World
Stonewall’s annus horribilis
The year 2021 has been an annus horribilis for Stonewall. For much of the last decade, the charity could do no…
Labour in limbo over Covid curbs
Wes Streeting has enjoyed something of a dream start since his promotion to shadow health secretary a month ago. Confident…
The Father I knew: A tribute to Desmond Tutu
The tributes being paid to Desmond Tutu this week often begin with words like ‘activist’, ‘campaigner’, ‘protester’, ‘fighter’ or ‘opponent’.…
Diane Abbott’s Zero Covid crusade
With Christmas over, the turkey consumed and Maughamtide been and gone, the eyes of an anxious nation have turned once…
The modern economy is built on addiction
Two stories, side-by-side in theSunday paper I was looking at online. The first — ‘Strip Dame Dopesick ofher title’ —…
Scotland’s 2022 constitutional courtroom drama will be pure theatre
This is the time of year when economists and political scientists make their predictions for the upcoming 12 months. Will…
Afghanistan’s troubles can’t only be blamed on the Taliban
In 2001, I spent part of a hard winter in a remote village near Bamiyan in the Afghan central highlands.…
Braverman’s brush with the law
Ah student politics: is there anything quite like it? The strange creatures it attracts, the passions it unleashes, the adolescent…
What Patrick Vallance doesn’t say about Sage
Does Sage have a pro-lockdown bias? Sir Patrick Valance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, wrote an article in the Times…
No, Putin isn’t trying to bring the Soviet Union back
On Christmas Day 1991, in his last act as president, Mikhail Gorbachev signed away the existence of the Union of…
The churches must stay open
Hooray for Cardinal Vincent Nichols, who used the one day of the year when his pronouncements are amplified by the…
What Putin’s Russia fears most of all
When Vladimir Putin called the collapse of the Soviet Union ‘a major geopolitical disaster of the century’ he wasn’t channelling…
What’s it like spending Christmas behind bars?
It’s customary these days for people to complain that Covid restrictions mean everyday life ‘is like living in a prison.’…
The Pillar of Shame and the erasure of Hong Kong
In the dead of night one of the most prominent memorials to the Tiananmen Square massacre, the Pillar of Shame,…
Did the White House really save Christmas?
“As the New York Times said today, Christmas gifts are arriving on time this year,” White House press secretary Jen…
The misery of Macron’s Covid clampdown
My daughter’s Christmas won’t quite be the same this year. She and I are in England but her French mother…
Liverpool’s painting purge
Merseyside – the home of Roger McGough, Willy Russell and the Beatles. But it seems that despite the area’s reputation as…
The EU is forcing Poland to choose between money or the constitution
You might find it difficult, not to mention dangerous, to get to see a real meeting between an irresistible force…
Cold turkey: is a Christmas tradition coming to an end?
When I recently asked younger work friends about the prospect of turkey for Christmas dinner, it was greeted with grim…
Jacinda Ardern to Alastair Campbell: My 2021 ‘naughty list’
Merry Christmas – but not for those who have earned a place on my naughty list. From Jacinda Ardern to…
Kamala’s bad press isn’t ‘racist’ or ‘sexist’
Vice President Kamala Harris has been quoted as saying her media coverage would be better if she were a white man.…
Covid fearmongering has consequences too
The scaremongers have overplayed their hand. Omicron could prove disastrous, they warned. They scoffed at the early indicators from South…
Will Omicron overwhelm the NHS? The crucial missing data
If you catch Omicron your risk of ending up in hospital is between 50 to 70 per cent less likely…
Is vaccine refusal a matter for Justin Welby?
It’s not quite ‘the night before Christmas’ but it’s close. The timing could hardly be worse for Justin Welby to…
Labour looks like a proper opposition. That doesn’t mean they’ll win
There’s no point denying it, Labour is doing a bit better these days. Its poll rating is averaging a 39,…
