In one area at least, Gordon Brown has proved himself to be in perfect harmony with the times. When, this week, his privacy was invaded by a Sky News microphone, his view of poor old Mrs Gillian Duffy was not simply that he had met a woman who disagreed with him. She was a bigot.… Continue reading Censorship is in the ascendant
Read moreHere’s a marketing idea for party spinners in search of a new angle as the current Rag, Tag and Bobtail electoral race enters the home straight: hedgehogs. Few animals have such a devoted and impassioned human constituency, and yet, according to a new book called Silent Summer, they are among many British species which are… Continue reading If the countryside could vote
Read moreIt is time to look the miserabilists in the eye and declare that, yes, our great country has indeed changed over the past 13 years. Everywhere one looks there are new opportunities for investment and adventure. Once, at this time of the year, we used merely to experience spring. Now we can bet on it,… Continue reading Britain – a land fit for gamblers
Read moreEmitting a mighty belch, nature has grounded us. Our busy plans, large and small, our vaunted technologies, our governments and economies have all been made to seem rather puny beside that quaint and old-fashioned thing from the geography text-books, a volcano. Beyond the misery for some and the inconvenience for many, this moment of cold… Continue reading Pause to reconsider our lives
Read moreSomething horrible has happened to that dapper and dignified theatre critic, Quentin Letts. Attending the first night of the hippie musical Hair, currently being revived at the Gielgud Theatre, he briefly and unpleasantly found himself at the centre of the action. One moment, the lead actor Will Swenson was, as Letts put it, “waving much… Continue reading Quentin Letts and the crotch of history
Read moreIt is truly bizarre that as the economy spirals ever deeper into the red, one group of highly privileged men and women become increasingly wealthy from the public purse – and no one seems to give a damn. MPs may be vilified, bankers may be pariahs, but the fact that senior civil servants can see… Continue reading Our overpaid and overrated public servants
Read moreThe celebrity recluse Charles Saatchi occupies a peculiar position in our culture. Once he was a retiring, powerful man who avoided any kind of exposure to the public eye. Then, when his gallery reached its 20th anniversary, it was announced to an astonished world that, to mark the occasion, he would answer questions on the… Continue reading A celebrity recluse steps into the spotlight
Read moreTo get a sense of the real news, of stories which have not been efficiently shaped and varnished for public consumption by the metropolitan media, it is often a good idea to read local papers. There, the apparently small events of everyday life can contain more real significance and truth than the latest well-spun policy… Continue reading What’s green about cutting recycling?
Read moreThere are moments in one’s life when a powerful curiosity about family origins begins to niggle. An urge to talk to older relations about interestingly eccentric great aunts is one symptom of this malaise; researching one’s family tree on the internet is another. Ancestors rarely live up to expectations. When Michael Parkinson was dropped from… Continue reading The secrets in your surname
Read moreAlmost certainly, the good burghers of Dudley in the West Midlands will have used the word “inappropriate” when discussing whether they should allow Philip Ridley’s play Moonfleece to be performed at the town’s theatre. When they banned it, the reasoning was that the play’s themes of homophobia, fascism and the BNP were not “suitable for… Continue reading Nobody has the right to be spared offence
Read more
