Columnists
The overuse and abuse of ‘fascism’
I would be very happy if I never had to hear the name Gary Lineker again. He was a vague…
Michelle Yeoh and Britain’s invisible East Asians
This week Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian to win Best Actress at the Oscars – and not by playing…
Why shouldn’t BBC staff express opinions?
There was a kind of peak BBC Radio 4 moment last week when the network put on a play called…
Why small boats are a big election issue
Rishi Sunak started the year with a speech announcing his five priorities. That was quickly followed by Keir Starmer, who…
What I make of Sue Gray
I am at a bit of a loss to understand the hoo-ha about the civil servant Sue Gray. She has…
Why ‘safe routes’ to asylum can’t work
I have never met Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, but I have not the least doubt…
Despotic social controls cost lives
Look, I realise you don’t want to read this column. I’m unenthusiastic about writing it. For most of us, any…
Jonathan Coad and British TV’s most catastrophic interview
‘Coad. Coad.’ I wracked my brain. Distant bells began to tinkle as I turned the name over. As though performing…
Rishi’s new momentum
When Rishi Sunak appeared in the House of Commons to outline the details of his new agreement on the Northern…
Unmasking the truth about Covid
You want some tomatoes? Come up here, we’re inundated. We’ve got a tomato mountain. That’s because nobody in the north…
Is your child a cake?
It was announced last week that another gender has been added to the list: nominalgender. Most news sites reported this…
Thomas Jefferson and the death of wisdom
In recent weeks I have been trying out a mental exercise. Perhaps you might join me? Cast your mind back…
Sunak’s Brexit gamble
Since Britain voted to leave the European Union, every prime minister has had to grapple with the conundrum of the…
Death, beauty and the writing of a will
Perhaps there’s a German word – for there’s no English one – for that alloy of liberation with melancholy that…
Is Shakespeare ‘far-right’ now?
Oh – and the Collected Works of Shakespeare. I forgot to mention that last week: that among the books on…
My list of banned words
North America’s Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Language Project has released yet another list of Bad Say. Scientists are to swap…
Sir Jim or the Sheikh for Man Utd? Either will be better than the Glazers
‘Greenwashing vs Sportswashing’, as Sky Sports put it, is a curious way to characterise the emerging £6 billion takeover tussle…
Bibi’s big mistake
Jerusalem As 100,000 Israelis gathered outside Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, on Monday, to protest against Binyamin Netanyahu’s government’s…
