Social media
I’ve faked my own iPhone death
After much thought, I am toying with the idea of faking my own death. I mean in a virtual sense,…
Corbyn knows elections are won on social media but the Tories have barely logged on
There is a naive belief at the top of government that because the Tories are only a fart’s yard behind…
Ignore the Twitter cry-bully brigade – on social media, you reap what you sow
The nastiest person on Twitter has quit Twitter. Because I’m so generous I shan’t mention his name. All I’ll say…
The new tycoons
The giants of the internet have long said that they are not publishers but mere platforms — or couriers —…
High life
I think this week marks my 40th anniversary as a Spectator columnist, but I’m not 100 per cent certain. All…
The turf
Racing moves off the back pages only when its opponents have bad news to gloat over. Two examples lately have…
Barometer
Out with a whimper Usain Bolt managed only a bronze in his last appearance in the 100 metres at the…
Snobbery in the age of social media
We like to think we have moved on from the age of snobbery. Judging others by birth or status, or…
The right kind of dumbing down
Thanks to meteoric advances in computational power, it is now possible to take abundant data from a wide range of…
Let’s keep up the Moggmentum
‘We need to talk about why the internet is falling in love with Jacob Rees-Mogg, because it’s not OK,’ warns…
Letters
Technical education Sir: I am grateful to Robert Tombs for highlighting the baleful use of ‘declinism’ as part of the…
Diary
Not only are today’s young girls having to work hard on their abs, butts and glutes, now the likes of…
Nicholas the miraculous
Miracles are not ceased. A few years ago, a kindly educational therapist took pity on John Prescott and set out…
Vaping’s appeal isn’t about the nicotine. It’s about the gadgets
Probably you never visited the flats of middle-class student drug dealers in the 1990s, because crikey, neither did I, and…
The internet’s war on free speech
The web was meant to empower us all. Right now, it’s empowering censors
I have seen the future, and it’s a racist, filthy-mouthed teenage robot
‘I’m a nice person,’ said the robot. ‘I just hate everybody.’ Maybe you know the feeling. The robot in question…
Why Joan Bakewell must be right about anorexia
You can always tell when a public figure has said something with the ring of truth about it by the…
A new taste of Twitter nastiness
Whenever I hear a leftie complain about being abused on Twitter, I think: ‘You should try being me.’ A case…
Whatever happened to ‘Snog first, talk later’?
Sometimes I sit my nieces down and treat them to tales of dating in the dark ages, before iPhones arrived…
Terry’s all gold
For once, the superlatives that have greeted Terry Wogan’s death from cancer have been entirely in keeping with the man.…
High life
This is going to be one hell of a year, hell being the operative word. It will be the year…
Ye who now will bless the poor Shall yourselves find blessing
I thought you might enjoy a little parable for Christmas, so here goes… The boardroom clock said twelve minutes…
Ian Rankin’s diary: Paris, ignoring Twitter and understanding evil
After ten days away, I spent last Friday at home alone, catching up on washing, shopping for cat food, answering…
High life
Those who forget the pasta are condemned to reheat it, tweeted Jon Ronson, a man I’d never heard of until…
I may have to revise my view that crypto-currencies are Satan’s work
I confess to being an out-and-out Luddite when it comes to bitcoin and other so-called crypto-currencies. To the extent that…
