The transgender agenda could topple intersectionality
It is a great disappointment to me that my phrases don’t get picked up by other writers and then society…
My advice to Leavers: go for a second referendum – you might just win
My first encounter with a plan to hold not one but two referendums on Britain’s European Union membership happened more…
Dear Remainer parliament: you won. Now revoke Article 50 – if you dare
Dear Remainer parliament. Although we’re the voters who spurned the petition for this very course of action, we the undersigned…
Germany’s economy is crashing – but its fall may help save us
This is no time for schadenfreude — but take comfort from the fact that the UK isn’t built like Germany.…
Emmanuel Macron has united his country – against him
Montpellier An embattled, incompetent leader distrusted and disliked by a vast majority of voters. A wobbly economy that might be…
Down with kissing!
It’s out of control! If I play doubles first thing, have a lunch, then go to perhaps two parties in…
Liz Truss: the Tories can win over the Boohoo generation
‘Get some boomerangs,’ Liz Truss says to her aides. The Chief Secretary to the Treasury isn’t looking for something to…
Our moaning MPs say they’re suffering. What about the rest of us?
A famous actor looks tearfully into the camera. It is Michael Sheen, or possibly Ewan McGregor. His voice cracks as…
iPlod: Sajid Javid’s new internet rules will have a chilling effect on free speech
Monday wasn’t the best day for the government to launch Online Harms, its white paper on internet regulation. As Sajid…
The problem with TV? There’s too much to watch – and it’s all too good
Friends in Herefordshire said they were both fit and well but confessed to ‘watching far too much television’. I thought…
Celebrities, cars and chickens: Inside the Connaught hotel
You may have noticed the Connaught a little more since 2011, when ‘Silence’, the steamy fountain by Japanese ‘architect philosopher’ Tadao…
Time for a Tippett revival
Running the entire course of the 20th century, Michael Tippett’s life (1905–1998) was devoted to innovation. He was an English…
Toy boy: Machines Like Me, by Ian McEwan, reviewed
What kind of loyalty do we owe a robot we’ve paid for — one who exhibits a convincingly human kind…
How climate change led to capitalism
At a dinner recently I was told the story of a Canadian billionaire (now defined in banking circles as someone…
I could have stopped Harold Shipman’s killing spree and saved 175 lives
Scientists, it turns out, are really bad at statistics. Numerous studies show that a startling proportion of academics consistently misunderstand…
A stubborn Conservative PM attempting to negotiate with Germany? Not Theresa May but Neville Chamberlain
When lists are compiled of our best and worst prime ministers (before the present incumbent), the two main protagonists of…
Rebel girls of the 13th century
Women who can — however tenuously — be described as ‘rebel girls’ are big in publishing now. Goodnight Stories for…
Jewish food to relish and cherish
In matters of culture and ethnicity, I take my lead from my old friend and guide Sir Jonathan Miller. Like…
The dirty business of early printed books
Say what you like about the efficiency of the Kindle, one day we’re going to wake up and miss the…
A tease for #MeToo
Titania McGrath is the alter ego of the schoolteacher Andrew Doyle. A perpetually enraged ‘activist, healer and radical intersectional poet’,…
Merce Cunningham’s work was magical, intangible, Einsteinian – revival is futile
On Tuesday, thousands of miles apart, in three great cities, London, New York and Los Angeles, 75 dancers will dance…
Absorbing – a masterclass in print-making: Edvard Munch at the British Museum reviewed
An eyewitness described Edvard Munch supervising the print of a colour lithograph in 1896. He stood in front of the…
Why did Parry’s Judith vanish?
‘When a man takes it upon himself to write an oratorio — perhaps the most gratuitous exploit open to a…
Enjoyable but over-rated and elitist: Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls reviewed
Caryl Churchill’s best-known play, Top Girls, owes a large debt to 1970s TV comedy. It opens with a Pythonesque dinner…
If you liked Triumph of the Will, you’ll love Our Planet
If you liked Triumph of the Will, you’ll love this latest masterpiece of the genre: Our Planet. The Netflix nature…
