Columnists
Outlawing ‘Islamophobia’ would help jihadis
Last weekend the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, described the massacre in Christchurch as the result ‘of failing to root…
The real winner from Brexodus won’t be Frankfurt, Paris or Dublin
How big is Brexodus — the flight of business and people from the City of London in parallel with our…
Britain’s fate now lies in the hands of Angela Merkel
Angela Merkel says disdainfully, ‘I admit I was not on top of the British parliament’s 17th-century procedural rules.’ Her implication…
On the subject of John Bercow
You can buy the latest edition of Thomas Erskine May’s Parliamentary Practice for just over three hundred quid, but I…
In defence of snake oil
A few months ago I had possibly the best massage I’ve ever had. My masseuse, Anouschka, had learned her skills…
There’s an arms race underway – between headphones and musak
I live with a ghost, or rather, I share an address with a man who’s been dead for many years.…
Merging two unhappy companies is a recipe for disaster
It never works to take two unhappy companies and blend them into a bigger pile of misery. That’s the way…
Leadership requires imagination, but Theresa May has never displayed any
I had forgotten, until I checked this week, that Mrs May timed the general election of June 2017 in order…
Can the Republican Party finally win over minority voters?
Washington, DC Republican strategists have long complained about how, every election, the Democrats mobilise minority groups against them. Now they’re…
Why I’ve joined the SDP (and why you should, too)
I was down the pub with my wife last week, out in the tiny smoking section, when a woman with…
What you learn standing on a street corner in Beirut
A pale sun had emerged from wintry clouds and the hillsides were topped snowy white. But all around me was…
If you forgive the IRA, then you must forgive the Parachute Regiment too
In my 2010 short story ‘Prepositions’, a woman has lost her husband not in 9/11 but on 9/11 — when…
What shares would a post-Brexit ‘Optimist Fund’ include?
The nation certainly needs optimism this week, so what better moment to start building our ‘UK Optimist Fund’ of shares…
Artists are not always good people, but should their work really be boycotted?
A kind billionaire called Jeremy Hosking, whom I do not know personally, has invited us to join the Britannia Express,…
Will Brexiteers miss their best chance at Brexit?
Theresa May was only ever going to win approval for her Brexit deal by persuading MPs that it was the…
In defence of a liberal education
A good decade or so ago I wrote a fairly vituperative article in response to a piece by the writer…
We’ve still to wake up from the nightmare of the Swinging Sixties
Every day our age seems to be getting madder and madder, in defiance of the notion that man is a…
Don’t hate housebuilders who profited from Help to Buy. It wasn’t their fault
Was Help to Buy a timely market intervention with a valid social purpose or a political gimmick that unintentionally showered…
Corbyn’s handling of Brexit has been magnificently opportunistic
Jeremy Corbyn never ceases to attack Mrs May for trying to run down the clock. She has certainly done that,…
Women’s sports may one day soon consist entirely of men
Congratulations to Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood for sweeping all before them in the Connecticut girls’ high school track races…
Why we must make an example of Shamima Begum
The three most popular justifications for punishment under the law all (as it happens) begin with R. They are retribution,…
Why I hate ‘the n-word’
One of the depressing aspects of writing a column attuned to social hypocrisy is so rarely running short of new…
What’s the worst line of business you could be in, if we’re heading for no deal?
What’s the very worst line of business you could be in, if we’re heading for a no-deal Brexit? Not finance,…
Carrying cash is becoming a minority occupation like smoking
The BBC reported on Tuesday that the proposed closure of Honda’s plant at Swindon was largely caused by the prospect…
How to solve Europe’s Nato problem
There are four major power blocs in the world — the United States, Russia, China and the EU. Of these,…
