Status Anxiety: Hay pariah

Toby Young suffers from Status Anxiety

I’m writing this from the Hay Festival in Wales, which has become an annual pilgrimage for my family and me. The children can be parked in a masterclass on how to draw dragons while I slope off and listen to David Miliband being interviewed by Matthew d’Ancona. Not everyone’s idea of heaven, perhaps, but it beats taking them to the swings in Acton Park.

The festival is being sponsored by the Telegraph this year — it used to be the Guardian — and I was hoping it would have a more conservative flavour. At the very least, a pavilion somewhere in the middle called Right-of-Centre where the Telegraph’s dazzling array of Tory bloggers — Norman Tebbit, Dan Hannan, James Delingpole, Ed West, Damian Thompson — would take on all-comers. But not a bit of it. The festival is as left-wing as it’s always been.

Philippe Sands is on virtually every panel.