A memorable Royal Ascot
You tend to like a jockey who has just ridden you a 16-1 winner, as Callum Shepherd did last Saturday…
You shouldn’t be afraid of steak tartare
Whenever I think of steak tartare, I can’t help but remember a heartbreaking passage in Nigel Slater’s memoir Toast. Slater,…
Putin is trying to annexe people, not just land
On 1 September 2021, six months before his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin was speaking at the All-Russian Children’s…
Can things only get better under Starmer?
‘We are the masters now,’ I chirrup to my Holborn and St Pancras neighbours – misquoting Labour attorney-general Hartley Shawcross…
How Nigel Farage became the left’s greatest weapon
Nigel Farage is about to turn British politics upside-down for a third time. His Ukip insurgency forced the Tories to…
Can independent candidates pose a threat to Labour?
Nigel Farage says that Britain is ready for a ‘revolt’, and he’s not the only candidate in this election committed…
What’s the worst that can happen for the Tories?
When Rishi Sunak stunned his cabinet colleagues by calling a snap election, they feared the worst. Fast forward a month…
The problem with flexible working
Lots and lots and lots of fuss about betting on the general election. Less attention is paid to the biggest…
I lost to Harry Kane at darts
Gareth Southgate has always been a man interested in life outside the football circus. When he played for England, I…
Portrait of the week: gambling politicians, gender rows and a free Julian Assange
Home The Conservative party withdrew its support from two parliamentary candidates, Craig Williams (who was parliamentary private secretary to the…
The ideas-free election
On the face of it, 2024 is a great year for democracy. Britain is one of 50 countries to hold…
Dear Mary: how to rumble a snooper
Q. I like and get on well with my sister-in-law. My problem is that she is incredibly nosy and I…
France’s ‘Somewheres’ want revenge
The builder who has been working on my house in Burgundy will be voting for Marine Le Pen’s National Rally…
Tory men! Terfs need you
Some of my good male friends, Tories, are sick of terfs. I can see it in their shifty eyes, in…
Milkshake me!
Nine days of campaigning to go and I haven’t been milkshaked yet. I’ve hung out near McDonald’s in the hope…
Letters: the courts are not trying to subvert parliament
Judge not Sir: The claim by Ross Clark (‘Keir’s law’, 22 June) that the left can achieve what it wants…
Who was our most popular PM?
Close encounters The last time a parliamentary election in Britain was tied was in 1886 in Ashton-under-Lyne, when Liberal and…
The joy of my new allotment
I was pleasantly surprised when I got an email from the Acton Gardening Association last October telling me that a…
‘Zings off the stage’: My Fair Lady, at Leeds Playhouse, reviewed
If you want to kill a musical, make it into a movie. Cats, Phantom of the Opera, South Pacific… cinema…
My return to Ukraine
I arrive at Lviv station just before 9 a.m. As the clock strikes, the conductor announces a minute’s silence: a daily…
