True devotion
The 20th century was an amazing time for Russian pianists, and the worse things got, politically and militarily, the more…
Solution to 2540: Recycling components
Unclued lights (PLAY, WITH, HOLD, DOWN) comprise components for the unclued cyclic sequence PLAY WITH, WITHHOLD, HOLD DOWN and DOWNPLAY.…
Money is in trouble
OK, I finally watched Netflix’s Don’t Look Up. Surprisingly, I enjoyed it — especially before its effective subtitle for us…
Whistling
There was, at least until recently, an old sign round the back of the Savoy banning whistling by staff or…
Adam Bandt has billionaires on the brain
Greens Leader Adam Bandt is that whiny girl on the Brady Bunch who constantly complains, ‘Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!’ except that…
Boris is about to give Silicon Valley censors more power than ever
Four years in the making, the Online Safety Bill has now been sent to senior ministers for review — a…
The Chinese Communist Party always medals in moral corruption
The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics will draw to a close on Sunday, and few will mourn its passing. The spectacle…
State schools and the rise of posh apprenticeships
Recently, a friend forwarded me a letter he’d received from his children’s school, an independent secondary in London, to mark…
How to resist the age of grievance
At a recent session of the Virginia House of Delegates, Don Scott, a Democrat, blasted Republicans for employing “the old…
Storm Eunice has nothing to do with climate change
I sat tight and braced myself for the worst this morning — not high winds but for the Today programme…
Why is Lord’s dropping the Eton-Harrow fixture?
In an act of thinly veiled class war, news broke this week that the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) has decided…
The New York Times takes aim at J.K. Rowling
It looks like the New York Times is at it again. In recent years, America’s least-reliable news source has developed a…
Sorry, Freedom Convoy — fundraisers are only for left-wing criminals
It seems to be harder to donate money to the Canadian truckers protesting their country’s vaccine mandate than it is…
Freedom isn’t ‘white’
An op-ed in the Washington Post about the Canadian truckers’ protest tells us that the idea of freedom is “White” with a capital W…
The Clinton campaign’s plot to politically assassinate Trump
There is a word for secretly collecting information about enemies or competitors to use against them. According to the latest…
Kids need an education, not Woke indoctrination
A recent The Sun newspaper article written by the UK Secretary of State for Education Nadhim Zahawi should be compulsory reading for…
Rogan vs Spotify – the internet’s irreconcilable ‘crisis of narratives’
As music platform Spotify continues to deal with criticisms of its exclusive Joe Rogan Experience podcast, some wise heads will…
‘Rackets of fire’: Djokovic is the new Eric Liddell
Is Novak Djokovic the Eric Liddell of our times? Liddell was the Scottish sprinter who famously refused to run in…
Holmes à Court: Kingmaker?
During climate activist Zali Steggall’s successful bid to topple the former Prime Minister Tony Abbott at the last federal election,…
Welcome to body-camera democracy
The introduction of body cameras as a staple of the police uniform has been a transformative piece of tech. After…
‘Xi Jinping Thought’ is taking over China’s classrooms
From last fall, in an extension of a personality cult not seen since Mao Zedong, “Xi Jinping Thought” is being…
Should we vaccinate children against Covid?
Is there any point in vaccinating five to 11-year-olds against Covid? For months the policy across the UK was not…
The Tate’s grubby cancellation of Rex Whistler
Tate Britain’s Rex Whistler restaurant will never reopen the gallery announced yesterday. The restaurant – once known for its excellent…
Poll: UK wary of sending troops to Ukraine
Another day and another wait to see what, if anything, will happen in Ukraine. Vladimir Putin still has thousands of soldiers…
Can Joe Biden channel John F. Kennedy over Ukraine?
In a submission for the hotly contested prize for fatuous belligerence over Ukraine, Ben Wallace, UK secretary of state for…
