We don’t need a stealth tax on rotisserie chicken

It depends on whether you re-heat it when you get home, apparently. Or whether it is sold in a bag labelled hot food. The supermarket chain...

yesterday 10

Matthew Lynn

Only the US is taking peace seriously in Ukraine

What exactly is the ‘platinum security guarantee’ that Donald Trump is pushing Volodimir Zelensky to accept? While the full details remain...

yesterday 10

Owen Matthews

Why is the Scottish government so afraid of a grooming gangs inquiry?

The Scottish parliament has voted in favour of allowing government ministers to mislead it. That is the effect of a vote at Holyrood yesterday...

yesterday 10

Stephen Daisley

Sins of the father / It's no surprise that the Bondi Beach attackers are related

The sun had barely set over Sydney’s Bondi Beach, when horror unfolded at the Hanukkah celebration. A father and son, armed with licensed firearms,...

yesterday 10

Rory Hanrahan

Bike lame / The Brompton bicycle has had its day

Anyone who has had the misfortune to be in central London at rush hour will be familiar with an unlovely spectacle: that of a middle-aged man...

yesterday 7

Alexander Larman

The Church of England's gay marriage row will rumble on

The Church of England’s House of Bishops met to discuss the Living in Love and Faith (LLF) project yesterday: that is, the project to change the...

yesterday 6

Andrew Tettenborn

Albanese has failed to step up after the Bondi beach attack

It’s been three days since the jihad against innocent Jews at Sydney’s Bondi beach. A nation’s grief is swiftly turning to anger and...

yesterday 7

Terry Barnes

No sacred cows / I spend more on wine than I do on my mortgage

The first time I got drunk was at a wedding. I was 12 or thereabouts and sick in the taxi on the way home. I’d like to say that set the pattern for...

yesterday 6

Toby Young

Unhappy anniversary / Do we really need a 'new spin' on Jane Austen?

If you like your period dramas butchered, then you are in for a real treat. The 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth falls on 16 December, and...

yesterday 7

Madeline Grant

Real life / On the trail of the White Lady

As we reached the top of the hill and saw the view in front of us my heart thumped so hard I slammed my foot on the brake and declared that we had...

yesterday 6

Melissa Kite

Needle drop / How to cater for the dreaded Ozempic Christmas guest

A close relation of mine is taking Ozempic. I shan’t name them or give anything else away other than to say this: they are set to ruin our...

yesterday 7

Arabella Byrne

Stuck in a rut / Is Britain depressed?

Something very strange is happening in Britain at the moment. Look at the economy. Things aren’t really too bad: for a start it’s actually...

yesterday 6

Alec Marsh

Keir Starmer's union woes just got worse

During the dying days of Rishi Sunak’s regime, Labour politicians liked to encourage the idea that a change of government would improve industrial...

yesterday 10

James Heale

The anti-Muslim hate definition will be bad for free speech

After a long wait, the government’s Islamophobia definition has finally taken form. There has been plenty of criticism of the idea, and many...

yesterday 10

David Shipley

Did Britain need to rejoin Erasmus?

Is the government engaged in a campaign by stealth to return the UK to membership of the EU? It couldn’t make a better job of it if it was trying....

yesterday 6

Ross Clark

The yearly flu crisis is entirely avoidable

Each winter our NHS is struck by an ‘unprecedented’ number of cases of seasonal illness. Politicians talk gravely of the hard work done by our...

yesterday 7

Druin Burch

Can Rachel Reeves take credit for falling inflation?

For the second month in a row, inflation has fallen. Figures released by the Office for National Statistics show that last month the Consumer Price...

yesterday 6

Ben Miller

Badenoch – and Starmer – should work on their PMQs jokes

Kemi Badenoch and Keir Starmer conformed to time-honoured tradition today at Prime Minister’s Questions by producing lots of jokes that would be...

yesterday 4

Isabel Hardman

An unhappy Christmas PMQs for Keir Starmer

Thank God! Today was the last Prime Minister’s Questions before Christmas and so Sir Keir and Mrs Badenoch began their speeches with seasonal...

yesterday 4

Madeline Grant

Anti-Semitism / Why won’t the West defend Jews?

Bondi Beach is not occupied territory. Yet a Jewish celebration there ended in blood. It is not within a military zone, not contested land, not an...

previous day 50

Jonathan Sacerdoti

Watch: Starmer grilled on family farm tax

Once, the Liaison Committee was a must-watch in the House of Commons. But the Starmer super-majority means that the thrice-yearly gathering is much...

previous day 8

Steerpike

Will Labour cut ties with Dale Vince?

