World
Pure shores: a Scottish sea safari
In the narrow strait between Jura and Scarba, the sea does strange things. Standing waves barrel over phantom surf breaks.…
In a balloon over Burgundy
I said I’d never go up in a hot air balloon again. But that was a terrified me forty-five years…
On the front line of the tennis magazine wars
The issue appeared without fanfare at the 2017 US Open giftshop: a bright-red background offset an Impressionist yet unmistakable painting…
Ship shape: Normandie, the biggest French restaurant of all
These pages recently carried a lament for the little French restaurant, and the loss from the cities they once graced…
How beer cracked France
Only a fool tries to guess exactly what awaits at a French karaoke bar. But on a Saturday night in…
The Bloody Mary deserves more than brunch
Regular readers of my cocktail column probably get the formula by now: I give a short history of the drink…
The best winter wines
Winter is a natural moment for a little recherche du temps perdu. For my band of serious thinkers, the usual…
There’s only one way to end the war in Ukraine
Donald Trump has told Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine. ‘Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous war!’ he…
Axel Rudakubana should never have been free to kill
Coulter’s Law, named after its originator, the right-wing polemicist Ann Coulter, holds that the longer it takes the authorities or…
Trump is not fooling this time
It is said that the adage “he who hesitates is lost” is an adaptation of a line from Joseph Addison’s…
Braverman calls on Tories and Reform to ‘unite the right’
Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has had a rather good few months, with a number of opinion polls showing the Clacton…
Australia can’t blame foreign actors for its anti-Semitism shame
Australia is supposed to be a nation of tolerance and acceptance – the one place in a troubled world where people…
The real reason female footballers aren’t on birthday cards
Oh dear… it appears that birthday and greetings cards are sexist. This is, at least, the claim of a group…
I don’t beg your pardon
The government can take away your liberty for moving furniture, I get that now. When it makes you into a…
This was Badenoch’s best PMQs yet
Kemi Badenoch had her best Prime Minister’s Questions yet today. She alighted on a topic that Keir Starmer really struggled…
The truth about ‘stupid’ footballers
I’ll always remember a conversation I had with someone just after I’d interviewed the footballer Frank Lampard. ‘What was he…
Starmer’s academies U-turn
Today’s PMQs won’t go down in history as Sir Keir Starmer’s finest half hour, with the PM losing marks over…
Classical music is worth the effort
Last week I attended a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No.3 at the Barbican Centre in the City of London. Gustavo…
How Donald Trump could really help Ukraine
There was surprisingly little in Donald Trump’s inaugural address about Russia and Ukraine, aside from a vague pledge to ‘stop…
Five failings of the assisted dying committee
Back in November, MPs waved through Kim Leadbeater’s assisted dying bill by 330 votes to 275. Some of those who…
BBC under fire over Trump coverage
Uh oh. The Beeb’s back in the spotlight – and this time it’s over some rather interesting reporting on the…
Prince Harry has won a Pyrrhic victory over the Sun
So, in the end, Prince Harry folded. His much-ballyhooed case about News Group Newspapers, publishers of the Sun, which was…
Are we missing the point about the ‘Amazon killer’ Axel Rudakubana?
‘The Amazon Killer’, screams the Sun front page today. ‘Total disgrace he was able to buy knife on Amazon,’ says…
Why Britons can’t stop stealing
We were once known as a nation of shopkeepers. We are now a nation of shoplifters. As the Times reported last week,…
Rachel Reeves’ tinkering won’t rescue Britain’s economy
The news just seems to get worse for Rachel Reeves. After the slight relief of last week’s inflation and GDP…
