Columnists
The price of honesty
This is my brother’s story and, like many telling stories, it’s small. Tim lives in Iowa, as our mother’s family…
Australia’s disastrous referendum
My partner and I have just returned from the most magical trip. As guests of Western Australia’s tourist board we’ve…
The lesson of Looney: every board should prepare for scandal
Bernard Looney, the fallen BP chief, always had a certain swagger about him. I’ve no idea whether he was unsafe…
A tale of two elections
There were many potential titles for Liz Truss’s memoir: 49 Days that Shook the World, perhaps, or simply What Happened,…
Don’t panic!
How terrified should we be of the new Covid variant nicknamed (on Twitter) ‘Pirola’? Out of our wits? Or should…
Secrets for sale
Like all hacks, I sometimes wonder whether I should just screw my self-esteem, do a Jonathan Freedland and start writing…
Mexico’s progressive hell
Every morning I check to see if Rodrigo Iván Cortés has published the ‘apology’ that the court in Mexico has…
A New Labour restoration
To understand the political journey of Sir Keir Starmer, look to Liz Kendall. This week the Blairite and one-time leadership…
Right-on Kew
We must all hurry down to the Temperate House at Kew Gardens next month to enjoy Queer Nature After Hours,…
Silicon Valley stuck in the mud
If any readers are having those September, back-to-work blues perhaps I might offer them a sure-fire palliative? Just go online…
Children need protection from adult madness
The Texas Supreme Court just upheld a state law banning so-called gender-affirming care for minors, to explosive consternation from predictable…
Britain has an entitlement problem
An Institute for Fiscal Studies paper, published at the end of last month, makes grim reading. Through the prism of…
It shouldn’t be a crime to sniff a goshawk
I notice that the naturalist Chris Packham has been reported to the police for the ‘crime’ of sniffing a goshawk.…
Risk management
When prime ministers sense the end is near, they tend to follow a similar pattern. They change senior civil servants…
George Osborne’s midlife crisis
There should be a term in anthropology for what happens to a certain type of Tory male in middle age.…
Why are the British so anti-doctor?
Having lived in the United Kingdom for almost my whole adult life, I like to think I’m well assimilated. I…
Should all western businesses follow Heineken out of Russia?
The news that Heineken, the Dutch brewer, has sold its business in Russia to a local buyer for a token…
The joke’s on us
The award for the funniest joke at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe was won by Lorna Rose Treen, with this: ‘I…
Charge of the right brigade
You know the Conservative party is in trouble when it does not dare use its name on leaflets. Instead, it…
