Society

Friday

Katy Balls Katy Balls

The Sarah Storey Edition

28 min listen

Dame Sarah Storey is Britain’s most successful Paralympian of all time. She is a 45-time World champion, a 23-time European champion, and a 77-time world recorder breaker – including times she broke her own records. Earlier this year she won her 18th and 19th Olympic golds at the Paris 2024 games. On the podcast, Sarah talks to Katy Balls about switching from swimming to cycling, the influence of bullying at school and the funding disparity that Paralympians face. She also talks about working with Dan Jarvis and Andy Burnham on improving cycling infrastructure, as well as her preparations for the next Olympics – Los Angeles 2028. Plus, where does she

Richard Dawkins

The myth of the God-shaped hole

In a recent interview, I imprudently said I was a “cultural Christian”, and I haven’t heard the end of it. I find myself unwillingly counted in the Great Christian Revival (translation, “We don’t actually believe that stuff ourselves, but we like it when other people do”) which is the subject of so much wishful thinking these days. The trans-sexual bandwagon is a form of quasi-religious cult Of course I’m a cultural Christian. Always have been. Packed off to Anglican schools, I was confirmed when too young to know better. Large chunks of the English Hymnal were imprinted in my long-term memory, and duly pop out when I’m fooling around with

Iain Mansfield

Bridget Phillipson wants no alternatives to expose her education mistakes

Wales has long been an embarrassment for any aspiring Labour education secretary. While the Conservative government’s school reforms shot England up the international league tables – in the PISA rankings it rose from 25th to 13th in reading and 27th to 11th in maths between 2009 and 2022 – performance in Labour-run Wales and in SNP-run Scotland has declined. Labour has always been the enemy of excellence – which it wrongly confuses with elitism These three UK nations provided a perfect real-time experiment with which to assess the merits of different education philosophies. The tried-and-tested methods of phonics, a knowledge-rich curriculum and firm behavioural policies won decisively. Simultaneously, the pioneering Free Schools and

Thursday

Alexander Larman

Brace yourselves for Meghan Markle’s comeback

As many of us lurched blearily into 2025, desperately trying to remember how, exactly, we’d managed to cause offence to our nearest and dearest in the hinterland between the old year and the new, there was another unwelcome surprise waiting in the wings. In the late afternoon of 1 January, just as the nausea and regret of the previous night was beginning to dispel, the Duchess of Sussex decided that the perfect moment had come to relaunch herself into public consciousness. Out of nowhere, a 28-second video appeared on her hitherto dormant Instagram account, which is now branded simply as “@meghan”.  What many hoped for – an announcement that she

Patrick West

Forgive Stephen Fry for supporting Stonewall

There has been much indignation at the roll-call of those ennobled in the New Year Honours. There’s been bewilderment that Gareth Southgate, England’s failed football coach, has been given a knighthood. There’s been anger that Sadiq Khan, who has presided over an escalation of knife crime in the capital, has been similarly honoured. There’s been puzzlement that Emily Thornberry, whose foremost distinction has been sneering at working-class displays of patriotism, has been made a dame. And there’s been gnashing of teeth that Stephen Fry, that ubiquitous and often grating luvvie, has been given the title ‘Sir’. Much of the vehemence directed towards Fry has focused on his longstanding support for

Tanya Gold Tanya Gold

Not worth its salt: Wingmans reviewed

I see this column as an essay on cultural polarisation: artisanal butter can only take you so far into wisdom. I cower in Covent Garden, mourning Tory romanticism, and stare, cold-eyed in St James’s, at oligarchic mezze. Sometimes I eat by mistake. I couldn’t get into the fashionable noodle place in Soho, whose Instagram-made queue stretched to Cambridge Circus on Saturday night. It reminded me of the crowds at royal weddings: both camp for dreams. So, I went to Wingmans instead.  Wingmans – it lost the apostrophe, it’s a decadent age – calls itself ‘London’s best wings’. They are chicken wings, not angel wings, and this is Pottersville, not Bedford

Roger Alton Roger Alton

Could Thomas Tuchel be the one?

