Columnists
My cure for the common cold
You really don’t want to know about my coughs and sneezes, particularly during the festive season, but bear with me…
The Darvell marvel has brought joy to a Covid Christmas
Many ingenious ways of evading Covid-19 have been devised to assist commerce, fewer to assist worship. In our next-door village,…
Why charity begins in shops
When everything re-opened after the first lockdown, I didn’t immediately head to a restaurant, bar or hairdresser. I went to…
It’s completely rational for girls to want to be boys
I’ve always been perplexed why anyone lucky enough to be born male would want to swap sexes. But it seems…
How Britain will counter China’s wolf-warrior diplomacy
The most significant and lasting change brought about by Covid is that it has woken the West up to the…
My fateful appearance at the Bank of England’s Christmas drinks
Tidings of comfort as the vaccination programme advances, but shortage of joy. That’s my summary of a season in which…
The importance of giving offence
As dons at Cambridge vote on a new protocol on constraints to free speech, we mark this month the 500th…
Can Mike Ashley defy high street reality?
Separating heroes from villains in the great retail survival struggle is like spotting bent coppers in Line of Duty —…
In defence of the booing Millwall fans
It is an enormous shame that the Millwall fans who booed their players for ‘taking a knee’ in support of…
No one wins in the race race
After the explosion of international self-abasement over George Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis, much theatrical soul-searching ensued. So your basic man…
The deal-or-no-deal debate is different this time
When a deadline is missed for Brexit negotiations, it is tempting to think there will be another chance to keep…
Biden’s speech impediment
Does Joe Biden write his own speeches? Surely not. Yet his campaign says Biden was his own speechwriter for the address he made…
The Tavistock is a national scandal
How noble of the British Library to have apologised to the family of the late Poet Laureate Ted Hughes for…
Philip Green will be remembered as a nasty stain on capitalism
There really isn’t much left to be said about Sir Philip Green as his Arcadia fashion empire collapses into administration,…
In defence of Eton’s headmaster
My inbox is crowded with messages from Old Etonians attacking Simon Henderson, the headmaster of Eton. They are furious that…
The texture of our country is changing before our eyes
On Saturday night we sat around the kitchen table, my family and I, and had a takeaway from the Turkish…
The case for Chinese reparations
It is time we started to talk about reparations. I am not of course referring to the demands made by…
Can Boris win round his rebel MPs?
The beginning of the end for Theresa May was when she tried to see if she could pass her Brexit…
The Co-op Bank isn't worthy of its name
We’ve heard a lot this week about infrastructure spending, and how much more will be needed if the UK is…
China has a friend in Jesus
Last week, I wrote about ‘Frost & Lewis’ (David and Oliver), leaders of our country’s team at the Brexit negotiations,…
The public sector delusion
I wonder how much more money we will have to bung the teachers in order to inculcate within them an…
We need a dose of vaccine realism
One of my geniuses as both a commentator and a character is to confront what for most normal people amounts…
Soft-left squatters have taken over the Lib Dems
I was never afraid of Jeremy Corbyn, never afraid of Momentum. I’ve never really feared Britain’s hard left at all.…
Here comes President Joebama
‘So you’re seeing a team develop that I have great confidence in,’ said former president Barack Obama this week when…
Donald Trump won’t leave me alone
Ever since I saw him in Pensacola, Florida the other week, Donald J. Trump will not leave me alone. Each…
