Features
Could Trump’s tariffs be good news for British wine-lovers?
Professional Englishmen and women – doctors, accountants and even journalists – could once afford to drink first-growth claret like Château…
How ‘Boom Boom’ are you?
Do you Boom Boom? Or are you just Booming? Can Boomers Boom Boom or is it just for Zoomers? Can…
Norway’s eccentric royals make Britain’s look mundane
It’s not hard to see why the 93-year-old, wheelchair-bound Princess Astrid of Norway might feel that now is the moment…
The ‘physician associate’ will see you now…
There is a war being waged in NHS hospitals. On one side are overstretched junior doctors in understaffed wards. On…
Debunking the myths about the ECHR
This year the European Convention on Human Rights and its Strasbourg court are 75 years old – the age at…
Save Syria’s Christians
David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, and Marco Rubio, US Secretary of State, had rather tellingly different responses to the latest…
Why does the beheading of Christians not make headlines?
The Congolese chapter of Islamic State has a ruthless way of stopping outsiders reporting their presence to the authorities. Under…
Massacre of the innocents: the return of sectarian persecution in Syria
No one covers up their war crimes any more. They film them, celebrate them, post them on X. So we…
Jonathan Bowden: my eccentric school friend who became a far-right hero
When my old school, Presentation College, Reading, was demolished a decade ago, the Labour council desperately searched for famous old…
McSpaff: Scotland is the worst when it comes to government waste
No country in the UK receives more public money per head than Scotland. An extra £2,200 is spent on every…
Why possum beats cashmere
In 1990, an exotic Swiss-Canadian teenager of purportedly Habsburgian lineage descended on Cambridge in a cloud of cashmere. His wardrobe…
The anti-genius of William McGonagall, history’s worst poet
‘Not marble nor the gilded monuments of princes,’ wrote Shakespeare, ‘shall outlive this powerful rhyme.’ To be a great poet,…
Why is the NHS pushing pregnant women towards sterilisation?
It was a routine antenatal appointment. I’d done it twice before and knew the format. The obstetrician runs through the…
Stop scoffing food on trains!
I’m on the 10.45 slow train to Ipswich. It’s not even lunchtime, yet everyone around me is already gorging on…
The Gen-Z fliers obsessed with maximising their air miles
Oscar, 26, joins me on Google Meet from Buenos Aires, having arrived earlier that day from New York – by…
Dirty deal: what Trump really wants from Ukraine’s natural resources
In Sergio Leone’s epic spaghetti western The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Blondie, played by Clint Eastwood, and Tuco,…
Buckingham University’s shameful treatment of Professor Tooley
One of many reasons I felt blessed, seven years ago, to be offered a professorship at the private University of…
Meet the Zoomer Doomers: Britain’s secret right-wing movement
One of the striking aspects of the AfD’s success in the German elections was the party’s popularity among the young,…
Are you Ramadan-ready?
‘Are you Ramadan-ready?’ That was the poster in Sainsbury’s advertising its delicious range of fast-breaking foods (rice was one). And…
The day I went missing
The Forcan Ridge off Glen Shiel can be a tricky place this time of year. There wasn’t a huge amount…
Make Bond great again
One of the great recurring James Bond tropes is to make it look as though 007 has actually been killed…
How Shrove Tuesday inspired the animal welfare movement
In some countries Shrove Tuesday (the day of merrymaking before the rigours of Lent) developed into a ‘carnival’ that lasted…
Nigel’s gang: Reform’s plan for power
A year ago, Reform party aides found themselves in a cramped office in Victoria, London, bickering about chairs. ‘There weren’t…
The strange beauty of the vigil for the Pope
Steady rain during the day stopped just before Monday’s evening prayers for Pope Francis in Saint Peter’s Square. A line…
Are you too middle-class to adopt?
Too many books? Yes, we had too many books. That’s what our social worker told us when we were being…
