Qatar
Death and glory: the politics of the World Cup
The choice of ‘tiny boiling Qatar’ as a venue in 2022 – where thousands of construction workers lost their lives – typifies Fifa’s cynical favour-auctioning, says Simon Kuper
Israel is right to strike Hamas’s leaders in Qatar
When the government of Qatar condemned the Israeli airstrike in Doha as a ‘cowardly’ act, it revealed less about the…
Beware the Qataris
I feel some sympathy for the British royal family because of the ghastly people they are forced to meet. The…
We’re better off with Hamas in Qatar, than out
The news that Qatar is ‘re-evaluating’ its role as mediator in the ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas, amid claims by the…
Qatargate and the dubious moral authority of NGOs
The Qatargate scandal haunting the European Union is not merely about corrupt politicians and officials. The deplorable role of a non-governmental organisation is at the heart…
How Prince Charles’s €1m bagman infiltrated the British establishment
The Queen rarely – if ever – accepts invitations to dinner at private houses, no matter how grand. But in…
My conflicted loyalty to Newcastle United
The second thing I learned about football, after moving to London, is that you can never, ever switch your allegiance.…
High life
Gstaad Mercedes Benz heir Mick Flick and I have been friends for more than half a century. We both married…
Will England pull out of the World Cup?
I wonder if the moral guardians of our country — the England football team — intend to participate in the…
Pompeo: Biden will give ‘hundreds of billions of dollars to a theocratic, corrupt regime’
Washington DC Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned on Monday that if Joe Biden wins the November elections, an incoming…
Did Jared Kushner punish Qatar because of a building on Fifth Avenue?
New York Talk about high life this is not. I smelled a rat long ago, but then the scent got…
Of course there’s no morality in top-level sport
Why do transgendered people need separate toilets? I thought, according to the prevalent orthodoxy, that the new gender they had…
Zaha Hadid
Zaha Hadid is the most famous woman architect in the world. Would women or, indeed, architecture, be better off without…
High life
I have signed an affidavit for a hearing in the High Court stating that Janan Harb was, to my knowledge,…
Barometer
First test The driving test celebrated its 80th anniversary. The first person to take the test, R.E.L. Beene of Kensington,…
Football’s elite deserve the foulness of Fifa
My favourite moment in the crisis engulfing football’s governing body, Fifa, came with the intervention of a man called Manuel…
Put the water cannons on standby and your money 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…
High life
Thick snow is falling hard and heavy, muffling sounds and turning the picturesque village postcard beautiful. I am lying in…
Qatar’s bid for Canary Wharf fills me with foreboding, even if they deserve each other
I’ve written before of a ‘curse of Qatar’ that might explain misfortunes attending the Gulf state’s UK investments, of which…
Whose side are they on?
Qatari money has flooded into London – but also into much less savoury places
We always end up talking to terrorists, one way or another
It is a horrible thing to say, but I suspect that sooner or later we will begin to get irritated…
High life
Next time you read about an auctioneer’s gavel coming down on a $150 million painting bought by some flunkey representing…
High life
Can somebody tell me when America last got it right? Uncle Sam’s track record in selecting leaders in faraway places…
High life
Porto Cheli Nothing is moving, not a twig nor a leaf, and I find myself missing the cows, the mountains…
Now even Fifa’s dinosaurs have learned to cry racism
Are all white women really prostitutes who should be avoided, as some children at those schools in Birmingham were apparently…
