I find it incredible that it is now five weeks since I wrote here: ‘We have gone quite mad. I know that many people are thinking this, but dare not say so. I will be accused of all kinds of terrible things for taking this view – but that is another aspect of how crazy … Read more
Until I started travelling in the Communist world, my main experience of living under tyranny was my time at a boarding school on the edge of Dartmoor, 60 years ago. The headmaster, an enormous, booming man, had many fine qualities. But he was given to dreadful rages, which tended to strike late on Saturday afternoons. … Read more
As I watched the Prime Minister order mass house arrest on Monday night, I felt revulsion, anger and grief – as anyone brought up when this was a free and well-governed country would. I also felt terribly alone. You could not have known, from anything broadcast that night or printed the following day, that anyone … Read more
Some years ago I had the very good luck to fall into the hands of a totally useless doctor. It was hell, and nearly worse than that, but it taught me one of the most important lessons of my life. He was charming, grey-haired, smooth and beautifully dressed. He was standing in for my usual … Read more
It was a bright, cold day in Oxford and everywhere I looked, rainbow flags flapped and fluttered in the sharp wind. They flew from the ancient colleges along the High Street. They flew from the Town Hall. And what they said to me was ‘Your side has lost. There is nothing you can do about … Read more
Yes, you are right. We have gone quite mad. I know that many people are thinking this, but dare not say so. I will be accused of all kinds of terrible things for taking this view – but that is another aspect of how crazy things are. Yes, coronavirus poses a risk. No, our response … Read more
If Jason Kakaire had screamed ‘Allahu akbar!’ as he went about his bloody work, you would have heard of him, and he would have been debated in the House of Commons. But because Kakaire’s five cruel and devastating knife attacks in London could not possibly be given any political or religious motive, there is barely a … Read more