Sharpe: relic of a lost Britain
Whatever the merits of Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey, and Matt Damon’s portrayal of Odysseus as a suburban American dad, weary and stricken with guilt over his…
Inside Britain’s DEI police force
Andrew*, a detective sergeant in the Metropolitan Police, is telling me about a former trainee. “Before they join, direct-entry detectives are sold the whole Line of Duty bollocks,” he says.…
Frankie goes to Downing Street
On the day Andy Burnham became prime minister, my female friends had eyes only for his wife’s dress. The lilac Victoria Beckham gown that Marie-France van Heel wore to No.…
Why you don’t really get Homer
When you hear the phrase “Ancient Greece”, what are the first words that come into your head? The names of a few great thinkers, perhaps: Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Zeno? Or…
Why you don’t really get Homer
When you hear the phrase “Ancient Greece”, what are the first words that come into your head? The names of a few great thinkers, perhaps: Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Zeno? Or…
Frankie goes to Downing Street
On the day Andy Burnham became prime minister, my female friends had eyes only for his wife’s dress. The lilac Victoria Beckham gown that Marie-France van Heel wore to No.…
Don’t fall for Project Smear, Mr Burnham
In the lead-up to the Brexit referendum, Remainers deployed Project Fear to scare the living daylights out of anyone considering voting to Leave. Their statistical projections of an were so…
Serfdom, Republican-style
If today’s name ends in a “y,” then you can be sure that some business lobbyists in Washington are pressuring Congress to expand the role of cheap foreign labor in…
Kevin Keegan: true King of the North
In the late afternoon of 16 February 1909, a terrifying explosion tore through the Burns Pit at West Stanley in County Durham. Sheets of flame erupted from the pit shaft,…
The scandal of moonlighting doctors
On 1 March 2019, managers at Basildon University Hospital needed to find one of their most senior obstetricians — fast. The Care Quality Commission was in the building asking pointed…
Burnham’s potemkin radicalism
Andy Burnham is a wool. To those unlucky enough not to hail from the new home of English power — the North West — “wool”, or “woolyback”, is a gently…