Status anxiety
The free market needs fighting for – again
As you’re reading this, I will still be recovering from the dinner I’m due to attend this week to celebrate…
I love Israel, so I’m allowed at least one bad joke about it
I expect all of us have said something we regret at one time or another, but not everyone does so…
How I joined the 99 per cent
In The Wolf of Wall Street, there’s a poignant shot towards the end in which we see an FBI agent…
Gove killed neither mice nor mockingbirds
I suppose I should be grateful that the liberal intelligentsia doesn’t bother to check any of the facts if an…
Americans can’t hack it
I was interested to read a story by Michael Wolff in USA Today saying that Graydon Carter may be about…
A lesson in humility
I went to a meeting at Penguin earlier this week to discuss ‘publicity opportunities’ for my forthcoming book. Chance would…
Making myselfherd
I find it hard to pinpoint the exact moment when my support for Queen’s Park Rangers crossed over into full-blown…
Why I’m a kamikaze cyclist
The only way to survive as a London cyclist is to behave like a complete nutter
Yes, Britain is a Christian country
I can’t say it was a great surprise to read a letter from a group of well-known authors, academics, comedians…
An initiation into anxiety
Before I had children I don’t think I appreciated what anxiety was. I’d been anxious at various points in my…
Two books I almost wrote (and one I did)
There’s nothing quite so burdensome as having a book to write. Maybe it’s not so bad when it’s your first…
The need to know
It’s scarcely possible to open a newspaper or magazine these days without reading an article about how the latest technological…
Keeping up appearances
Shortly after I started working at Vanity Fair in the mid-1990s, I suggested to my boss Graydon Carter that I…
Defenders of a free press should throw in the towel
It looks as though Hacked Off has finally won its three-year battle for tighter regulation of the press. Why do…
Death does not become us
Shortly after Bob Crow’s death was announced on Tuesday, Nigel Farage sent the following tweet: ‘Sad at the death of…
You gotta have faith
An email popped into my inbox on Tuesday morning urging me to join a ‘fair admissions campaign’ that’s been launched…
What’s happened to Harriet Harman?
Watching Harriet Harman being interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg on Newsnight earlier this week was a strange experience. I felt as…
A question of authority
A new book by a Swedish psychiatrist has just come out that I like the sound of. It’s called How…
I’m failing as a parent, and that’s OK
Two new books have been published recently on the thorny issue of social mobility, one optimistic, suggesting various things parents…
How to deal with the Blob
Michael Gove has been under fire this week for ‘sacking’ Sally Morgan as chair of Ofsted. You’d think he’d be…
More lessons from Sweden
This Saturday night I’ll be staying in to watch the final two episodes of The Bridge, the Scandinavian detective series…
The class that’s too snobbish to speak its name
Last week, YouGov conducted a poll in which people were asked to judge how middle class the party leaders are.…
Want the next Mark Zuckerburg? Teach Latin!
I was disappointed to read an article in the Times about a new free school in Hammersmith being proposed by…
Giving it all up
I’ve gone completely overboard with New Year’s Resolutions this year. I’ve sworn off three illicit substances — alcohol, chocolate and…
Join my campaign to save the country
This is going to be the year I do my Flash Gordon routine and launch a campaign to save the…
