Why the English fly their flag
For a Brit in America, flag-flying feels so overdone, almost cultish. Why do Americans fly their flag on houses, lawns,…
Is Taylor Swift’s love life too good to be true?
After years of dating effete Englishmen, Taylor Swift has finally found her man. The singer is engaged to Travis Kelce,…
What is Prince Andrew hiding?
This month marks exactly forty years since I became a literary agent. In that time I have been involved with…
US ‘covert ops’ in Greenland
A crack has developed in the NATO alliance, but surprisingly it has nothing to do with Ukraine. On Wednesday, the…
Is RFK Jr. Trump’s Achilles’ heel?
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s quest to prove himself President Donald Trump’s most destructive Cabinet…
Taxing spare bedrooms: policy theatre, not progress
Every so often in Australia’s housing debate, an idea pops up that perfectly captures where our culture has gone astray.…
Reform take 15 point-lead over Labour
Party conference begins next week when Reform UK kick off their two-day jamboree in Birmingham. Spirits within Nigel Farage’s party…
Who will defend a nation of renters?
Economic arguments miss the cultural significance of home ownership
The ADHD racket
In 1620, in the Staffordshire market town of Bilston, a teenage boy decided he didn’t much fancy going to school.…
Denmark’s ‘spiritual rearmament’ is a lesson for the West
Something unusual is happening in Denmark – and other countries across Europe, including Britain, ought to pay attention. This spring,…
A fictional Edwardian waif’s hungry fantasy: Fortnum & Mason’s food hall reviewed
I like a picnic weighted with history and class terror, which means Fortnum & Mason on Piccadilly, which is historical…
There’s nothing ironic about civilisation
A recent photograph on a BBC website startled me. It was of hundreds of books thrown out of a former…
Wanted: a flatmate for the Pope
Pope Leo XIV has announced, though not in the form of a bull, that he will be sharing the Apostolic…
The painful truth about foster care
The foster care system in this country is collapsing. There are roughly 80,000 children who’ve been removed from violent or…
Britain is having its own gilets jaunes moment
‘I heard you want your country back. Ha, shut the fuck up!’ So yelped rap-punk duo Bob Vylan on stage…
The human stories of slavery
With a new history of slavery and the slave trade in the Islamic world just published, I am under strict…
America’s obsession with British decline
As Sigmund Freud pointed out way back in 1905, everyone feels a bit schizo about Mum. On the one hand,…
Angela Rayner and the spite of Labour
As a snapshot of our country, you’ll be pressed to find anything quite so resonant as the one which depicts…
The wrong kind of flag-raising
At the end of Sky News’s coverage of last year’s Notting Hill Carnival, its correspondent recited the usual list of…
Death was easier when I was a kid
Somebody dies and his friends say ‘he passed’. Passed what? He didn’t pass. He failed. He took the most basic…
Portrait of the week: Reform’s migration crackdown, South Korea’s school phone ban and Meghan Markle misses Magic Radio
Home Nigel Farage, launching Reform’s policies on illegal migrants, said: ‘The only way we’ll stop the boats is by detaining…
Why France hates Macron
One of the pleasures of spending the summer in France is that I can turn aside from our national problems…
