Business/Robbery etc
Created by a combination of federal political incompetence and ideology-based state stupidity, it is sovereign risk, above all else, that…
Shocking bad hat
My husband complains that the disposition of teenagers in London is one of mocking hostility. I seem to suffer less…
Real life
BT have just put the phone down on me for asking them to stop sending me junk mail, which is…
The mystery of socialism’s enduring appeal
One of the mysteries of our age is why socialism continues to appeal to so many people. Whether in the…
Make life easier and all else will follow
You can try to change people’s minds, but this is difficult. You can bribe people to change their behaviour, but…
A fallen idol
Few world leaders have fallen from grace as quickly as Aung San Suu Kyi. The Nobel prize-winner, who also holds…
Letters
Christians betrayed Sir: Michael Karam’s article (Ya Allah!, 16 September) is timely. Many Westerners seem to be unaware that there…
Consider this…
Black lives matter Black tennis player Sloane Stephens won the recent US Open. She beat Venus Williams in the semi-final.…
Kiwi notes
Shadows on the cave wall Kiwis, punching above their weight on the world stage as per, have taken democracy to…
Happy New Year
As with the Chinese New Year, Ramadan, and other festive occasions on our multicultural calendar, the ten-day period from Rosh…
Accept this as the new normal? Never
Not long after the Parsons Green Tube bombing, another of those viral, defiant-in-the-face-of-terror cartoons started doing the rounds. It was…
Fickle fortune
Here’s an intriguing thought experiment: could Damien Hirst disappear? By that I mean not the 52-year-old artist himself — that…
Close of play
This retiring is a hectic business. When I said in June that it was going to be my last year…
Gresham College
How many people need to gather together before it becomes more likely than not that at least two of them…
The icemen cometh
You wouldn’t want to stumble upon the Scythians. Armed with battle-axes, bows and daggers, and covered in fearsome tattoos, the…
Loose ends
On Sunday night, Holliday Grainger was on two terrestrial channels at the same time playing a possibly smitten sidekick of…
LCD Soundsystem: American Dream
Grade: B+ Number one. Everywhere, just about. You have to say that the man has a certain sureness of touch.…
Can we be friends?
Have you heard the one about the new Labour MP who refuses to be friends with Tories? When Laura Pidcock…
Diary stories
In Competition No. 3016 you were invited to submit an extract from the diary of the spouse of a high-profile…
Dear Mary
Q. Last year my husband and I stayed with a much-loved, but slightly airy-fairy friend in her house in Tuscany.…
All’s fair in love and Waugh
I was reminded of Wild West films from boyhood. Then, the beleaguered garrison scanned the horizon; would the US cavalry…
High life
As everyone who stands up when a lady enters the room knows, the once sacrosanct rules of civility throughout the…
Low life
I got off the plane at Changi still pleasantly sedated by Xanax, passed through the ‘nothing to declare’ channel, and…
Diary
Next month, the Today programme marks its 60th anniversary, so I have been mugging up on the archives. If there…
