Open Season
That’s entertainment
‘Vast swathes of the television production community stopped working overnight. Any television show involving camera crews, studio audiences, the general public, travel, or proximity of any kind, was, at best, postponed indefinitely; at worst, cancelled outright’
God’s waiting room
‘The homelessness charity St Mungo’s believes the pandemic can lead to a significant long-term reduction in rough sleeping when the lockdown ends. But the current situation suggests this vision might as well have been expressed by Walter Mitty’
Britain must reinvent itself
‘We should seize the opportunity presented by Brexit to reinvent ourselves’
The perils of two-wheeled oiks in lycra
‘The cyclist’s pent-up hostility and cavalier attitude to rules finds its apotheosis in confrontations with pedestrians’
Living in Cancerland
Cancer is no joke. But staying cheerful helps
In the bleak midwinter
Christmas can be a bleak time of year. While some feel isolated, others are overwhelmed by the need for a perfect family Yuletide when their reality is different
Personality journalism started with Paxman. It’s pernicious
‘When I was at the BBC, the cliché was that we left our politics at the door. It appeared not to need saying that other aspects of your personal identity should also be left at the door’
Three cheers for “white saviours”
‘You have to prove you have the knowledge/expertise/ experience to be allowed to step outside your own culture. To whom, I wonder, do you have to prove this?’
Trans trailblazers leave women bruised
‘Female and male bodies differ in many ways that make the best women uncompetitive with even mediocre men’
Who is Pride for?
‘A message of liberation has lost out to the more commercially viable demands for inclusion and recognition of ever-more niche identities’
Will the green agenda be killed off by the pandemic?
‘Will the green agenda be killed off by the longer-term coronavirus recovery? Or might the closure of so much business, and the cleaner air that results from planes not flying and factories not working, give us extra years to gain control of our environment?’
Why T.S. Eliot still matters
His contemporaries’ reputations have diminished. But Eliot’s has grown: he is the poet who shows us what can be saved from the ruins
Music’s in the house
Rappers have found a role in lockdown: chronicling coronavirus with topical tunes. Most people, though, are rushing to the safety of the past