High Speed 2’s no-fly zone
From Edinburgh airport there are more than 45 flights a day to London. And, I imagine, the same number back.…
Dear Mary
Q. I am working on becoming a member of the Chipping Norton set. Should I be pronouncing the excellent open-air…
Death of an imperial survivor
I was praying for a miracle, but it seemed unlikely. There had been one already: the bottle’s very survival. A…
Blazer
‘It’s not right, is it?’ said Veronica, pointing to a poster for H&M women’s blazers at £17.I agreed. But she…
A changing climate
When we say the climate is changing, we do not mean that man-made global warming is destroying planet Earth. We…
Diary
The first time I met Quentin Bryce, I was a scruffy 17-year-old law student decked out in the obligatory undergraduate…
Australian notes
David Marr, the celebrated journalist, has done it again. First he psychoanalysed the rabid Kevin Rudd in his essay Power…
Brown study
The other night, I listened to the so-called debate between Anthony Albanese and Bill Shorten as they vied for the…
The rise of the politicians
This book expresses what is being more and more widely felt in English-speaking and other western countries: government is becoming…
Look back in laughter
Britain is still an essentially Victorian country (see Daily Mail for details). So it’s no surprise that we keep returning…
Death of an imperial survivor
I was praying for a miracle, but it seemed unlikely. There had been one already: the bottle’s very survival. A…
Towering Ivory
Trainers used to come into racing with Aunt Agatha’s legacy after a short service commission, having probably worn a trilby…
High Speed 2’s no-fly zone
From Edinburgh airport there are more than 45 flights a day to London. And, I imagine, the same number back.…
Look back in laughter
Britain is still an essentially Victorian country (see Daily Mail for details). So it’s no surprise that we keep returning…
Am I alone in being bothered about all this surveillance?
Oh, but life’s easier if you’re American. Each and every last way the state meddles with your life is an…
What’s wrong with being right?
I’m trying to imagine what Britain would look like under a Ukip/Conservative coalition with Cameron as PM and Farage as…
Australian notes
David Marr, the celebrated journalist, has done it again. First he psychoanalysed the rabid Kevin Rudd in his essay Power…
A climate glasnost
Next week, those who made dire predictions of ruinous climate change face their own inconvenient truth. The summary of the…
Portrait of the week
Home The government sold 6 per cent of Lloyds Banking Group to big investors for £3.2 billion. It still owns…
Diary
The looming centenary of the outbreak of the first world war offers an opportunity to break away from the Blackadder/Oh!…
Barometer
Vitamins and the veil A judge at Blackfriars Crown Court allowed a niqab-wearing defendant to identify herself only to a…
Pleb power
Momentarily banish thoughts of policemen on duty at the House of Commons, and picture a Roman pleb. You will probably…
