London
What Labour needs to do is estrange its awful voters
And so now we have to suffer the epic delusions, temper tantrums and hissy fits of the metro-left. They simply…
Lefties should cherish trendy London while they still can
London is a bad thing. Everybody knows this now. Britain has had enough of London. Ed Miliband failed in part…
Can Cameron bring us full employment? And do we want it?
‘Two million jobs have been created since 2010 — but there will not be a moment of rest until we…
Posh, educated and energetic: meet the servants of the super-rich
There is a huge industry catering to London’s foreign plutocracy
There’s only one place to mourn another Labour loss
Ed is a plank. He was always a plank — and now he is in Ibiza being a plank. Plankety–plankety-plank:…
In praise of the pit bull terrier
Last night I saw a woman dancing with a pit bull terrier. It was about 9 p.m. and her curtains…
Why the internet hasn’t killed estate agents (and what might)
I don’t like to make business predictions, but — barring some apocalypse — I suspect there will be plenty of…
Dear Mary: How to cope with London Library overcrowding
Q. As a writer I find working at home too distracting. I am a longstanding member of the London Library…
I don’t want to be a mansion tax migrant
The super-rich can shrug off Labour’s big tax idea. People like me will be forced out
Tinder went looking for fresh flesh – and accidentally found me
Can mobile dating apps move beyond the promise of a one-night stand?
The Portrait restaurant: a secret glade of stone and brick, suspended above Trafalgar Square
The Portrait Restaurant lives at the top of the National Portrait Gallery, London. It is fiercely modern, but likeable. You…
English cities don’t have quarters – whatever the executives say
‘No quarter given,’ yelled my husband as he stabbed at a cushion with his stick, spoiling the cavalier effect a…
‘About time too!’: Joan Collins curtseys to Prince Charles
The day of my investiture at Buckingham Palace dawned bringing freezing rain and fierce winds, which lashed at the windows…
Neither London nor New York will be livable in ten years’ time
A recent column in the FT made me mad as hell. The writer, Simon Kuper, calls Vienna a backwater, which…
Boris Johnson on his plans for the Olympic Park: inspired or whimsical?
Jack Wakefield on the Mayor’s ambitious, not to say whimsical, vision for the Olympic Park
The Ivy Chelsea Garden: Richard Caring has finally built a restaurant I admire
The Ivy Chelsea Garden is a restaurant inside an Edwardian house disguised as a Tudor house on the King’s Road;…
Andrew Marr’s diary: Why this is such a tooth-grindingly awful election
So far, what an infuriating election campaign. We have the most extraordinary array of digital, paper and broadcasting media at…
'I will call the police!': My close encounter with 'revenue protection'
Conversations with a ticket inspector on the Norwich train
Dickens’s dark side: walking at night helped ease his conscience at killing off characters
James McConnachie discovers that some of the greatest English writers — Chaucer, Blake, Dickens, Wordsworth, Dr Johnson — drew inspiration and even comfort from walking around London late at night
Kitty Fisher’s: proof that the PM has good taste in restaurants, if not in friends
David Cameron is too cowardly, or too cynical, to debate with Ed ‘Two or Possibly Three Kitchens’ Miliband — which…
Is the Dorchester the designated grand hotel for fat people? The portions at its new grill say so
The Dorchester Hotel, Park Lane, is a cake floating in space. All grand hotels create a parallel universe in which…
The myth of the housing crisis
The coalition is letting developers concrete over the countryside, but that won’t help young people buy houses
Bet on a swift Grexit
‘Will Greece exit the eurozone in 2015?’ Paddy Power was pricing ‘yes’ at 3-to-1 on Tuesday, with 5-to-2 on another…
Rowleys is Did Mummy Love Me Really? food – and it’s perfect
I think Rowley’s is the perfect restaurant; but I am really a gay man. Rowley’s is at 113 Jermyn Street…
EastEnders wanted to show Thatcher’s Britain. These days it would make Maggie proud
How EastEnders became a positive reflection of Tory values
