Features
Kim Jong-un’s sister or daughter? Only one can survive…
As a birthday treat, a good father might take his ten-year-old daughter to the ballet or a Disney movie. Three…
I hate many pianists – but am I any better?
From time to time, I’ve given some famous pianists a bit of a kicking in the arts pages of this…
‘Whose side are you on?’: How Keir Starmer alienated Britain’s allies over Iran
The American-Israeli attacks on Iran were publicly called Epic Fury, but behind the scenes it is Britain’s handling of the…
The greater game: Trump’s ultimate target in this war is China
The United States and Israel killed Ayatollah Khamenei, and Xi Jinping’s decade-long project to build an alternative to the American-led…
Operation Epic Fury is already tearing the MAGA movement apart
When President George W. Bush invaded Mesopotamia in 2003, everybody laughed at Comical Ali, the bespectacled Iraqi information minister who…
I love Dubai. Get over it
I am in Dubai where we are doing our best to keep calm and carry on. Granted, the sudden instruction…
The uncomfortable truth about the new Mental Health Act
Three years ago, Nottingham University students Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Barnaby Webber, along with caretaker Ian Coates, were murdered by Valdo…
Iran’s tradition of martyrdom is key to understanding this conflict
One word stood out in the florid and overwrought announcement of the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader by a tearful…
Could your 50p coin be worth much more?
‘I have not found anybody yet who has a good word to say for the new coin,’ Sir Douglas Glover…
‘Happy Friday!’: resist the tyranny of faux niceness
Five people I never met wished me a Happy Friday last Friday by email. You can pretty much be wished…
‘I bet there are loads of women who find Farage sexy’: the writers of Industry on putting politics on screen
No TV show better encapsulates the nexus between money and power than Industry. The HBO drama sees investment bankers screwing,…
‘It’s a Faustian pact’: Rachel Reeves is giving bankers what they want
The Epstein files lift the curtain on how power is exercised and influence traded by our financial elite. It is…
A beginner’s guide to Britain’s right-wing parties
The crowded market place emerging on Britain’s right is bewildering. Nigel Farage and Reform UK appeared to have successfully colonised…
Strewth! Australian culture is taking over Britain
Catherine and Heathcliff. These are surely roles that every attractive British actor should aspire to. Why mope between auditions for…
My sister Ghislaine became a prop in the theatre of global online outrage
My family name has become a byword for scandal. My father Robert went from press baron to tabloid monster within…
Inside the daring plan to reclaim the Chagos Islands
Peros Banhos on the Chagos archipelago looks like your basic tropical island paradise: turquoise waters and golden sands, waves lapping…
‘More than half our squad were executed’: Inside Russia’s rotten army
The Russians are on the warpath – and Europe is Vladimir Putin’s next target. That was Sir Keir Starmer’s alarming…
How to listen for alien life
For more than 60 years, scientists have been on the stealthiest stakeout in history. Using state-of-the-art listening devices, they’ve tapped…
‘It was making me think like a Latin American dictator’: why my moustache had to go
Iloved my moustache. Unfortunately, my fondness for it seemed inversely proportionate to its popularity among my peers. After much unsolicited…
The real reason VAR has ruined football
The two main harms of government regulation, to be balanced against any benefits, are cost and delay. But there is…
Just how bad are Nato’s armies?
Given the relative sizes of their economies, one might conclude that Russia would quake before the military might of Europe’s…
‘J.D. Vance was right’: Is Europe finally waking up?
Munich, Germany The organisers of the Munich security conference weren’t subtle. A large statue of an elephant stood in one…
The truth about Britain’s hollowed-out armed forces
When Keir Starmer was told his pledge to raise defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP in the next…
All aboard the last bus out of Mousehole
It was lucky that the bus was behind schedule – mainly because the driver had stepped out to take his…
Who would Inspector Rebus support in the Scottish Premiership?
BBC Radio 4’s Today programme asks me to champion a favourite book and I choose Muriel Spark’s The Prime of…
