Jonathan Meades
Call of the mild
“Michael Gove’s Wild Animals in Circuses Bill appears at first glance to be nothing more than his latest essay in exhibitionistic compassion. But is it a misreading to ascribe this picayune law-making to opportunistic big-heartedness?”
Dog days
‘If every writer who disliked what other contributors wrote decided to withdraw their work, there would be no papers, no magazines, perhaps no telly’
The Elysée’s shadowy French lieutenants
Neo-barbouzes and bodyguard conspiracies
The dangers of dog in the manger democracy
It will be a dark day for parliament when there is nothing left to proscribe, nothing that nodding dullards can deem “totally unacceptable”.
Foie Gove
Michael Gove’s plan to ban foie gras is an essentially frivolous self-advertisement
Jolly Bad Taste vs. feeble Good Taste
Sir Les Patterson or Poundbury, Roy Wood or Richard Rogers, dodgy clubs or lusty yeomen?
Tolerating the intolerant
“For those who thought that a global pandemic would sound the death knell for identity politics, think again”
How to prevent the next pandemic
‘I have been reporting as a science journalist for years that the world is at increasing risk of pandemics like this; that this was predicted; that we know what we need to do to prepare and we simply haven’t done it; and that more and worse pandemics are coming so we need to do that, now’
D’où parles-tu? The post-truth world
Power, illusion and the open society: how postmodernism undermines our foundational concepts