It will be a good week – yet another good week – for those who believe that the pride of our nation lies in its ever-enduring respect for wealth and class. The Sunday Times Rich List, a slavering celebration of “billionaire Britain”, has just been published, bringing the good news that the extremely wealthy have… Continue reading Rich soup for the national soul
Read moreFive days after hosting one of the most spectacular celebrations of privilege ever seen, the Prince of Wales has been telling Americans about the importance of restraint and responsibility. The Western way of food production presented “an increasingly insane picture” in a world facing a crisis of population and the environment. In the land where… Continue reading No appetite for Jamie’s revolution
Read moreSome call it romanticism, others prurience. Whatever the label, a fervent interest in the love lives (that is, the sex lives) of others is now as deeply embedded in the psyche of the nation as its affection for grand public events involving the royal family. British voyeurism has its traditions and rituals, too. At any… Continue reading Our strange need for Scarlet Woman
Read moreOne Saturday morning, almost exactly 15 years ago, my son and I took a coach ride from west London to Birmingham. The in-coach entertainment was the comedy film Dumb and Dumber, but the mood on the bus was not festive. We were football fans, about to experience the gut-wrenching misery of relegation. Our team, Queen’s… Continue reading Going up, going up, going up
Read moreThere ought to be a law against men in their sixties writing lesbian scenes,” declared a critic on Radio 4’s Saturday Review not so long ago. We were considering Craig Raine’s under-rated novel Heartbreak, in which a moment of Sapphic love is described in soft-focus detail. Although the scene is not a highlight of the… Continue reading We need more sex from our authors, not less
Read moreAs the depressing saga of Opera North’s censoring of Beached by Lee Hall and Harvey Brough shows (more in my Independent comment piece), there’s nothing new in music causing trouble. With almost perfect timing, the second part of my investigation into political incorrectness and the music of the past 100 years, Taboo be Doo, has… Continue reading From me to you/ Here’s Part Two/ Of Taboo be Doo
Read moreBefore the programme, the announcer got my name wrong; after it, someone seemed to think I had nicked their research. What the hell -Â Part 1 Â is available on-line here. Part 2 goes out on Radio 4 at 10.30 a.m. on Saturday 2 July.
Read moreThere is nothing that can cause quite such a ruckus as a popular tune. The potential danger of music – its power to incite, upset and insult – covers the political spectrum. It worries, in about equal measure, the sensitive liberal, anxious not to offend vulnerable listeners, and the censorious moral fundamentalist wishing to protect… Continue reading Rock ‘n roll’s rudest hits: Is society stifling the true spirit of rock ‘n’ roll?
Read moreThe surprisingly large number of English people who heartily dislike their own country are in for a trying few days. The cricket season has started. Two bank holiday weekends in the spring sunshine will encourage families to celebrate the joys of the English countryside and seaside. Politically, the likelihood that the Scottish National Party will… Continue reading “The rage, the dissatisfaction, the bitterness”: an old novelist speaks
Read moreNow and then, feeling unusually brave, I poke my head over the battlements in the Great Offensiveness War. Invariably, it gets shot off. Last year, I dared to suggest that when an oafish and ignorant ex-footballer is invited to appear on a TV reality show, it is a bit odd to complain when he behaves… Continue reading How far can I go? A report from the offensiveness battlefront
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