A picture redolent of past brutalities has appeared in some newspapers. A middle-aged man, looking shamefaced and frightened, is being escorted by another man down a street. His hands are tied behind his back and around his neck is a large placard, bearing the hand-written words, “THIEF. I stole £845. Am on my way to… Continue reading Sound and fury in the wake of this financial crisis
Read moreBeyond all those earnest lifestyle articles about down-sizing and the simple life, between the lines of those conference speeches about “broken Britain”, lies one big, simple question: how best can we be happy? Never before has our world been as obsessed by the idea of finding happiness as it is today. Entire faculties have been… Continue reading Why Britons love la vie en rose
Read moreWithout wishing to be disloyal towards a person for whom I once worked as a ghostwriter, I am surprised by the regularity with which Cynthia Payne returns to the headlines. This week, the walk-on part that she plays in Julie Walters’ autobiography That’s Another Story has was a feature of the book’s nespaper serialisation. Those… Continue reading A debt we still owe to Madam Cyn
Read moreIt is said that sooner or later the small volcano that is John McCain will blow. The presidential candidate has a famously short temper. At some point, during a long and rough electoral campaign, the wrong question will be asked at the wrong time, and the real McCain, red-faced and intemperate, will blast off. It… Continue reading Look back in anger management
Read moreAt the offices of a high street bank, I was waiting to meet the manager. The door to a boardroom was half-open and, on the wall opposite where I was sitting, there was a blackboard on which various ra-ra business affirmations had been written. “You cannot score a goal when the ball is in your… Continue reading The dream of easy money for all is bust
Read moreMr Blobby of Crinkly Bottom has spoken. The best thing that could happen at the next election, he says, would be for no one to vote at all. Politicians have had their turn, now the people should have their say. If he were prime minister, he would ban all immigration and build bigger prisons. It… Continue reading Welcome to the age of total bunkum
Read moreIt is time to doff the cap to a developer, to utter grateful thanks to a member of that much-criticised group, the energy companies. They may have resisted a windfall tax and made unfortunate jokes about profiteering from the energy crisis, but in south Norfolk, a toast is being drunk to the wisdom and judgement… Continue reading How an energy company put wind in our sails
Read moreEvery generation over the past 60 years believes that snobbery is on the way out, and without fail each of them turns out to be wrong. Class prejudice never disappears, but merely changes its character. The real division today, for example, is between a broad semi-elite, which extends from the famous to the political but… Continue reading The latest form of class snobbery
Read moreLet us not panic. The news that Sebastian Coe is to launch the Cultural Olympiad by putting on his running shorts and sprinting through Tate Britain may not be encouraging. It might even justify fears that other desperate attempts to hobble art and sport together will follow: Tracey Emin doing the breast stroke at Tooting… Continue reading Forget fuzzy togetherness – ruthless individualism should be our legacy
Read moreIn order for any kind of civic virtue to be taken seriously in 2008, some kind of award must be created for it – a prize to remind us all that, in spite of all the terrible things that are going on, some good still exists in the world. There is the Pride of Britain… Continue reading Speak the truth and be damned
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