Columnists
Will turning the Tories into the pro-Leave party pay off for Boris?
An election might still be months away, but the parties have already made their big strategic choices. The Tories and…
Theresa May’s honours list makes me sick
The BBC featured a gay wedding on Songs of Praise recently. Of course it did. The thinking was, I assume:…
Britain’s political system is broken. America’s isn’t
American liberals perceive it as a jarring inconsistency: my opposition to Trump and support for Brexit. Especially outside the UK,…
The appalling vanity of Western feminists who think Margaret Atwood writes about them
Imagine a country where women have no jobs, no rights and are valued only for reproductive success. Imagine a country…
WeWork is no more than an overhyped and overstretched landlord
Long ago in my investment banking days I had a glimpse into the mind of the British Airways long-haul pilot.…
There’s nothing wrong with Jacob Rees-Mogg lying down in the Commons
If you are a journalist covering politics this year, every moment is a bad moment to take a holiday. I…
When it comes to Brexit, everything that can be tried will always fail
It is all beginning to feel like the closing scenes of the 1980 spoof comedy film Airplane! In particular the…
How to beat the autumn blues
You know that awful, gnawing, depressing feeling you’ve got right now? The one that notices how shockingly early the sun…
The PPI scandal ends at last – but the nuisance calls will keep coming
Of all the stains on the reputation of UK banks, the PPI scandal is surely the most shameful, the most…
The Amazon fires are as much a political story as an environmental one
We do not yet know which 100 citizens will make it to the ‘Citizens’ Assembly’ to be chaired by the…
Might there be a Brexit deal after all?
Parliament has not yet returned from its summer break but we are already in a bitter constitutional battle, with the…
History will soon judge this fraught time
Good stories have a dénouement. The Act III moment when all is revealed and the narrative comes in to land…
Don’t blame snowflakes – grown-ups are the idiots
San Francisco must be the virtue capital of the world. (The latest: just across the bay, Berkeley’s city council voted…
Now is the wrong time to tackle rising boardroom pay
The average FTSE 100 chief executive earned £3.5 million last year — 117 times the £29,574 pay of the average…
The royals should embody virtue – not signal it
ONE should not be censorious if the Duke and Duchess of Sussex fly in private jets to their holidays, though…
It’s time to talk about what no deal really means
The main reason Conservative MPs prefer Boris Johnson’s government to Theresa May’s is because of its clarity of message. The…
Is there anything that can’t be put down to a ‘condition’?
I suppose it is overstating the case to suggest that dyslexia is simply a term coined to assuage the disappointment…
When did English A-level become a science?
Now that my youngest has got her A-level grades, I’m finally free to say just how much I have loathed…
Who’ll be the next jihadi-jackpot winner?
Reading the news this week of Jihadi Jack (née Letts, of Oxfordshire) having his UK passport withdrawn, my mind went…
Why you can’t let Brexit affect your life
A couple with a first baby sought my advice: they had accepted a low offer for their cramped London flat…
I’m giving £200 to whoever can tell me who has made the nation’s buttocks ache
Look out. Here comes a column banging on about something that, in the grand scheme of things, really doesn’t matter.…
Contraception is the answer to climate change
When last week’s IPCC report warned that the human race may soon have trouble feeding itself, my reaction was: duh.…
If investors are fleeing to gold, this is not the time to be smug
It came as no great surprise that the UK economy contracted by 0.2 per cent in the second quarter, following…
An all-female cabinet? Insert your own joke here
I wonder what Jacques Derrida would have made of the new leader of the UK Independence party? In the philosopher’s…
Give Hong Kongers real security: a British passport
We seem to be building up to a second Tiananmen Square, 30 years after the first. This time the venue…
