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![]() Simon KelneriNews |
What has depressed you most about the world starting up again? Returning to work? The horrible weather? Not having the darts to watch? Well, I’ll...
Could this be the picture which defines the next period of British politics? There they were, like three brothers in arms, in front of a remarkable...
I wouldn’t exactly say that all I know about life I have learned from football, but I sometimes wonder what sort of a person I would have become had...
Way back in 1982, I joined The Observer as a young, impressionable journalist. On my first day in the office, I was invited to lunch by one of my...
Now that the railway workers and the junior doctors have settled their differences with the Government, it is left to a group of liberal-minded...
I live in a small village in Oxfordshire, at the foot of a valley through which the River Glyme – whose soft waters were once fundamental to the...
It is probably in keeping with the spirit of the age that Michael Westwood, our latter-day Wat Tyler, is a publican, whose mission is to sell the...
“There was no one quite like him in British politics.” Tony Blair said it first, and with the most authority. Alastair Campbell echoed the former...
Let’s take a mirror to a story that has been running in some newspapers for the past week, something that, for The Daily Telegraph at least,...
About 18 months ago, I was walking through central London with Gary Lineker, on our way to a dinner at which he was speaking. It was around the...
James McClean, at 35 years old, is coming towards the end of a 13-year professional football career in England that has taken in stints at...
On Tuesday evening, I texted a friend in America to say how fearful I was that Donald Trump would win the presidential election. He texted back,...
I’m not a farmer, or a landowner, and nor do I run a family business, so I don’t have a particular reason to find last week’s Budget personally...
Garry Shandling’s brand of comedy was not to everyone’s taste. His confessional, neurotic schtick, and his fretful tone, was representative of a...
I shall never forget Nuno, the Portuguese nurse who got me up and about when I’d been in bed for three days after a major operation, and caught me...
I was there at Tracey Emin’s 40th birthday party. It was held in a beach restaurant near her home in the South of France, and, man, how we drank...
Which job, with a reported salary of around £100,000 a week, which gives you first-class travel to all corners of the globe, and which offers you...
Earlier this week, the Adam Smith Instititue – a right-wing think-tank with the motto: “Using free markets to create a richer, freer, happier world...
Today is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which is a time for hope and renewal, of customs and prayers which invoke the prospect of a benign...
I am not, in general, a Tripadvisor kind of person, preferring to have my opinions untainted by the experiences of others. But, when it comes to...
It is one of Michael Gove’s predecessors as editor of The Spectator , Iain Macleod, himself also a one-time Conservative cabinet minister, who is...
On the way to Euston station yesterday, I texted my daughter to ask if she could get me a Sunday newspaper to read on the train up to Manchester. A...
The Corrupt and Illegal Practices Act of 1883 is a very fine example of law making. Designed to make parliamentary elections fairer, more...
I started taking Ozempic five weeks ago. I was fearful of the side effects, of which more later. But at my age, it becomes increasingly harder to...
Everything I know about morality and the friendship of men, I owe to golf. With apologies to Albert Camus – the novelist and part-time goalkeeper...
For reasons of leisure and business, I did quite a lot of flying over the summer. I also did quite a lot of not flying. Within a little less than...
Many years ago, I knew a border collie. A beautiful, sprightly dog, he would sit and watch television with the family. He would watch anything,...
I gave up smoking 13 years ago. It was simple, really. No need for hypnotherapy, nicotine tablets or patches. I just got cancer, and suddenly my...