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Sorry, Lily Collins, but when people outsource childbirth, their motives really count

previous day 30

Martha Gill

Settled, industrious, essential: it’s time we saw immigration as a British success story

01.02.2025 10

Martha Gill

The Observer view: In her pursuit of growth, Rachel Reeves must go green and go local

25.01.2025 7

Martha Gill

There’s a word for people who prefer phones to meeting friends: addicts

25.01.2025 8

Martha Gill

Are you a traitor or a faithful? Just take your lead from everyone else

19.01.2025 10

Martha Gill

Jane Austen’s plates or the woods near her home? I know which I’d rather save

11.01.2025 4

Martha Gill

Crime is falling, but heists that make headlines imply otherwise

Crime stories serve up a reliable set of emotions – shock, sympathy, horror, outrage, morbid curiosity and fear. But there is something different,...

04.01.2025 1

Martha Gill

Belief in a lottery curse is comforting, but winning lots of money does make you happy

Does winning the lottery wreck your life? When it was revealed earlier this week that an anonymous Briton had won £177m in the November...

21.12.2024 1

Martha Gill

We don’t tolerate prejudice at work. Why, pray, do we allow it in church?

I was struck by a conversation on LBC last week, which followed the news that several Premier League footballers refused to wear armbands...

08.12.2024 3

Martha Gill

The Good Doctor’s version of autism masks the reality of badly failed children

To the optimist, it may seem as though we are at last emerging from a dark age when it comes to children with neurological and learning disorders....

01.12.2024 4

Martha Gill

Not quite religion, not quite self-help: welcome to the Jordan Peterson age of nonsense

What links these two news stories? The first: “manifesting” has been declared Cambridge Dictionary’s word of the year. The self-help practice,...

24.11.2024 80

Martha Gill

So, it’s goodbye to Gary Lineker and to the costly, star-struck culture at the BBC

Is the age of the megastar fading at the BBC? It is possible to read too much into Gary Lineker’s retirement, which has dominated headlines. Some...

16.11.2024 1

Martha Gill

In the moral panic over vaping, we risk forgetting that cigarettes kill

Imagine we’d found a way to get millions of people to switch from alcohol, which in this country kills 10,000 people a year, to another kind of...

10.11.2024 3

Martha Gill

Britons are dying in a blizzard of cheap cocaine. Why is so little being done to save them?

Compared with the screaming scare campaigns of the 1990s, anti-drugs messaging is thin on the ground these days. So the casual observer may not...

27.10.2024 10

Martha Gill

Of course teenagers want to be pop idols like Liam Payne. Given the perils, should we let them?

Sex, drinking, smoking, gambling, joining the army, being put to work – we now take it as obvious that there should be strict laws protecting young...

19.10.2024 3

Martha Gill

Can you resist all the addictions modern life throws at you? Only if you’re rich enough

They are problems of success, really, these modern ills. Social media addiction, gaming disorders, the compulsive over-eating of sugar and...

13.10.2024 20

Martha Gill

Social media isn’t driving the plastic surgery boom. Who doesn’t want to look better?

Plastic surgery is a brutal business. No wonder it makes a good subject for a horror film. In fact, the subject may be too much for the genre....

06.10.2024 20

Martha Gill

He cries, he forages, but redemption may still elude cast away Phillip Schofield

Idea for a TV show. Cancelled celebrities compete against each other for the ultimate prize: public forgiveness. Hosted by a coterie of bitchy...

29.09.2024 3

Martha Gill

No promotions, no buzz. Home workers pay high price while bosses save on costs

At the age of 25, casting around for what to do next, I was lucky enough to get a few weeks paid work at a newspaper. The work itself wasn’t...

22.09.2024 30

Martha Gill

To put frockgate behind them, the Starmers could learn from the Johnson administration

Not all of us are good at clothes. Some have the gift of sartorial certainty; some suffer from a sort of “mirror blindness”, doomed to stand in our...

22.09.2024 2

Martha Gill

The Perfect Couple’s mega-rich are fair game, but why not satirise the merely wealthy?

