Status anxiety

I’ve swapped booze for Pot Noodles

3 April 2021 9:00 am

Along with many other people, I gave up drinking for the month of January and then resumed with gusto on…

The terror of seeing my dog attacked

27 March 2021 9:00 am

I was walking with our one-year-old cavapoochon on the way back from the baker’s in Acton on Sunday morning when…

My plan to kick off life after lockdown

20 March 2021 9:00 am

The last time I went to a football game was on Saturday 7 March last year when my 12-year-old son…

How I learned to love audio books

13 March 2021 9:00 am

According to a charity called Fight For Sight, 38 per cent of people who’ve been using screens more during lockdown…

The conservative appeal of drug gangs

6 March 2021 9:00 am

According to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick, the easing of lock-down will be accompanied by a rise in crime…

The secret code of the ruling class

27 February 2021 9:00 am

I naively hoped that last year’s statement by the Equalities Minister explaining why unconscious bias training was being phased out…

My advice for the next ‘free speech champion’

20 February 2021 9:00 am

I was delighted to hear the government plans to appoint a ‘free speech champion’ to the board of the Office…

Abstinence makes the heart grow fonder

13 February 2021 9:00 am

The wine has been flowing in the Young household this week. The reason I’ve been celebrating is because I managed…

What more do I have to do to get a peerage?

6 February 2021 9:00 am

Watching Lord Hannan of Kingsclere being introduced in the House of Lords on Monday was a bittersweet moment. On the…

Quarantine heralds the death of Mid-Atlantic Man

30 January 2021 9:00 am

As an ambitious journalist making my way in Fleet Street, I dreamed of becoming a Mid-Atlantic Man. Tom Wolfe came…

Farewell to my dear friend Richard, the very best of us

23 January 2021 9:00 am

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

16 January 2021 9:00 am

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

9 January 2021 9:00 am

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

19 December 2020 9:00 am

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?

12 December 2020 9:00 am

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

5 December 2020 9:00 am

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

28 November 2020 9:00 am

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

21 November 2020 9:00 am

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?

14 November 2020 9:00 am

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

7 November 2020 9:00 am

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

31 October 2020 9:00 am

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?

24 October 2020 9:00 am

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?

17 October 2020 9:00 am

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

10 October 2020 9:00 am

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

3 October 2020 9:00 am

From the moment I started criticising the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis people have been urging me to start…