Features
Make the fez great again
Ireturned from a recent holiday to Morocco with three mementos: a bright red pair of swimming trunks (teenager-sized; the largest…
‘It’s like a Mexican stand-off but no one has any guns’: inside the farcical coup against Keir Starmer
It is an old adage of leadership contests that ‘If you shoot for the King, you’d better not miss’ –…
The three things Trump wants from his China trip
Donald Trump flew to Beijing this week, and when he sits down with China’s President Xi Jinping on Thursday morning…
How the Saudis wriggled out of the Iran conflict
Some of the highest-paid sportsmen in history, the golfers of the LIV league, had bad news recently. Saudi Arabia said…
The great British flower revival
When Juliet said of Romeo that ‘a rose by any other name would smell as sweet’, she spoke a common…
It’s time to uncancel Enoch Powell
Despite a career of nearly half a century in public life, Enoch Powell is generally remembered for one utterance only:…
Starmergeddon: Labour is hurtling further left
There’s a difference between climate and weather. Both change, but at very different tempos. Variations in the weather are seasonal…
Get ready for the ugliest building in the City of London
The City of London is not noted for its beauty. Most great European cities expect their historic streets to retain…
Why is maternity care in Britain getting worse?
Chelsea and her partner had been trying for a baby for two years. Following several miscarriages, she became pregnant again…
What no one tells you about dairy farming
It has been calving time in Devon and I arrive from London ready to work hard. The day starts at…
Is your wellness smoothie giving you cancer?
There’s a question I’ve started being asked at work. Given I’m a psychiatrist, it isn’t one I’d ever expected to…
Are any fans weirder than Michael Jackson fans?
What does a star need? A great lawyer, a good publicist, a silent plastic surgeon on speed dial – and…
Russians no longer believe Putin’s war propaganda
A year ago, Russia marked the 9 May Victory Day celebration with a spectacular display of fireworks that lit up…
Who cares if fridge magnets are naff?
Let’s dispense with the obvious question first. Are they common? While there’s a clear temptation to consult Nicky Haslam on…
The inverted imperialism of the royal visit
It’s hard not to feel sorry for Christian Turner, the UK’s new ambassador in Washington. He’s only been in post…
In defence of celebrity rosé
Alan Watkins, the late parliamentary sketch writer, told a story about his time on the Sunday Express in the 1960s.…
Is the country ready for Chancellor Ed Miliband?
When Morgan McSweeney concluded his evidence on Tuesday to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee about the Mandelson affair, a senior…
What your whippet says about you
‘Whippets are simply ducal,’ a grand friend pants at me in her drawing room when I ask her why she…
Shameless Britain: we are a nation of shoplifters
It’s been more than a week since Sean Egan, a manager at Morrisons in Aldridge, announced that he’d been sacked…
March of the Greenshirts: Polanski’s party are the real racists
‘Back us to stop the far right,’ say the Greens. But what if parts of the Greens are the far…
My miracle match against the Vatican’s cricket team
Many have come to Rome seeking spiritual guidance: Thomas à Becket, Lord Byron, Lionel Richie. I came for a different purpose:…
The joy of liquorice
‘I’ll swap you two of my rolls for three of your spogs.’ That was the sort of thing you’d hear…
‘It’s worse than during the worst of Boris’: how the civil service turned against Starmer
Somewhere in the vast array of documents the Cabinet Office has gathered on the appointment of Peter Mandelson as the…
The new AI system causing panic over cybersecurity
It’s tempting, even fashionable, to pooh-pooh the hyperbole from our tech overlords. The release in 2022 of ChatGPT, the first…
Lena Dunham’s memoir is everything wrong with feminism today
Is the right to be angry and miserable the best that modern feminism can do? Or is it possible, while…