It’s hard to satirise the super-rich. Not that we don’t enjoy trying. The most recent attempt – The Perfect Couple, a murder mystery starring...

14.09.2024 5

Martha Gill

When dogs recall toys and horses plan ahead, are animals so different from us?

The details differ, but really it’s the same story, turning up every few weeks, for around a decade now. The revelation – and it’s always presented...

07.09.2024 4

Martha Gill

I love the nanny state, but let’s leave outdoor smokers to puff away in peace

Have you ever wondered why pubs in Britain bother with gardens? They seem like a solid enough investment now, in summer, sure. But what’s the draw...

01.09.2024 2

Martha Gill

Riots, shootings, sadism… blame it on the boredom of social media

‘The age of boredom… has now passed”. So begins On Boredom , a 2021 essay collection that claims the likes of TikTok and YouTube have driven it to...

24.08.2024 4

Martha Gill

Chris Riddell on how the Democrats are tying the Republicans up in knots – cartoon

17.08.2024 3

Martha Gill

Shoplifting, tax evasion... If UK politicians break the rules, why shouldn’t the rest of us?

What to make of last week’s annual report by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), which declares – I summarise – that the inhabitants...

28.07.2024 3

Martha Gill

Practice doesn’t always make perfect – that’s why you’re not in the Olympics

Stefan Holm was told he was too short to be a high jumper. But by the time he won Sweden a gold medal in the 2004 Olympics, he had honed himself...

21.07.2024 30

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Sorry, Lily Collins, but when people outsource childbirth, their motives really count

Martha Gill

Settled, industrious, essential: it’s time we saw immigration as a British success story

Martha Gill

The Observer view: In her pursuit of growth, Rachel Reeves must go green and go local

Martha Gill

There’s a word for people who prefer phones to meeting friends: addicts

Martha Gill

Are you a traitor or a faithful? Just take your lead from everyone else

Martha Gill

Jane Austen’s plates or the woods near her home? I know which I’d rather save

Martha Gill

Crime is falling, but heists that make headlines imply otherwise

Martha Gill

Belief in a lottery curse is comforting, but winning lots of money does make you happy

Martha Gill

We don’t tolerate prejudice at work. Why, pray, do we allow it in church?

Martha Gill

The Good Doctor’s version of autism masks the reality of badly failed children

Martha Gill

Not quite religion, not quite self-help: welcome to the Jordan Peterson age of nonsense

Martha Gill

So, it’s goodbye to Gary Lineker and to the costly, star-struck culture at the BBC

Martha Gill

In the moral panic over vaping, we risk forgetting that cigarettes kill

Martha Gill

Britons are dying in a blizzard of cheap cocaine. Why is so little being done to save them?

Martha Gill

Of course teenagers want to be pop idols like Liam Payne. Given the perils, should we let them?

Martha Gill

Can you resist all the addictions modern life throws at you? Only if you’re rich enough

Martha Gill

Social media isn’t driving the plastic surgery boom. Who doesn’t want to look better?

Martha Gill

He cries, he forages, but redemption may still elude cast away Phillip Schofield

Martha Gill

No promotions, no buzz. Home workers pay high price while bosses save on costs

Martha Gill

To put frockgate behind them, the Starmers could learn from the Johnson administration

Martha Gill

The Perfect Couple’s mega-rich are fair game, but why not satirise the merely wealthy?

Martha Gill

When dogs recall toys and horses plan ahead, are animals so different from us?

Martha Gill

I love the nanny state, but let’s leave outdoor smokers to puff away in peace

Martha Gill

Riots, shootings, sadism… blame it on the boredom of social media

Martha Gill

Chris Riddell on how the Democrats are tying the Republicans up in knots – cartoon

Martha Gill

Shoplifting, tax evasion... If UK politicians break the rules, why shouldn’t the rest of us?

Martha Gill

Practice doesn’t always make perfect – that’s why you’re not in the Olympics

Martha Gill