia invaded Ukraine hours after Covid…
Would you stay or would you go?
For many of us war voyeurs watching the news with a glass of sherry, admiration of the little-engine-that-could Ukrainian fighters…
There’s no putting Putin in a box
At the heart of the West’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sits an ambiguity that it is convenient, perhaps…
Will the West’s unity against Russia last?
Over recent days I have been reflecting on War and Peace. Or Special Operation and Peace as it must now…
Russia’s memory war
It seems strange now that any of us ever imagined that Putin might not invade. He thinks of Ukraine as…
Life must go on
Well, at least Covid is over. No sooner had Vladimir Putin’s tanks rolled into Ukraine than the UK’s Covid advisory…
Watching the clock
Having just dusted down my Geiger counter and argued with the family about whether or not there is room for…
A price worth paying
Nato countries are being careful not to do anything that Russia could claim is an act of war. Just look…
The free world’s new reality
We are about to see brutality in Europe on a scalethat will be almost beyond our comprehension. Russia is turning…
Has Putin saved Boris?
It was with some relief that I heard that Labour’s Diane Abbott was opposed to the Russian invasion of Croatia,…
What the right gets wrong about Putin
A fracture on the international right may seem small fry given everything that is going on right now. But it…
A little Eden
I’m not one of life’s early risers but an exception had to be made on Wednesday last week. In an…
The return of Actual Badness
In the spring of 2020, I advanced an abnormally hopeful proposition: that one blessing that might arise from a pandemic…
Women-only train carriages help no one
Sooner or later, somewhere in the UK, we’ll have trains with women-only coaches. It’s an idea which keeps rolling around,…
Trudeau’s tyranny
Early in the corona era the historian David Starkey gave some thoughts on Covid. ‘We’ve got a Chinese virus,’ he…
