Social class
At last, a literary sexy novel: Love Marriage, by Monica Ali, reviewed
At last, and finally: literary sex is back. The Bad Sex Prize has a lot to answer for in British…
Does anyone care about the middle class?
The American middle class is in a precarious position. After decades of decline — the percentage of Americans in the…
Student loan forgiveness is a giveaway to the rich
Joe Biden said on Monday that Congress should ‘immediately’ take action to forgive student loan debt through its next COVID…
Trump’s Burkean moment
President Trump surprised some on Saturday when he shared a video from Business Insider explaining that billionaires have amassed half-a-trillion…
Why marriage is increasingly for the royals – and the rich
Whatever their views about the monarchy, most people will warm to the news of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s engagement.…
How Aristotle would hire civil servants
The civil service is to be allowed to find out what job applicants’ ‘socio-economic background’ is. What abject drivel is…
How baby names got so weird
How Wolf and Skylar pushed out John and Mary
Would you like to buy an American’s vote?
Killing time in a Heathrow first-class lounge, I notice how many men adopt an unmistakable ‘first-class lounge’ persona. They stand…
The smelly, snobbish death of the English public toilet
I blame Nancy Mitford: she made the English so frightened of saying ‘toilet’ that now they have hardly any left…
To believe in Brexit, you have to be an oik like me or Michael Gove
If you need to know how properly posh you are there’s a very simple test: are you pro- or anti-Brexit?…
How to help black boys afraid of ‘acting white’
Black British boys are being held back by fear of betraying their background. Immigrant children know how to deal with that
Roger Mosey and the questions you don’t ask at the BBC
There was a remarkable scene in one BBC Today programme morning meeting in about 1995, as all the producers gathered…
A political history of The Clangers
Dropping the Clangers The Clangers made a comeback on BBC television. Some Clanger facts: — The actors doing the voices…
The best way to end the ‘poshness test’
There’s a warning buried in the detail of the new report by the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission on…
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…
Spectator letters: England’s defining myth, and another forgotten genocide
Enemies within Sir: I thought Matthew Parris was typically incisive in his last column, but perhaps not quite as much…
Dear Mary: When is it all right not to bring something to a dinner party?
Q. A wonderful and generous woman invites me, on a regular basis, to dinner parties at her house. What is…
Maybe it’s a problem when all artists are like James Blunt. But it’s worse when Labour MPs are like Chris Bryant
What should we do with James Blunt? This is what I have been asking myself. And I am not looking…
Blame Tony Blair for Labour’s new stupidity about wealth
Labour's attitude to wealth is sliding back into the 1970s - and Tony Blair's new career is one reason why
Why tomorrow’s parents won’t want their children to go to university
Why being a graduate is about to lose its prestige
David Sedaris was right: litter is a class issue
David Sedaris is my new hero. Not because he’s such a funny writer, but because he’s obsessed with litter. He…
If you want an argument against state-school-only Oxbridge colleges, just look at me
I read with some interest the proposal for Oxford and Cambridge to set up state-school-only colleges in the Guardian this…
My new affair is thrilling, expensive — and might just break my neck
I have fallen in love with an unsuitable male. My wife isn’t totally happy about this relationship because she recognises…
Ukip is in the middle of the most cynical political repositioning ever
I think I’ve cracked it. If you want to springboard your minor political party into the mainstream and take British…
Why there’s no such thing as an Etonian
Finally, just in the last few years I’d say, we’ve all begun to accept the role of nature in the…
