Christmas with my soon-to-be-ex-wife
I didn’t force any hyacinths this Christmas. Most years I plant a dozen bulbs at the end of September and…
‘Islamist’ is a dishonest confection
Convicted last month of plotting what could have proved the worst terrorist attack in British history, Walid Saadaoui had hoped…
How the ancients anticipated the apocalypse
What with the threat of global warming and nuclear war, the new year might start with a big bang. The…
Keep children out of politics
In Citizens, his account of the French Revolution, Simon Schama wrote how the Jacobins recruited children into ‘relentless displays of…
Pubs, schools and water in crisis: my economic forecast for 2026
Forecasting is a mug’s game, as the Bank of England governor Mervyn King once said. But I’ll sketch a few…
Letters: Don’t let Labour kill off trail hunting
Man with man to dwell Sir: Your editorial (‘All ye faithful’, 13-27 December) suggests that scepticism about Stephen Yaxley-Lennon’s (Tommy…
Alaa Abd el-Fattah and our misplaced priorities
What would you like the priorities of His Majesty’s government to be? I have quite a long list. Sorting out…
Iranians are risking everything to convert to Christianity
Apostasy – specifically, conversion to Christianity from Islam – is punishable by death in Iran. Suspected Christians are routinely imprisoned…
An opera that will actually make you laugh
‘What we want is proper comedy!’ bellows the male chorus in the opening seconds of Prokofiev’s L’amour des trois oranges…
Sublime: Song Sung Blue reviewed
Song Sung Blue is a musical biopic of the real-life Milwaukee couple who formed a Neil Diamond tribute act and…
One for hardcore Stoppard fans: Indian Ink reviewed
Unusual. After the press night of Indian Ink by Tom Stoppard, no one leapt up and cheered. The crowd applauded…
Enough with torture-porn TV
Has anyone got to the end of Malice yet? I’m halfway through – at the time of writing, anyway –…
Constable, not Turner, changed the course of painting
Flanders and Swann; Tom and Jerry. Some things come in pairs. Like Turner and Constable, even though our two most…
Who let Men Without Hats make a new album?
Grade: D A Montreal band led by a Ukrainian/Canadian called Ivan Doruschuk, with a histrionic baritone, famous solely for having…
Am I a useful idiot visiting Uzbekistan’s first art biennial?
In the ruins of a 16th-century mosque, in the heart of the ancient silk-road city of Bukhara, dozens of abstract…
Can Britain strip Alaa Abd El-Fattah of his citizenship?
Does the government have the power to strip Alaa Abd El-Fattah of his recently acquired British citizenship? Sources within government reportedly…
Health report reveals Trump’s thin skin
For years, Joe Biden’s handlers did their best to hide the fact from us that their boss was a senile,…
The Somali fraud scandal is a turning point
I suspect that Somalis around the country – especially, but not exclusively, in Minneapolis – wish about now that they…
The Fuad Awale case shows what’s wrong with the ECHR
Another new year, and another controversial human rights victory for a criminal. Fuad Awale was a violent thug and Islamist serving…
The real Alaa Abd el-Fattah scandal
The real scandal of Alaa Abd el-Fattah is that it is nothing new, and that not enough has changed. For…
The trouble with Khan’s New Year’s fireworks
Despite the pyrotechnic glories of London’s New Year fireworks, 2026 started off with a whimper rather than a bang. The…
