Gwyneth at the 1999 Oscars. Gazza at Italia 90. To that list of lip- wobbling blubberers, we can now add the name of Matthew Hancock. With the arrival of the coronavirus vaccine, the Health Secretary was on Good Morning Britain yesterday to witness the first inoculations take place live on air. Of course he was! … Read more
Earlier this week I listened as a man who had phoned in to a local radio show struggled to speak through his tears. His mother is dying in a Suffolk care home, yet he has been told he cannot see her until she is 48 hours from death. She is yearning to see him, while … Read more
Gwyneth at the 1999 Oscars. Gazza at Italia 90. To that list of lip- wobbling blubberers, we can now add the name of Matthew Hancock. With the arrival of the coronavirus vaccine, the Health Secretary was on Good Morning Britain yesterday to witness the first inoculations take place live on air. Of course he was! … Read more
Once, British banks were regarded as solid and dependable institutions, staffed by responsible people who would guard customers’ savings as they would their own, come famine, flood or war. What was left of that image was destroyed in the 2007/08 banking crisis — symbolised by the queues of people outside Northern Rock branches desperate to … Read more
Last month, Sussex Police were good enough to write to me. Their letter began: ‘Notice of Intended Prosecution.’ That got my attention. It went on to say that ‘it is intended to take proceedings against the driver of motor vehicle…’ — and gave a car number plate exactly the same as mine. Apparently it had … Read more
Even the richest and most renowned of all the great public schools realised some time ago that, to be allowed to survive at all, they must submit to correction and purification. That is why the Eton teacher Will Knowland is now in trouble for expressing unfashionable opinions in a not-very-distinguished video The cleverest revolutions are … Read more
As the Goliaths of the high street tumble like a flimsy line of dominos, it’s tempting to think they are all suffering from the same affliction, but there’s a great difference between last week’s most high-profile victims – Arcadia’s Topshop and Debenhams. I was interviewed by the BBC as news of the collapse of Philip … Read more
Netflix’s latest season of The Crown opens with a warning of ‘scenes of an eating disorder which some viewers may find troubling’. There is no mention of a truth disorder. Did the Royal Family humiliate Mrs Thatcher at Balmoral? No. Did Charles phone Camilla every day after marrying Diana. No. Did the Queen have relatives … Read more
In a boost to Rishi Sunak‘s ‘jobs, jobs, jobs’ drive, Conservative ex-Cabinet Ministers Amber Rudd and Nicky Morgan have amassed six new jobs between them alone. In Rudd’s case, she has a balanced portfolio, nicely split between work linked to her time as Home Secretary and her earlier stint as Secretary of State for Energy … Read more
Though the poor old fir tree can’t be having much fun at the moment – uprooted, dragged indoors and wreathed in tinsel – this is, nonetheless, a great weekend for treekind in general. And that is thanks, in no small part, to the Mail’s magnificent Be A Tree Angel campaign. For only now we can … Read more