Politics
We're living through eerie reminders of the 1970s
There are eerie parallels with 1970s at the moment, I say in the Times today. The inflation of that decade was…
Emma Raducanu’s amazing triumph does not belong to the left
It didn’t take long for the open-borders brigade to try and politicise the magnificent feat of British teenager Emma Raducanu…
Why isn't the vaccine UK approved for 12- to 15-year-olds?
This afternoon, the JCVI has essentially passed the buck on vaccinating 12- to 15-year-olds. It has declared that the health benefits…
Margaret Thatcher vs everyone else: the making of the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement
Diplomatic negotiations are rarely fully described by their participants in books, for two reasons. They are usually secret until much…
What do oven chips have to do with virtue signalling?
Why does virtue-signalling matter? It’s a fair question. After all, if people display virtuous behaviour, need we care about their…
The sweet smell of success: the story behind Chanel No 5’s popularity
This is a curious book, by turns profound and whimsical. Karl Schlögel, a professor of Eastern European history at Frankfurt,…
Why the Tories won’t let me display a local election poster
Being told by the Tories not to put a local election poster in my window because it will only remind…
How 20th-century artists rescued the Crucifixion
Two millennia ago, in the outer reaches of the empire, the Romans performed a routine execution of a Galilean rebel.…
Scottish Tories must be more than the angry party of no
Among the many challenges facing Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross has been the question of definition. It is difficult to…
Inside the £2.9 million Downing Street press room
This afternoon ITV got the scoop they were all after – pictures of the elusive Downing Street press conference room. The…
My advice to Trump supporters? Smile and take it
New York There are times, living in this here dump, when I doubt if anyone’s heard of the word magnanimity.…
A cautionary tale about how democracy can subvert itself: Bunga Bunga reviewed
Italy has long captivated romantics from rainy, dreary, orderly northern Europe. Goethe, Stendhal, Keats and Shelley all flocked to Italy…
Enough plotlines to power several seasons of The West Wing: BBC1's Roadkill reviewed
Like many a political thriller before it, BBC1’s Roadkill began with a politician emerging into the daylight to face a…
The politics of hair dye
‘What are you going to put on my head to protect me?’ said the man outside the barber’s shop to…
How the Supreme Court became the ‘most dangerous branch’
From 1969 to today, presidents have appointed eighteen men and women to the U.S. Supreme Court. Of those eighteen justices,…
What angry young French men want
Chatting on the café terrace with my new friends Didier and Emile made me aware that certain political ideas, which…
Is left the new right?
I took a table on the terrace of the reopened bar and ordered une pression from the waitress. ‘Back to…
An 11-year-old’s birthday party was hijacked by Brexit
Saturday night we ate outside next to the floodlit rock face. Four adult guests came puffing up the path and…
In this strange new world, where do we find purpose?
Perhaps we are at least past the beginning of this crisis. The phase where the hunt for multipacks of loo-rolls…
How I fell out of love with the BBC
One of the many technological things I don’t understand is, how come I’m paying to watch television? I know why…
Oracles, perverts and the Dirtbag Left
For 500 years the State Oracle of Tibet has worked as a kind of angry immortal advisor to the Dalai…
Radio 4's new H.P. Lovecraft adaptation will give you the chills
Of all the many things I’ve learned from the radio so far this decade, the most deranging is that the……
Benjamin Disraeli — inventor of English political fiction
For our fractured times, the release of Disraeli’s Sybil in unabridged audio, narrated with the respect it deserves by Tim…
The Middle East for dummies
Gstaad The French have a saying: ‘Il n’y a rien de plus bête que le sourire du gagnant.’ In…
How the Conservative strategy is faring across the country
It’s the week of the election and Boris Johnson is to spend the final days of the campaign visiting every…
