Tories split on Ricky Jones’ verdict
The decision to clear Ricky Jones of encouraging violent disorder has not gone down well with many senior politicians. Footage…
Putin was the real winner of the Alaska summit
Vladimir Putin couldn’t stop smiling at the spectacle awaiting him in Anchorage yesterday, as American soldiers knelt to adjust a…
The real problem with Surrey’s cat-calling crackdown
When I was young, the song ‘The Laughing Policeman’ always spooked me a bit; I’ve grown out of most fears,…
The good, the bad and the ugly of the Trump-Putin summit
The three-hour Friday summit in Alaska between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin ended as well as it conceivably could have…
What’s wrong with charging a fat tax?
At a time when quarterly economic growth in the UK is flatlining at 0.3 per cent, it’s good to learn…
Unesco status is killing Bath
Last month, the Trump administration announced that the United States would once again withdraw from Unesco, the Paris-based UN cultural…
The sad decline of the French village fête
France’s village fêtes are disappearing. A survey by the association Les Plus Belles Fêtes de France found that in just…
Why won’t young people pick up the phone?
‘So you mean rather than writing something out, you could just talk to somebody from a distance? But that would…
Wreckognition
There are very few words in the English language that adequately describe the treachery and lack of moral integrity of…
Cowards die many times before their death
Weak conservative leadership is the unkindest cut of them all
Aussie life
A strange thing happened recently on a bright and peaceful Sunday morning in Bleak City, aka the once-great Melbourne. I…
Language
The online world breeds some very strange bits of language, and none are stranger than the word ‘catfishing’. This names…
Shaggy dog tale
I thought it would be impossible to make a bad film about a dog but the production team for The…
What is there to be optimistic about for British business?
In this season of scant corporate news – a Ryanair rant against the French here, a new BP oilfield there…
‘Italian that just works’: Broadwick Soho reviewed
This column sometimes shrieks the death of central London, and this is unfair. (I think this because others are now…
Wormwood Scrubs, my deserted little bit of paradise
On the face of it, Wormwood Scrubs is not particularly appealing. I don’t mean the prison, but the common in…
