Why is Chris Grayling – a man whose incompetence is now so legendary that it warranted a write-up in the New York Times, complete with a correction acknowledging that the Grey Lady had understated the…

Commons speaker John Bercow quoted “Erskine May” today when he ruled out a third vote on the government’s Brexit deal unless it is substantial changed. “What is Erskine May?”, you may ask. Is it a…

Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, has recently evoked the decades-long interaction between social democrats and democratic socialists within the Labour movement. Of course, there are other…

Rose McGowan was born in Tuscany, Italy in 1973, and was raised as a member of the controversial cult the Children of God . An actress known for her roles in “Scream”, “Charmed” and “Jawbreaker”, she was one of several women to accuse producer

The great Australian clichés: G’day; fair dinkum; dinki-di; fair go; no worries; good on yer; she’ll be right; mateship; whingeing Poms; the lucky country. Only one of these has been known to cause…

Somewhere between the ads for Tim Burton’s Dumbo and a brand of cheddar vowing a “flinty texture” is a wickedly fun new show presented by electronic musician William Orbit (Monday-Thursday, 9pm). It’s…

At 72, the writer James Kelman has published nine novels, 13 short story collections, two essay collections and several plays. He has been compared to Beckett, Kafka and Joyce, and labelled the…

All Themes Main Programme State of the Nation Campaigner Caroline Criado Perez OBE has a good track record in making women visible: on bank notes, in statuary and in her incisive and impassioned…

Anya, a GP at a neighbouring practice, called, wondering if I’d complete a Part 2. This is a statutory procedure before a body can be cremated. The deceased patient’s regular doctor fills out a form, known colloquially as the Part 1, which details the

A few months ago, 17-year-old Martina received a direct message on Tumblr. It said the world would be better off without not only Meghan Markle, but also her fans. “I would kill you”, it read. Martina did what she does with almost all the

In 2010 the Speaker, John Bercow, closed Bellamy’s Bar in the Palace of Westminster and installed a nursery in its place. It is hard to understand how in the 21st century there could be any serious…

One of my earliest football memories occurred in the November of 1945, when I was nine and still at primary school in Dumfries. I heard that Moscow Dynamo were coming to Britain on a short tour, the…

In common with many technology founders, Robert Noyce, nicknamed the “mayor of Silicon Valley”, made no secret of his antipathy for trade unions. He travelled to California in the 1950s to escape the…

Today’s news from New Zealand is gut-wrenchingly sad. Our hearts break not only for those murdered and for their loved ones, but also for our Muslim brothers and sisters everywhere who will today feel…

If you want a sense of the Britain of 40 years ago, a good place to start is the feature-length film Rude Boy, released in 1980 and put together over the preceding two years. Co-starring the Clash and…

Immigration – I know this sounds unlikely, but bear with us a moment here – is in the news rather a lot at the moment. For one thing, there's the Mediterranean migrant crisis, which EU leaders are…

The news of a devastating terrorist attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, is heartbreaking. The deaths of so many people, of all ages, simply engaging in practising their faith, is hard to comprehend.…

Con MPs worry Brextremist erupting volcano Mark Francois will explode into tiny pieces of rock. The molten-faced nationalist, whose BBC Politics Live stare-off with Will Self continued off air – the…

What happens when an entire government’s reputation is premised on a single figure and his personal brand? As long as the latter can be sustained, most political damage can be absorbed. But when a…

Three things strike me as I read the account by intrepid Hungarian-born nobleman Colonel Agoston Haraszthy, sometimes called the Father of Californian Winemaking, of his visit to Bordeaux, in 1861.…

What makes a great sculpture? I mean that literally, materially. Until a century ago, when Marcel Duchamp placed a ready-made urinal in an exhibition in New York and blew apart the notion of what a 3D…

On Wednesday, Scarlett celebrated her 12th birthday. It was, by her own accord, a happy time. Underpinning the day, however, were her worries for the next 12 years. Not just the typical fearing for…

It is 2019, and the race for the Democratic nomination for the 2020 presidential election is already in full swing. Here, in no particular order, is a roundup of the candidates that have already…