Columnists A - L
Dominic Lawson: Welfare reform needs sticks and carrots
Published: 06 March 2007
Philip Hensher: Private schooling is often a worthless expenditure
Published: 06 March 2007
Miles Kington: Moral tales of phone calls and blackened sausages
Published: 06 March 2007
The Sketch: Listening to Hutton is hard work and of little benefit
Published: 06 March 2007
It wasn't until the words "step change" that we got the cry of "Bingo!" John Hutton had raced us through the card. "Cherry-picking", "wraparound child care", "customers migrating to new support allowances", "public private partnerships for upfront investment". He'd snuck in a neologism too, "a one-stop front-end". We didn't have time to consider what indecencies were offered by such a thing. It was a whirl, a fast ride. Those unused to Hutton's speed and verve might have been dazzled and not seen his statement for what it was. But that's what we're for.
Johann Hari: The Battle of Brighton is only the beginning - the prize is better education for all our kids
Published: 05 March 2007
Bruce Anderson: Gordon Brown's fortunes are ebbing away
Published: 05 March 2007
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown: The real reason for all the white faces at the BBC
Published: 05 March 2007
Miles Kington: You may not know it, but you are 597th in line to the throne
Published: 05 March 2007
Dom Joly: Buying presents for Mr Moon isn't easy
Published: 04 March 2007
It's not an exact science, giving presents to kids. Just off the plane from Vietnam I'm greeted with a "Daddy, you have present for me?" from my little boy Jackson (who for some reason has decided recently he wants to be known as Mr Moon; I'm cool with that, he's only two). So I dig deep into my suitcase and produce this fantastic "ethnic" hand puppet of an elephant that is oh-so tasteful and really original and could probably be sold in some Notting Hill hippie toy shop for about £200. Mr Moon stops in his tracks, puts his hand up the elephant's bottom and is already bored by the time the trunk starts moving. I take it off him, put my hands up its bottom and start doing what I think is a really moving yet funny elephant play. Mr Moon yawns and wanders off. It's not easy being a dad.
Andrew Grice: The Week In Politics
Published: 03 March 2007
Howard Jacobson: You wouldn't think that love, marriage and psychoanalysis would make a fun night out
Published: 03 March 2007
Dominic Lawson: Here is another inconvenient truth (but this one will infuriate the Green lobby)
Published: 02 March 2007
Miles Kington: When in Peru, synchronise your mind, not your watch
Published: 02 March 2007
Terence Blacker: Enough of this defeatism about the Olympics
Published: 02 March 2007
The Sketch: The fiery depths of hell will be sweet relief after this
Published: 02 March 2007
The New Testament has some unwelcome things in it for people like me. The Sermon on the Mount tells us that one of the consequences of being a parliamentary sketchwriter is eternal damnation.
Tracey Emin: My Life In A Column
Published: 02 March 2007
Joan Bakewell: Why archaeology is an ideological battleground
Published: 02 March 2007
Adrian Hamilton: Is President Bush changing tack at last over Iran?
Published: 01 March 2007
The Sketch: Blair, belief and truth in the End Times
Published: 01 March 2007
What's the state of the Prime Minister's soul? Can we dabble in it a little? It's a matter of some topicality as we are in the End Times, as maniacs call them, in the final days before his Rapture.
Johann Hari: This toxic strain of fear and hatred
Published: 01 March 2007
Miles Kington: The gods debate mankind's deception
Published: 01 March 2007
The Sketch: Only incompetence offers us hope against this Government
Published: 28 February 2007
It's nice at my age to come across things that are incomprehensible. It helps a fellow out of bed in the morning, the sense that there's more to find out. What's a "dampening formula", for instance, or "double damping"? It's probably something to do with local government as Ruth Kelly was on the front bench. That's as far as I can go. I don't even really know what a unitary authority is. When people start to explain it I'm only woken up by the crack of my forehead hitting the desk in front of me.
Terence Blacker: Pimp your ride the green celebrity way
Published: 28 February 2007
There is some good news at last this week for Planet Earth. The writer Iain Banks has announced to the press that he has undergone a major change of conviction about the environment, and is changing his lifestyle accordingly. He will vote for the Green Party. He has bought a wind turbine to put on his roof. All the light-bulbs in his home have been replaced by high-energy ones.
Alex James: The Great Escape
Published: 28 February 2007
On Sunday, I had risen at six and done three rounds with Bonnie Greer in London, reviewing the newspapers on Radio 4, before breakfast. I liked her immensely, but managed to wind her up by suggesting that outer space is a boy thing. She was quite worried about Britney. We all are. Then I went to Manchester to record The Tube and interviewed a space weather expert and a folk singer whose songs seemed to speak of things like moist mushrooms and foxes' milk. It has never occurred to me to write songs about such things.
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