World
Britain doesn’t need to become great again – it already is
After three-and-a-half years as Poland’s ambassador in London, I’ve come home with two strong impressions. The first: the United Kingdom…
Did Band Aid make a difference?
Is this the year that ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’ – the charity song written by Bob Geldof and Midge…
Save our Boxing Day football
Football’s race to destroy the sport’s finest traditions has surpassed itself, yet again. For the annual Boxing Day feast of…
How terrorism changed Christmas
Christmas is traditionally a time of joy, merriment and peace on Earth. Not so in the little town of Erbach, Germany,…
Christmas and the luxury of fallow time
Christmas is now a festival of family and overeating, yet it keeps its pockets of quiet reflection, even for those…
The King’s speech hit the wrong note
When the King delivered this year’s traditional Christmas Day speech – the fourth he has now given – he chose…
Iron Maiden at 50: how heavy metal became mainstream
The death of the Black Sabbath singer Ozzy Osbourne this July, and the huge reaction it provoked worldwide, represented something…
Christmas dinner is hell for vegans
It’s one of the last bastions of national orthodoxy, one that people look forward to for months, but many vegans…
The revolutionary meaning of Christmas
As stale as it is flawed, the Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee’s view of Christmas nonetheless encapsulates secularist scepticism in revealing ways. Published…
How to stop the next massacre of British Jews
No one remembers the ones they catch in time. Walid Saadaoui and Amar Hussein will quickly be forgotten and so…
Is this finally the end of non-crime hate incidents?
Roll up for a Christmas surprise on the policing front. According to a leak from the College of Policing to…
The ancient tradition of burning a Yule Log
To most modern Britons the words ‘Yule Log’ probably bring to mind that masterstroke of marketing that has enabled supermarkets…
The power and nostalgia of Christmas music
Picking up the children from school recently, I heard the lovely old carol ‘In Dulce Jubilo’ drifting slowly across the…
The welcome tyranny of Christmas cheer
In 1946, buoyed by post-War optimism, the World Health Organisation adopted a famous definition. Health, it declared, was more than…
Do Eskimos really have a hundred different words for snow?
Do the Eskimos have many more words for ‘snow’ than the rest of us, and does this question matter? As…
Prepare for ‘unpeace’ in the Middle East
On several occasions this year, US President Donald Trump has suggested that, thanks to his dealmaking prowess, long-coveted ‘peace in…
Don Trump Jr.’s WASPy fiancé
On December 15, the White House was the setting for its own romantic holiday movie, though it didn’t involve amnesia…
Starmer has nothing going for him
Why would anyone support this government? Keir Starmer has a near-invincible majority, a divided opposition and 14 years of Tory-managed…
Santa Trump’s Christmas economy cheer
I hate to be the bearer of good news, but the US economy is doing quite well. A delayed government…
The ghosts of Andrew and Epstein will not stop haunting the royals
As the rest of the Royal Family prepare for the pageantry and pomp of their traditional Christmas, two ghosts have…
Iran has a ceaseless obsession with Israel
When Benjamin Netanyahu arrives in Florida at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in a few days’ time, near the top of…
Starmer caves to the farmers
The government has delivered an early Christmas present to farmers by modifying the new rules on inheritance tax. Or that’s…
What binds the celebrities featured in the Epstein files
The new naughty list just dropped, as the kids say these days. The pre-Christmas release of the Epstein files, or…
Where is the pop culture rage at Keir Starmer?
Keir Starmer is unpopular. You may have noticed this from his record-breakingly low approval ratings. The weekend just gone brought…
An obituary for Bazball
Any account of the third test match, in Adelaide, inevitably becomes an obituary notice on England’s abortive attempt to wrestle…
