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Flora Watkins

Flora Watkins

The Spectator

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Bean counting / Beware the £5 coffee

It wasn’t until I received a notification from the Monzo app that I realised I’d spent nearly £10 on two coffees. This wasn’t in the Wolseley...

03.04.2025 5

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

Beware the £5 coffee

03.04.2025 10

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

Phone charge / The true villain of Netflix’s Adolescence

22.03.2025 20

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

The true villain of Netflix’s Adolescence

21.03.2025 30

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

Fleeced / Do you have Dryrobophobia?

18.03.2025 10

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

Which school gate drop-off tribe are you in?

13.03.2025 10

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

Laboured point / Why is the NHS pushing pregnant women towards sterilisation?

11.03.2025 10

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

Laboured point / Why is the NHS pushing pregnant women towards sterilisation?

07.03.2025 20

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

Laboured point / Why is the NHS pushing pregnant women towards sterilisation?

06.03.2025 10

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

Why is the NHS pushing pregnant women towards sterilisation?

06.03.2025 20

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

Skin deep / Nurses shouldn’t have tattoos

04.03.2025 40

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

Smoking is sexy again

16.02.2025 100

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

Flaming hot / Smoking is sexy again

15.02.2025 100

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

Flaming hot / Smoking is sexy again

13.02.2025 10

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

Smoking is sexy again

13.02.2025 10

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

Golden balls / Does anyone actually fancy David Beckham?

05.02.2025 20

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

Lost England / How The Box of Delights became a Christmas cult classic

At this time of year, switching on the radio to hear the twinkling harp at the start of ‘The First Nowell’ from Hely-Hutchinson’s Carol Symphony...

06.12.2024 20

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

Knit happens / The horror of a Christmas jumper

Mark Darcy’s Christmas jumper has come a long way since it repelled the heroine of Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001) at her mother’s annual New...

03.12.2024 4

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

Who can afford to send Christmas cards any more?

At this time of year I’d usually be writing dozens of Christmas cards, with a Snowball to hand, heavy on the Advocaat. Many would be to people with...

28.11.2024 3

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

Babycham is back!

Babycham, the drink you perhaps last sipped while tapping the ash from a black Sobranie as Sade played on the jukebox, is coming back. Launched in...

21.11.2024 5

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

Party elite / The debauched posh are back

‘The wines were too various: it was neither the quality nor the quantity that was at fault. It was the mixture.’ This is the meet-cute at the...

29.10.2024 4

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

VAT raid / Private schools brought this on themselves

It’s the season to do the rounds of senior schools and my 10-year-old son and I have been jostling through the crowds to glimpse science labs and...

16.10.2024 20

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

It’s time to banish binge-watching

It’s Wednesday, which means my evening is booked up for Slow Horses. The usual protracted regime of children’s tea-bath-bed will be compressed into...

02.10.2024 2

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

It may be too late to save trail hunting

There’s a grumble, often repeated among country folk, that ‘hunting people got hunting banned’. What they mean (I think) is that a combination of...

26.09.2024 60

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

Can school rugby survive safety concerns?

The look on the face of A&E staff was one of horror and disbelief. ‘He’s playing contact rugby – at eight?’ I nodded, my son Gus’s left arm hanging...

05.09.2024 3

The Spectator

Flora Watkins

Love it or loathe it, ragwort is winning

White, lacy cow parsley frothing along the roadside is a familiar sight during the British summer. But 2024 is the first year I can remember when...

08.08.2024 4

The Spectator

Flora Watkins