World
The Tories have messed up the return to imperial measurements
Cheers! You will soon once again be able to buy champagne and wine in pint bottles – Winston Churchill’s favourite measure. It…
Why can’t the BBC leave Agatha Christie alone?
I would like to report a murder. It took place in the evening of 27 December in millions of homes…
Is Keir Starmer too boring to be prime minister?
‘What do you know about Keir Starmer?’ My friend’s question came as we sat in the pub. It was part of…
The British Museum is the best home for the Elgin Marbles
Should the Elgin Marbles be returned? Greece’s argument, put forward recently by the country’s foreign minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, is well…
What’s the truth about South Africa’s ‘genocide’ of white farmers?
Is a crime against humanity at risk of unfolding in South Africa? Elon Musk, the Pretoria-born billionaire who owns X…
Get ready for the 2024 Great Election Freak-Out
“If Trump wasn’t running,” said Joe Biden last week, “I’m not sure I’d be running.” That’s a curiously uninspiring remark…
Why Sunak hasn’t yet decided when to call an election
When will the election be? It’s the question that is asked whenever MPs meet. Over the Christmas recess, the issue…
Why don’t anti-racists care about anti-Semitism?
Where have all the anti-racists gone? You couldn’t move for anti-racists in recent years. They thundered from their newspaper pulpits…
The QAnon-style in anti-Israel conspiracy theories
On Boxing Day pro-Palestine demonstrators met customers at the Zara sale in the Westfield shopping centre, in Stratford, east London.…
Do evil and suffering discredit Christian belief?
It is the question of questions for most believers, let alone countless others either drawn to religion or repelled by…
Why 2024 will be tough on Joe Biden
In the United States, presidential elections are rarely won or lost on foreign policy. Domestic matters like the economy, crime,…
The Conservatives are indulging in fantasy economics
Finally it seems to be dawning on many Conservative MPs that abolishing – or seriously cutting – inheritance tax at…
A Labour government could spell trouble for trans people like me
This has been a year to forget for the transgender lobby. This time last year, Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP government had…
Does Putin use body doubles?
It has become something of a fad to try to identify and quantify the body doubles of Vladimir Putin. There are…
The decline and fall of banking’s barrow boys
Before the ‘Big Bang’, which led to the deregulation of financial markets in London in the 1980s, the city was…
How black holes are changing our understanding of the world
One thing upon which my friend Jeremy Clarke and I always agreed is the value of seeing the world from…
Why wokeness really is like fascism
If you had to choose a political word of the decade you could do worse than ‘woke’. Because these days…
The Tories’ only hope is tax cuts
In the old days, when the Conservatives were chalking up opinion poll ratings in the forties, their strategists knew they…
Did Richard Dawkins’s ‘New Atheists’ spark a Christian revival?
The battle between New Atheism and religion was never likely to have a clear winner. It was never very likely…
Why can’t the Tories come up with a good nickname for Keir Starmer?
When a nickname really hits its target, there is a satisfying beauty about it: a quippy sobriquet that catches the…
Mad dogs and Putin’s shells: A dispatch from Kherson
Browsing the shelves at Tsum, a supermarket in the centre of Kherson in Ukraine, you could be forgiven for thinking…
In pursuit of deep England
I am wary of mentioning General de Gaulle in these pages, if for no other reason than remembering Auberon Waugh…
Why Ukraine’s attack on the Novocherkassk warship matters
It was not quite in time for Christmas (which Ukraine now celebrates on 25 December, after switching this year from…
UK becomes first G20 country to halve its carbon emissions
A major milestone has just been passed: Britain has become the first major country to halve its carbon emissions. The…
The shameful legacy of Tony Blair’s Hunting Act
Most laws enacted nearly 20 years ago become uncontroversial with the passage of time. The Hunting Act, though, is not…