Good old Dale Vince is at it again. The eccentric eco-millionaire seems to be plagued by a bout of foot-in-mouth-disease – as evidenced by his...

previous day 6

Steerpike

Ireland's Jews have never felt lonelier

The massacre of Jews on Bondi Beach was the tragic, yet inevitable, result of rising Jew hatred throughout the western world, including in...

previous day 10

Liz Walsh

Paul Lumber's death isn't funny. Why does that need saying?

Publicly mocking a man who has just died from falling off a ladder. This is what the ‘compassionate’ left has been getting up to on social media in...

previous day 10

Tom Slater

Where is the violence against women and girls strategy?

There was a revealing moment in today’s Liaison Committee session with Keir Starmer where the Prime Minister was asked about violence against women...

previous day 7

Isabel Hardman

Why was this old man fined £250 for spitting out a leaf?

‘I celebrate myself, and sing myself,’ wrote Walt Whitman in his rhapsodic celebration of freedom, Leaves of Grass. ‘And what I assume you shall ...

previous day 8

Sam Leith

Keir Starmer's Russia problem is here to stay

Keir Starmer will travel to Berlin this afternoon to join European leaders for a ‘mini-summit’ in support of Ukraine following two days of talks...

previous day 8

Lisa Haseldine

The Bondi Beach attack shows diversity is not our strength

In the wake of a tragedy it is only fitting that public figures issue words of condolence. But there’s a vast difference between making a statement...

previous day 8

Patrick West

Politics / There are bin liners with more empathy than Keir Starmer

The liaison committee is always a laugh. It’s sort of like a year in review for the government’s litany of failures. Like an advent calendar but...

previous day 7

Madeline Grant

'We must not be the Tory party 2.0': Nigel Farage on his plans for power

Nigel Farage is signing football shirts when I arrive at Reform’s campaign headquarters in Millbank Tower, the building where New Labour prepared...

previous day 9

Tim Shipman

The joy of the little things

Whenever I hear the phrase ‘holiday of a lifetime’, I cringe. Same with ‘dream job’. You know they’re both going to disappoint. How can they not?...

previous day 8

Mark Mason

Smartphone wars / Snobbery is the best weapon against screen time

I can’t be the only neurotic mother to have rejoiced when the Princess of Wales revealed recently that she has a strict ‘no phones at the table’...

previous day 7

Lara Prendergast

Knife edge / Table manners are toast

Food courts appear to be everywhere in London at the moment and, for reasons too boring to go into here, I found myself at three of them across the...

previous day 8

Rob Crossan

How London became the best place in the world to eat out

London has become the best place in the world to eat out. Of course, there are a thousand other cities with marvellous food, but for organic...

previous day 8

Stephen Bayley

How many more memorial candles must Jews light?

Jews are big on candles. We light two candles every Friday night to welcome the Sabbath and we do the same again on the eve of every Jewish high...

previous day 8

Naomi Firsht

The evasions of smalltown Alabama: The Land of Sweet Forever, by Harper Lee, reviewed

Harper Lee’s writing career was brief, but her single novel became one of the most famous in American history. To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) won the...

previous day 8

Sarah Churchwell

Rory Stewart’s romantic view of Cumbria is wide of the mark

It’s tricky for writers to gather up pieces of old work and collect them in significant literary form. It’s risky for former politicians to publish...

previous day 7

Sarah Hall

The ups and downs of high-rise living

‘On BBC 2 last Monday,’ noted the Sunday Telegraph’s TV critic Trevor Grove in February 1979, ‘the return of Fawlty Towers was immediately...

previous day 7

David Kynaston

Starmer's liaison committee grilling revealed three things

Today’s liaison committee meeting was not one for the history books. It was a fairly lacklustre affair, with some of the questions asked being so...

previous day 7

James Heale

RIP Rob Reiner

The death of the director and actor Rob Reiner in violent and unexplained circumstances is one of the most horrific and surprising stories to have...

previous day 8

Alexander Larman

The Diddy documentary is required viewing

There are relatively few Netflix documentaries – even in this increasingly sensationalized and prurient age – that have made anything like the...

previous day 7

Alexander Larman

Rachel Reeves can’t escape blame for rising unemployment

Unemployment has risen again. Figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show the UK’s unemployment rate rose to 5.1 per cent in...

previous day 1

Michael Simmons

Are we really preparing for war with Russia?

