World
The classless response to Ann Widdecombe’s murder
Ann Widdecombe represented British politics at its best: she was deeply principled and sincere, yet warm and dignified. But in the response to her death, over…
Why Lindsey Graham was always ready for war
Political lives almost always end in failure, or at least anticlimax, but Lindsey Graham went to his reward while in…
Robbins puts Starmer in the dock
Hell hath no fury like a disgruntled former employee – and, in this case, perhaps justifiably so. As Sir Keir…
Why the actor Sam Neill was so loved
Actor Sam Neill, whose unexpected death was announced today by his family, was claimed as a son by not one,…
Ken Bates, Chelsea, and the bad old days of football
The timing of the death this weekend of Ken Bates, the former owner of Chelsea and Leeds United, will have…
George Cottrell and the troubling incuriosity of Nigel Farage
I wrote in this space not long ago, in the context of Nicola Sturgeon, about how incuriosity can, when taken…
Labour can’t blame the Tories for Britain’s tagging crisis
Electronic Monitoring – ‘EM’ or ‘tagging’ – is at the heart of the government’s plans for the justice system. Tags…
Thomas Tuchel has done the impossible: he’s made me love the Germans
Oh Thomas Tuchel, how I love you! Unlike the last boss of the England team, Saint Gareth of Southgate, there’s…
The price children pay for ‘free’ nursery
Bridget Phillipson’s proposal to extend 30 free hours of childcare to families on benefits is lunacy. Over eight years working…
Burnham’s tour of Britain is pure narcissism
Andy Burnham, who will be prime minister this time next week, has apparently decided to spend part of the summer…
The mass appeal of Ann Widdecombe
The death of Ann Widdecombe calls to mind the song of the same name by Victoria Wood. The festive ditty…
Will Lindsey Graham be remembered as a great senator?
Already the denunciations of Senator Lindsey Graham, who died at 71, are piling up. Former Republican operative Steve Schmidt’s verdict was not untypical. He declared…
The inevitable implosion of the ‘one in, one out’ scheme
We should have seen this coming. It was patent from the start that last year’s ‘one in, one out’ agreement…
Thank God for Jude Bellingham
England are through to the semi-finals of the World Cup – thanks to two brilliant goals from Jude Bellingham. The…
Starmer is determined to kill racing
No one can say they weren’t warned. For years, bookmakers, punters and the horse racing industry have tried to explain,…
Should Green Boots’ body remain on Everest?
In May this year, two Indian climbers died on Mount Everest’s southern slopes in Nepal. Arun Kumar Tiwari reached the…
Are you a Gliberal?
Boris Johnson is one, under the merry Tory veneer. Bill and Hillary Clinton were pioneers. Barack Obama is one –…
Why the ‘extreme male brain’ theory of autism has been disowned
In an academic world where scholars regret seeing their cherished theories vanish into the knacker’s yard, Sir Simon Baron-Cohen is…
David Miliband would be a disastrous foreign secretary
At the Rabbi Jonathan Sacks memorial lecture at the LSE this week, David Miliband ‘broke his silence’ after days of…
Death, schism and conspiracy: Orkney’s renegade Catholic monks
A tiny island in the Orkneys. A renegade group of Catholic monks who have rejected every Pope since the 1960s.…
Starmer’s Britain is ineffectual and sinister
The phrase ‘Starmer’s Britain’ was first articulated three years before he got power. At 6:28 p.m. on 9 May 2021,…
The problem with the Timms review
The interim report of the Timms review of Pip is a walking contradiction. With the cost of the Personal Independence…
My debt to Ann Widdecombe
Somewhere at the bottom of the Fleet Street food chain is the hapless junior reporter known as the ‘milk bottle’.…
Why I love The Office
‘That’s so Brent.’ You’ll hear that phrase a lot. I hear it a lot. I grew up in Willesden Green,…
England and Norway should unite
Tonight, Erling Haaland and Harry Kane should be playing together, not against each other. Partially because Haaland is a Yorkshireman,…
