Status anxiety
Farewell to my dear friend Richard, the very best of us
I heard the shocking news last week that one of my oldest friends — Richard Edwards — had died suddenly…
Meal kits are a recipe for mayhem
Caroline was pretty heroic during the first lockdown. She’s used to having no children to deal with between the hours…
A dog is not just for lockdown
The Dogs Trust charity received 114 calls on 27 and 28 December from people wanting to offload their puppies. No,…
The unlikely Schindler who saved my wife’s family
As I gaze at my four children on Christmas morning, clambering on to the bed with their stockings, I will…
Can £3,000 make me as pretty as Emily Maitlis?
If you’re a journalist with a fondness for appearing on television — and, let’s face it, most of us are…
The battle for Eton’s soul
When trying to get my head around the row that has engulfed Eton College in the past two weeks I…
My kids think my move into the garden shed means divorce
I’ve moved out of my home. No, Caroline and I haven’t broken up. It’s just that we’re having the house…
The dangers of censoring anti-vaxxers
Earlier this week, the Labour party wrote to the government urging it to bring forward legislation so that social media…
Will my kids report me for hate speech?
When Humza Yousaf, the SNP’s cabinet secretary for justice, announced that his new Hate Crime Bill would remove the ‘dwelling…
What I’ll miss most in Lockdown II
A second lockdown won’t cause me much suffering. I don’t have a shop selling ‘non-essential’ goods (e.g. books) that will…
There’s nothing neutral about Wikipedia
A couple of weeks ago Newsweek ran an article attacking Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, for engaging in a…
Why are the devolved nations so ungrateful?
One of the things I hadn’t anticipated about the pandemic is that it would turn me into an English nationalist.…
Why can’t we talk about the Great Barrington Declaration?
You probably haven’t heard of the Great Barrington Declaration. This is a petition started by three scientists on 4 October…
Boris Johnson’s human shield
At a Conservative party conference fringe event last Sunday, Lord Bethell, a health minister, was asked where he thought Britain…
Laurence Fox is a political force to be reckoned with
From the moment I started criticising the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis people have been urging me to start…
The creep of internet censorship
Kristie Higgs, a 44-year-old school assistant, didn’t realise that criticising the sex education curriculum at her son’s school on Facebook…
I admit it: I was wrong to back Boris
A friend emailed me earlier this week in despair about the Prime Minister. ‘Boris reminds me of a hereditary king…
Being a do-gooder did me no good at all
Michael J. Sandel, the Harvard political philosopher, has a lot to answer for. Some armchair psychologists think the reason I…
The best leader we never had
I spent Monday afternoon with The Wake Up Call, a new book by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge that lambasts…
The BBC’s future is hanging by a thread
Reading the speech Tony Hall gave to the Edinburgh Television Festival, I was struck by his upbeat, confident tone. The…
Spare a thought for next year’s A-level students
Three years ago I was contacted by an official at the Department for Education to see if I was interested…
I’ve started a dating site for lockdown sceptics
I started a dating site last Sunday. Not words I ever thought I’d write, but I’ve become a kind of…
The proof that free speech in universities is in peril
About 18 months ago, I attended a debate at Policy Exchange, the think tank founded by Nick Boles, Francis Maude…
How to get into a club and on to a plane
Disaster struck the Young family last Friday. My 12-year-old son Charlie woke up with a temperature. Ordinarily, that wouldn’t matter,…
My plans for a Covid inquiry
The public inquiry into the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis has already started. Not the official one, which won’t…
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