Features
Notes on California
The mood in California was apologetic. Most people we met seemed embarrassed that their country’s dirty laundry was being aired…
Too big not to fail
‘Bad policy.’ ‘No discernible impact on the key outcomes it was supposed to improve.’ ‘Deliberate misrepresentation of the data… a…
‘Hillary Clinton is a disaster!’
Talking to Camille Paglia is like approaching a machine gun: madness to stick your head up and ask a question,…
Le Pen’s long game
Marine Le Pen can be excused for thinking her time has come. With six months to go until France’s presidential…
Blinded with science
We’re continually assured that government policies are grounded in evidence, whether it’s an anti-bullying programme in Finland, an alcohol awareness…
Burlington Arcade
It all began with oysters. Londoners used to eat them as they walked along, throwing away the shells much as…
Sweet sorrow
So, is that it? The end of sweetness, and the end of taste? Physically speaking, those things will no doubt…
Murder and politics
Six months ago an old friend of mine was murdered on his doorstep. This week his killer was sentenced to…
Burlington Arcade
It all began with oysters. Londoners used to eat them as they walked along, throwing away the shells much as…
Carney must go
Oh dear. Mark Carney is irritated. His proud independence has been challenged. The Prime Minister had the temerity to admit…
Hope, fights and grammar schools
A typical Kentish town, with its grammar school at one end and its secondary school at the other, is a…
Ghosts of the seasons
Forget killer clowns. Halloween was once a very different affair from the Americanised gorefest it is now. In its-original Irish…
Climate of ignorance
Global greening is the name given to a gradual, but large, increase in green vegetation on the planet over the…
Japan Notebook
Tokyo is visual chaos everywhere, the antithesis of the Japanese interior. It is a multilevel jumble of overpasses, neon signs,…
Notes on… Champagne
The British are notoriously cheap when it comes to wine; the average bottle price is around £6. On one wine,…
Carney must go
Oh dear. Mark Carney is irritated. His proud independence has been challenged. The Prime Minister had the temerity to admit…
Putin’s next move
The old KGB headquarters in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, is a sinister place, full of ghosts. It is a solid…
Notes on… Champagne
The British are notoriously cheap when it comes to wine; the average bottle price is around £6. On one wine,…
The road to the Jungle
Calais On Sunday evening a British motorist, Abraham Reichman, 35, from Stamford Hill, north London, hit two Eritrean migrants who…
Lights, camera, politics
At the end of Sunday night’s US presidential debate, the moderators snuck in a final question from a slightly shell…
Jolly good show
It’s tempting for a Brit to look over the Atlantic and smugly conclude that, after 240 years, the American experiment…
Vanity bombing
‘When you’ve shouted Rule Britannia, when you’ve sung God Save the Queen, when you’ve finished killing Kruger with your mouth…’…
Words on the street
A white van pulls up outside St Giles in the Fields, an imposing 18th century church in central London, around…
Have gun, will kill
Woody Allen said of crime that the hours were good and you meet a lot of interesting people. I don’t…
Hong kong: Eating it up
The brilliant thing about Hong Kong is that you don’t have to worry for a second about all the culture…
