It was somewhat provocative, I admit, to stand in the queue for the supermarket – the statutory two metres behind the man in front and two metres ahead of the woman behind – reading a copy of The Plague. At one stage my reading was interrupted by a chuckle. I looked...
One of the unsung heroes of British politics is Dave Brown. Never heard of him? It’s amazing how some of the most gifted and talented artists don’t get the recognition they deserve. Dave Brown is the principal cartoonist of The Independent, which still exists as a...
It is the lot of those who first see something coming to be dismissed as cranks. Those who say something is ‘the thin end of the wedge’ or any number of similar metaphors are often accused of overreacting or having a sense of paranoia. By the time they’re proved...
As provocative questions go, it’s hard to think of a more provocative or more insulting one than Adam Boulton’s on Sky News last week. ‘You’re a load of incompetent, middle-class, self-indulgent people who want to tell us how to live our lives?’ said the veteran...
Regular readers of this blog will know I’m a Remainer. I voted for the UK to remain in the European Union, and I think were much better off as a member. But leave that to one side for a moment. I’m also a democrat, and I care for the future of my country, and that...
Call it prejudice, call it snobbism, call it elitism, call it what you will – I have a thing about self-published books. I suppose my subconscious says that, if a publisher isn’t willing to publish a manuscript, there’s a reason for it and the book probably isn’t very...
Politics ought to be synonymous with good governance, but it’s not. It’s a game you have to play to get into a position where you can practise good governance. And politics doesn’t seem to have any room for the nuances and counterintuitive positions that make for good...
As Nick Clegg’s biographer, I have always tried to stay above – or detached from – events involving him, so I can judge them dispassionately. But I can’t help feeling an intense seam of sadness at the news that he has accepted a senior role with Facebook. In fact it...
It was the laughs that did it. They made me wonder whether we actually want to solve the #MeToo problem, or whether we get too much secondary gain from the righteous indignation we feel about being on one side or the other. It’s a serious question, because without the...
Serena Williams’s name will be all over the world’s media over the next 24 hours. It shouldn’t be – Naomi Osaka’s should, as she was a 100 per cent deserved winner of the US Open women’s singles. More importantly, Williams only has herself to blame for what happened...