You would have to be living a very sheltered life not to have noticed that the Premier League this season is one of the best and the brightest for years. Mainly because it is not permanently dominated by the Big Six – though admittedly one of Liverpool, Arsenal or Chelsea is almost certain to win the title. But exciting, unpredictable, well-managed sides like Nottingham Forest, Bournemouth, Fulham and Brighton mean that more or less any side can beat any other. Sam Konstas is pencil thin and doesn’t look old enough to get served in the Bush and Tucker tavern in his native Sydney Though bafflingly Manchester City can hardly be

Wednesday

Kristina Murkett

The problem with ‘diversifying’ the curriculum 

As an English teacher, one of my favourite poems to teach, to pupils of almost all ages, is Chinua Achebe’s ‘Vultures’. In the poem, the speaker describes various images that uncomfortably combine love and violence: a vulture picking apart a corpse before nestling up to its mate; a Commandant at Belsen buying chocolate for his children whilst the ‘fumes of human roast… cling rebelliously to his nostrils’. I choose to teach it not because Achebe is black, or because I am trying to decolonise my teaching, but because it asks fundamental questions about human nature and the universal duality of good and evil, something which transcends race, sex or class.

Tuesday

Jawad Iqbal

Gareth Southgate’s knighthood is a reward for failure

Some of football’s greatest names have been knighted for their achievements in the game. Sir Alf Ramsey received his gong for leading England to World Cup victory in 1966, an achievement unrivalled to this day. Sir Alex Ferguson became a footballing knight for turning Manchester United into serial winners of the Premier League. This exclusive group also includes some of the game’s greatest legends on the pitch, including Sir Stanley Matthews, Sir Geoff Hurst and Sir Bobby Charlton. And now, joining these illustrious ranks is Gareth Southgate, the former England manager, who has been awarded a knighthood in the New Year Honours list. Arise, Sir Gareth. Why though? What has

Debbie Hayton

How some atheists fell for the new religion of gender identity

The Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) is probably not on the radar of most people in the UK. It’s a US-based non-profit organisation that campaigns for the separation of church and state. Some years ago, the Telegraph reported on its campaign to remove Christianity from Christmas celebrations in American state schools. But it seems that this association of ‘atheists, agnostics and skeptics of any pedigree’ has fallen hook line and sinker for gender identity ideology. Yesterday, it was reported that Richard Dawkins had quit the FFRF Board over its ‘imposition’ of a new religion His departure followed two other scientists – Jerry Coyne and Steven Pinker – after the FFRF retracted a paper Coyne had written to counter an

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

How abuse scandals shattered the Church of England but were hidden by the Vatican

13 min listen

In this end-of-year episode of Holy Smoke, Damian Thompson discusses the abuse scandals that have forced the current Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, to resign his post, his predecessor Lord Carey to resign his ministry as a priest, and now threaten the survival of the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cotterill.  These developments are an unprecedented disaster for the Church of England – but how many Roman Catholics realise that Pope Francis would also be facing demands for his resignation if the details of various horrifying scandals were not being allegedly concealed by the Vatican and its media allies? 

Theo Hobson Theo Hobson

Are Christians allowed to judge the promiscuous?

I was planning to give my mother-in-law the new biography of Ronald Blythe this Christmas. Then I read a review and had second thoughts.  I was aware the late chronicler of rural parish life had a bohemian side, but it seems that it was more extensive than I had guessed. Reviewing the book in the Guardian, Patrick Barkham says that his adventurous early sex-life is related; his adventures continued in later life, when ‘unlikely opportunities arose, including a dalliance with the stand-in postman.’ Barkham writes: ‘In another’s hands, this promiscuity might be sensationalist or spark prurient judgments, but it is sensitively treated by Ian Collins, a biographer who was also a close

Katja Hoyer Katja Hoyer

Why Germans love Dinner for One

On his first state visit to Germany as monarch last year, King Charles III cracked a joke only Germans would find funny. Speaking in front of President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at a banquet in Berlin, he said in German: ‘It is nice of you that you have all come and didn’t leave me alone with a Dinner for One.’ Raucous laughter filled the room. Back home, the same sentence would have earned the King nothing but blank stares. He was referring to a British comedy TV sketch so popular in Germany that many people can recite its most popular lines by heart. Yet in the UK, few people have ever heard

