England
The conservatism of Tom Stoppard
Sir Tom Stoppard, who died last week, never wrote a memoir, but he did sort of speak one. Just over…
How to raise a patriot
‘Good news for patriots,’ said one of our most celebrated national newspapers this week: ‘Your numbers are likely to swell.’…
What it means to be English
How can you ever put your finger on the comfort, the joy, the absurdity, of being English? Not, perhaps, through…
The force of Typhoon Tyson, Sydney, 1954
After receiving a bouncer from Ray Lindwall that left him temporarily unconscious, England’s fast bowler Frank Tyson swore vengeance and annihilated the Australian team – to retain the Ashes
Sven-Goran Eriksson was an England great
Sven-Goran Eriksson, who has died aged 76, was an unlikely choice for the England job in 2000. He was inexperienced…
Megan Rapinoe’s comeuppance
I’m loath to write about the current Fifa World Cup because criticising women’s football is textbook ‘misogyny’ – at least,…
Wild life
Delayed, on Southern Rail Home From the Hill is a 1987 documentary by Molly Dineen about Hilary Hook, an elderly…
Why England lost the Ashes
England’s wretched performance in the Ashes – which saw the side lose three tests and so the series to Australia…
The Italians are deluding themselves about the English
Not content with winning Euro 2020, many Italians have spent the days since the final engaged in a febrile orgy…
Britain is a tolerant country and a few football racists don’t change that
The racist messages sent to England football players in recent days are shameful, but to suggest that the UK is a festering hotbed…
Isn’t it time social media cracked down on racism?
No sooner had Bukayo Saka’s penalty kick thudded into the gloves of the Italian goalkeeper than you could see it…
England, Italy and the power of national pride
As an Englishman in enemy territory I am lucky that love is a more powerful emotion than patriotism otherwise after…
Boris’s cunning has allowed him to share in England’s Euro 2020 glory
You campaign in poetry, you govern in prose. That was the formula of legendary New York governor Mario Cuomo and…
Have Southgate’s England lost their moral compass?
Back in the 1980s the BBC Match of the Day opening credits featured a clip of Manchester United winger Mickey…
Taking the knee isn’t the best way of showing black lives matter
As a black football fan who grew up going to matches in the seventies and eighties, I know more than…
Euros 2021: England are easily the most boring side in the tournament
England 0 Scotland 0 Hungary 1 (Fiola) France 1 (Griezmann) The wonderful Hungarians almost took my mind off England’s lamentable…
Are England fans allowed to be proud of the St George’s Cross?
It’s starting to feel like the only flag you can’t fly in England is the England flag. Wave the Pride…
Judge Ollie Robinson on his cricket skills, not his tweets
Ollie Robinson, who made his Test debut for England at Lord’s last week against New Zealand, is an outstanding cricketer…
What the England team doesn’t get about ‘taking the knee’
England’s players being booed by their own fans is not a new phenomenon. But for the booing to be about…
In praise of David Lammy, a true Englishman
David Lammy, the shadow justice secretary, has been doing his LBC radio phone-in show. If you believe LBC, he has…
Going for a song
Alexandra Coghlan on how we became a nation of choirs and carollers
Backsliding on a lockdown end-date has begun already
Will England’s lockdown end on 2 December? Even before this morning’s media round there was good reason to suspect it…
High life
Gstaad It is not exactly a stop all the clocks occasion, let alone cut off the telephone, but I’ve finally…
A slog – and why does Elizabeth look like Ronald McDonald? Mary Queen of Scots reviewed
Mary Queen of Scots is a historical costume drama that, unlike The Favourite, does not breathe new life into the…
