Dear Mary: How do I stop my boss sending me rambling voice notes?
Q. I am a concierge for a high-net-worth individual. She likes to communicate with me mainly via WhatsApp voice messages…
The reparations racket
I have been trying to interest MPs of all parties in joining my call to persuade Barbados to say ‘thank…
You’re spoiling us: The Ambassadors Clubhouse reviewed
The Ambassadors Clubhouse is on Heddon Street, close to Savile Row and the fictional HQ of Kingsman, which was a…
Toffee apples: a dangerous food for frightening nights
Bonfire night is more about burning Catholics than haute cuisine and it shows. I’ve always felt for Catholic friends at…
Scroll model: confessions of a clickbait writer
Working on a ‘trending’ news desk is the journalistic equivalent of being a battery-farmed hen. When I was still at…
The strange silence around the Southport attacks
There are certain rules in British public life that are worth noting. Such as this one: if someone is killed…
Has the assisted dying lobby considered the guillotine?
My young friend Dr Cajetan Skowkronski has helped me resolve a question that has been worrying me. Why do supporters…
My fears for the National Hunt Chase
World politics is dire but so long as Mick Herron is writing spy novels, David Mitchell is raising laughs and…
My bid to be chancellor of Oxford
I have spent the past couple of weeks in Oxford rediscovering the art of conversation while campaigning for election as…
Labour’s new cabinet divide
There were no civil servants present when ministers gathered for their weekly cabinet meeting on Tuesday. The reason? It was…
Portrait of the week: Tax rises, a cheddar heist and snail delivery man gets slapped
Home Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, repeatedly mentioning an inherited ‘£22 billion black hole’, raised taxes by £40…
Rachel Reeves is taking us back to the 1970s
The first fiscal event to be delivered by a female Chancellor of the Exchequer is a landmark moment, but in…
Hands off my empty plastic bottles!
‘Where are my empty plastic bottles?’ I ran around the house screaming, after discovering my stash had disappeared. The government…
How quickly would Trump wash his hands of Ukraine?
For American politicians, all wars are two-front wars. There is a hot battlefield somewhere in the Middle East or the…
