Features
Are you a politically correct pervert?
It hasn’t always been easy being a progressive-minded man who prides himself on his sensitivity to issues of race, gender,…
Happy Birthday, Blue Peter
Every Monday and Thursday afternoon when I was growing up, a drum roll would sound throughout suburban Britain. ‘Damian? Blue…
Durban Notebook: a nation in paralysis
No one likes uncertainty and in Britain we’ve got more than our fair share. But spare a thought for South…
Notes on Davenports Magic Shop, an emporium for serious conjurors
It’s a very fitting place for a magic shop. Hidden away in the maze of pedestrian tunnels that lead from…
Death of a dissident: Saudi Arabia and the rise of the mobster state
As someone who spent three decades working closely with intelligence services in the Arab world and the West, the Saudi…
As Assad recovers, Syria is returning to stability
In order to avoid the Labour conference and yet more predictable media attacks on Jeremy Corbyn, I escaped late last…
How the Irish see Brexit
In February, I spoke at the first ‘Irexit’ public meeting in Dublin, a discussion about options for Ireland in the…
In defence of Pret
Each year, about ten people in Britain die from allergic reactions to food. The case of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, who died…
Requiem for the Common Entrance Exam
So farewell, then, to the Common Entrance Exam, bane of a million schoolchildren’s lives since it was introduced in 1904.…
Thanks to Trump, the exclamation mark is having its best year! Ever!
‘The trade deal USMCA has received fantastic reviews. It will go down as one of the best ever made, and…
Break out the daiquiris, home bars are back in vogue
When I mention to people that I have written a book about home bars, the most common response is, ‘my…
Trans rights have gone wrong
Your 13-year-old daughter tells a teacher that’s she’s uncomfortable with her body. She prefers trousers to skirts, football to ballet.…
Don’t tell the parents: the official guidance to teachers of ‘trans children’
How can we help transgender children? This is a question greatly exercising politicians and many are confused about what to…
The joys of ‘Neglexit’: not being governed has its good points
The new political buzzword is ‘Neglexit’: the state of being in which, because the government is so wrapped up in…
The nowhere man of France: Corbyn’s new pal Jean-Luc Mélenchon
Jeremy Corbyn is promising to forge closer ties with his French counterpart Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of the hard-left La…
A Greek tragedy: how the EU is destroying a country
‘Now Greece can finally turn the page in a crisis that has lasted too long. The worst is over.’ With…
All hail the return of the crane
The RSPB regularly gets calls from people who have seen ‘a funny bird’. ‘It’s got a red head and it’s…
Discovering Thomas Mann by motorbike
In Thomas Mann’s astonishing novel The Magic Mountain the indolent young Hans Castorp visits his brave, terminally ill soldier cousin…
All by herself: Theresa May and the politics of isolation
Few people would choose to celebrate their birthday by listening to Philip Hammond speak, but that is the pleasure that…
The minister for spinning plates: David Lidington interview
David Lidington is the most powerful minister you’ve never heard of. He is Theresa May’s de facto deputy, tasked with…
How do you solve a problem like Anjem Choudary?
Next month the Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary will be released from prison, having served just half of his five-and-a-half-year sentence.…
Tesco’s new Brexit supermarket doesn’t stack up
Supermarkets have always moved with the times. After the recession we wanted affordable luxury, so we got M&S’s ‘Dine in…
Adam Smith would have approved of Trump’s trade tariffs
‘What the hell is going on?’ That anxious wail of economic incomprehension has been heard ever since President Trump decided…
Of course Russians have a sense of humour – just look at the Salisbury ‘tourists’
The comedy of Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov, the two glum Russian ‘tourists’ who denied on television that they were…
The Yorkshire town that’s gone from dirty old buildings to New Age nirvana
Bernard Ingham once told a story about a reporter from the Financial Times who went to cover an election in…
