How to be a Lord
At the end of my first day at the House of Lords, I staggered out with so many books and…
Erdogan’s latest power move could backfire
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has never been so weak – nor so strong. At home, he is facing the…
Dear Mary: How do I stop Ozempic ruining my dinner parties?
Q. I enjoy giving dinner parties and put a lot of effort into the preparations. However, recently I have noticed…
Boxing belongs in the Olympics
If there is anything more pointless than signing a five-year contract to be Emma Raducanu’s coach, it is the effort…
A creche for nepo babies: the River Cafe Cafe reviewed
The River Cafe has grown a thrifty annexe, and this passes for democratisation. All restaurants are tribal: if dukes have…
The curious language of coins
Lewis Carroll used to travel with purses divided into separate compartments, each containing the exact number of coins he’d need…
Can I survive six months without my books?
My story begins with a very small puddle on the kitchen floor. As it was nowhere near the sink, I…
Has the Assisted Dying Bill been killed off?
The reported decision to postpone the implementation of the Assisted Dying Bill until 2029 might, one must pray, turn out…
Will Trump join the strongman club?
The world’s most exclusive club, of presidents-for-life, is growing. It already includes Putin of Russia, Xi of China, Lukashenko of…
How many teenagers kill?
That ship has sailed The BBC children’s television programme Blue Peter will no longer be broadcast live. Why did it…
Americans are right to hate us
In an Appalachian high school, the kids were set the task of writing about Europeans as part of their history…
The underlying message of Rachel Reeves’s Spring Statement
Rachel Reeves may not be the most mellifluous writer ever to inhabit 11 Downing Street. At the weekend, she informed…
How to live morally (according to the Romans)
‘Make America Great Again!’ cries Donald Trump. ‘Do Britain Down Again!’ (DOBRIDA!) screech our academic historical institutions. That was not…
Portrait of the week: Spring Statement, Heathrow fire and Prince Harry quits his charity
Home In the Spring Statement, Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, made further cuts to benefits (such as freezing…
The weapon that could end America’s global supremacy
Two weeks ago, a bright light streaked through the night sky above Inner Mongolia. It was not an asteroid. The…
Steve Witkoff is wrong to see peace in Putin’s eyes
Kyiv ‘It doesn’t surprise me that they’re abolishing the Ministry of Education,’ my old friend Dima told me. ‘Judging by…
I wish someone would kill or eat useless Totoro
My Neighbour Totoro is a hugely successful show based on a Japanese movie made in 1988. The setting is a…
Labour’s popularity contest
A few months ago, over a plate of bone marrow, a Tory adviser was considering how best to kneecap Labour.…
America is a moral idea or it is nothing
Harold Wilson once declared that the Labour party ‘is a moral crusade or it is nothing’, a proposition whose logical…
JFK conspiracy theories won’t die
One of the most controversial things that can happen at any American table is to start talking about the JFK…
What a joy to see some Merce Cunningham again
How salutary to encounter the cool cerebral elegance of Merce Cunningham’s choreography again. A figure at the heart of the…
The Met’s misogyny
My friend Rose likes a drink. She lives on the same street as another friend in Camden and three or…