Are we really on the cusp of a real, shooting war with Russia? If you believe some of the rhetoric, it would seem so – but does anyone really think...

previous day 6

Mark Galeotti

Justice done / AI will kill all the lawyers

It feels, pleasingly, like a scene from a cerebral James Bond film, or perhaps an episode of Slow Horses. I am in a shadowy corner of a plush,...

previous day 6

Sean Thomas

Peril in Prague: The Secret of Secrets, by Dan Brown, reviewed

Robert Langdon is a symbologist, and that is the meta joke – the only joke – of Dan Brown’s series of blockbusters, of which this is the sixth....

previous day 7

Tanya Gold

Shared values / Discrimination is good, actually

Many years ago, a friend described one of my serious literary novels as ‘clever’. I was offended – but I shouldn’t have been. The friend was from...

previous day 7

Lionel Shriver

'I’ve been allergic to AI for a long time': an interview with Peter Thiel

Peter Thiel has been described variously as ‘America’s leading public intellectual’, the ‘architect of Silicon Valley’s contemporary...

previous day 7

William Atkinson

No, Christmas isn’t pagan

At some point during this Advent season and the coming of Christmas, you will log on to your computer, and you will see somebody smugly opining that...

previous day 7

Philip Womack

Songs of murder, rape and desertion

A century ago, the Orkney poet George Mackay Brown was settling into his first term at Stromness Academy. His schooldays were to prove a dismal...

previous day 7

Maggie Fergusson

How to fix Oxfam

Amid stiff competition, Oxfam may be the British charity sector’s greatest hypocrite. The charity’s chief executive, Halima Begum, has been forced...

previous day 6

Categories

Sources

Newspaper Columnists

We don’t need a stealth tax on rotisserie chicken

Matthew Lynn

Only the US is taking peace seriously in Ukraine

Owen Matthews

Why is the Scottish government so afraid of a grooming gangs inquiry?

Stephen Daisley

Sins of the father / It's no surprise that the Bondi Beach attackers are related

Rory Hanrahan

Bike lame / The Brompton bicycle has had its day

Alexander Larman

The Church of England's gay marriage row will rumble on

Andrew Tettenborn

Albanese has failed to step up after the Bondi beach attack

Terry Barnes

No sacred cows / I spend more on wine than I do on my mortgage

Toby Young

Unhappy anniversary / Do we really need a 'new spin' on Jane Austen?

Madeline Grant

Real life / On the trail of the White Lady

Melissa Kite

Needle drop / How to cater for the dreaded Ozempic Christmas guest

Arabella Byrne

Stuck in a rut / Is Britain depressed?

Alec Marsh

Keir Starmer's union woes just got worse

James Heale

The anti-Muslim hate definition will be bad for free speech

David Shipley

Did Britain need to rejoin Erasmus?

Ross Clark

The yearly flu crisis is entirely avoidable

Druin Burch

Can Rachel Reeves take credit for falling inflation?

Ben Miller

Badenoch – and Starmer – should work on their PMQs jokes

Isabel Hardman

An unhappy Christmas PMQs for Keir Starmer

Madeline Grant

Anti-Semitism / Why won’t the West defend Jews?

Jonathan Sacerdoti

Watch: Starmer grilled on family farm tax

Steerpike

Will Labour cut ties with Dale Vince?

Steerpike

Ireland's Jews have never felt lonelier

Liz Walsh

Paul Lumber's death isn't funny. Why does that need saying?

Tom Slater

Where is the violence against women and girls strategy?

Isabel Hardman

Why was this old man fined £250 for spitting out a leaf?

Sam Leith

Keir Starmer's Russia problem is here to stay

Lisa Haseldine

The Bondi Beach attack shows diversity is not our strength

Patrick West

Politics / There are bin liners with more empathy than Keir Starmer

Madeline Grant

'We must not be the Tory party 2.0': Nigel Farage on his plans for power

Tim Shipman

The joy of the little things

Mark Mason

Smartphone wars / Snobbery is the best weapon against screen time

Lara Prendergast

Knife edge / Table manners are toast

Rob Crossan

How London became the best place in the world to eat out

Stephen Bayley

How many more memorial candles must Jews light?

Naomi Firsht

The evasions of smalltown Alabama: The Land of Sweet Forever, by Harper Lee, reviewed

Sarah Churchwell

Rory Stewart’s romantic view of Cumbria is wide of the mark

Sarah Hall

The ups and downs of high-rise living

David Kynaston

Starmer's liaison committee grilling revealed three things