Monday

Janet de Botton

Bridge | 4 January 2025

I hope you had a better (bridge) Christmas than I did. I didn’t play or watch a single hand. But I did do some long-avoided work on suit combinations – the equivalent in boredom of going to the gym. The ping of my phone alerted me to a new email but any distraction would have had me abandoning my tedious homework and running for fun. It was from my pal Saucepan (Szczepan Smoczynski), who was playing a Pairs tournament in Poland. ‘I’ve got a funny hand for you,’ it said. ‘Two board rounds with barometer scoring [meaning everyone plays the same boards at the same time]. So much for bloody

The Spectator

The growing wealth gap between Britain and the US

New year predictions are always rash, but it feels as though one aspect of the story of 2025 can already be written. The gap between the economic fortunes of the US and Europe will continue to widen – and Britain will be trapped very much on the European side of the divide. In three weeks’ time the US will have a new leader, one who will unashamedly put the interests of US business first. Donald Trump’s threat of punitive tariffs may or may not be realised (as in his first term, it could prove to be a negotiating tool to press for the removal of restrictions on US exports and

Robin Oakley

Hurrah for Constitution Hill

Hallelujah, he’s back. What we needed to take racing’s attention off the miseries of inadequate prize money, shrinking attendances and structural problems was a genuine superstar, and when Constitution Hill galloped elegantly and professionally to Boxing Day victory in Kempton Park’s Christmas Hurdle, over the formidable Irish mare Lossiemouth, that was precisely what we saw. In the social-media age, every saloon bar grump’s six-pint mutterings seemingly qualify as expert opinion Lossiemouth is trained by the legendary Willie Mullins. Her sex allowance gave her a 7lb advantage in the weights and she had already had a race to sharpen her up, while Nicky Henderson’s charge hadn’t run since he won the

Melissa Kite

My run-in with the GP receptionist

‘We don’t have an appointment for you!’ yelled the woman sitting behind the reception hatch. My 87-year-old father stared back at her. He had made this appointment at his local GP surgery in the Midlands and I had flown from Ireland to be with him and my mother when they attended it. We had the right day and time and he had the confirmation text to prove it. But the receptionist couldn’t find it on her system. ‘You need to move!’ she shouted at my father. ‘I’ve come a long way…’ I tried, to which she shouted back ‘Who are you!’ and didn’t wait for the answer. It wasn’t a

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Reform’s rising membership, peerages and an 11lb puffball

Home Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, said that the party now had more members than the Conservatives. On Christmas Day, 451 migrants crossed the Channel; another 1,000 arrived in the next three days but three died off Sangatte. Lord Mandelson, having failed to be elected Chancellor of Oxford University, was appointed ambassador to the United States. Sue Gray, the Prime Minister’s former chief of staff, was made a peer with 29 other Labour nominations; among the six Conservative nominations were Nigel Biggar, a retired Oxford professor who has identified some good aspects of the British Empire, and Toby Young, founder of the Free Speech Union and an associate

Rachel Johnson

The hell of bra shopping

It’s probably haram to quote Cecil Rhodes these days, but he was bang on when he said: ‘Remember that you are an Englishman, and have subsequently drawn the greatest prize in the lottery of life.’ We’ve had peak property, peak journalism, peak publishing, peak medicine, peak travel, peak coffee Even as a mere Englishwoman, I’ve had the best of everything (hence this unapologetically smug column). A childhood free-ranging across three countries; the best education money could buy (almost as good as a boy’s); Oxford; first job at the FT… I won’t continue to tweet out my CV, but as my cohort should concur: we’ve had peak property (our houses have

James MacMillan

I’m not the only football-obsessed composer

I was in Sweden a few weeks ago, where my music was presented in Stockholm in the most recent International Composer Festival. One of the orchestral works performed was my football-themed ‘Eleven’ (11 players, melodies of 11 notes, chords of 11 pitches and various football chants woven into the fabric of the score). I’m not the first composer obsessed with the beautiful game. Bohuslav Martinu’s ‘Half-time’, written in 1924, was inspired by the supporters of his team, Sparta Prague. And more recently there have been bold examples by English composers Mark-Anthony Turnage (who worked chants for his beloved Arsenal into his orchestral piece ‘Momentum’) and Benedict Mason, in whose opera