Features
Ukrainians have lost faith in Zelensky
Donald Trump this week boosted Ukraine’s air defences with new Patriot batteries, threatened Vladimir Putin with sanctions if he does…
Woke coke: would you drink Gaza Cola?
Andy Warhol believed that the greatness of America lay in how the richest consumers bought exactly the same things as…
The wit and beauty of bank notes
William Shakespeare was the first to feature, in 1970. Alan Turing was most recent, in 2021. But the Bank of…
Why should the hunt for the next Archbishop of Canterbury be ‘inclusive’?
On 21 July 1828, the urbane aristocrat Charles Manners-Sutton, 89th Archbishop of Canterbury, died. Just two and a half weeks…
The man who’s destroying Spain
Madrid In the mid-1990s, Spain’s socialist prime minister Felipe Gonzalez saw his political career collapse under the weight of a…
Corbyn’s new party is Starmer’s creation
Have you ever been to an activist meeting? A proper one, not a cocktail party for potential donors. If Keir…
The slow delights of an OAP coach tour
Early on Monday mornings, in service stations across the country, armies of the elderly are mustering. These are the OAPs…
Peerless: the purge of the hereditaries
The House of Lords is very old, but not quite continuous. In 1649, shortly after the execution of King Charles…
Does AI belong on the tennis court?
The evidence was clear, the official had dropped a clanger. At 4-4 in the first set of the women’s match…
Good Lords: the House is losing some of the best
Keir Starmer has not been the luckiest general. But, in one respect, he has bested Napoleon. The Duke of Wellington…
Norman Tebbit transformed the country for the better
My first job in government was working for Norman Tebbit as his special adviser in the Department of Trade and…
I’ve got Donald Trump to thank for my unusual middle name
Never make a drunken bet. At about 3 a.m. one fateful morning, pre-pandemic and several bottles down, a friend and…
Admit it: most wedding speeches are awful
Perhaps the most traumatic part of attending an American wedding – much worse than the bridesmaids coming in the wrong…
Is Britain ready for France’s most controversial novel?
This Saturday is the centenary of the birth of one of France’s most controversial writers. Jean Raspail, who died in…
The Alawite women taken as sex slaves in Syria
Syria’s Alawite communities are in the grip of a fear that their women and girls could be kidnapped and held…
How postcards made Britain
Worse for drink, and lonely in his Hollywood apartment, F. Scott Fitzgerald sat down to write a postcard. He began,…
Can Keir Starmer fend off Labour’s big beasts?
It was the chronicle of a death foretold. Last year Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, drafted a memo…
Labour should look to Andy Burnham for inspiration
For Keir Starmer, it seems everything is going south. His MPs are openly rebelling, his advisers are mutinous and it…
My memories of the royal train
It is the most civilised way to travel anywhere in the kingdom. Which is why I am so distraught that…
Public libraries deserve to shut – they’ve forgotten why they exist
The usual piece about public libraries runs like this. Public libraries are for ‘more than just books’. They are in…
Meet Zohran Mamdani, the man who will ruin New York
Manhattan The Friday before New York’s Democratic mayoral primary election, the 33-year-old candidate Zohran Mamdani walked the entire length of…
Why do my outfits make people so angry?
I have always cycled everywhere in London, not because I want to save the planet but because I want to…
The hidden value of notes
‘You asshole,’ was my friend’s cheery greeting when we met in Ludlow. I’d mucked up the time. Reconciled, we walked…
Is your restaurant halal?
Dos Mas Tacos opened recently next to Spitalfields Market, one of London’s trendiest and busiest areas. Two beef birria tacos…
Millennials don’t want brown furniture
For me, it was the sideboard that did it. Originally the centrepiece of my grandmother’s dining room, upon her death…
