So farewell, then Peter Sarstedt. “Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)”. That was Your song. So where Did You Go To My Lovely? © E. J. Throbb, aged 17¾ ...Read More...

To paraphrase John Cleese’s harried headmaster in the film Clockwise, I could take the despair. It was the hope I couldn’t stand. It was the evening of June 23, 2016 – yes, I know it’s been a long time since I posted – and I had gathered with a small group of those rare birds, North London Brexiteers, for ...Read More...

Remember the much ballyhooed Leytonstone Koranic expert, who shouted at a suspected terrorist during a stabbing at a tube station "You ain't no Muslim, bruv"? Because no true Muslim would kill anyone in the name of Allah, would they? From The Telegraph: A popular shopkeeper was stabbed to death by ...Read More...

The first shall be last, said Jesus. He obviously hadn't checked his privilege. Michael Deacon in The Telegraph: Good news and bad news for gay men. The good news is: congratulations! You are officially no longer oppressed. The bad news is: you’re now the oppressors. Or so I gather from the ...Read More...

Many years ago, in the pre-satnav era, a colleague told me of his success in the Advanced Driving Test. As an "Advanced Motorist" he would be able to negotiate a discount on his car insurance. Did I fancy it? I asked what it entailed. "Finding your way to somewhere by following the road signs," he said. ...Read More...

From Charles Moore in this week's Spectator: I have read a good many pieces by Labour supporters wringing their hands about Labour’s growing anti-semitism. Not one of them has contained the one word which is the key to this matter — Muslims. Yup.  ...Read More...

Boris, Brexiteer in Chief, takes issue with Obama, who would lump us in with the Remains. From The Telegraph: In two global conflicts, and throughout the Cold War, the United States has fought for the founding ideals of the republic: that government of the people, by the people, for the people should ...Read More...

The Telegraph's Allison Pearson writes: Anyone who has stopped to look at a carpet in Turkey knows how it goes. First, the crazy opening price. You shake your head and walk away. Ahmet coaxes you into his shop with smiles and voluble assurances: “Byooutiful lady, pliiss, I give you verrayy gud prayce!” Then, ...Read More...

What would they do without North Korean curtain and wall material?   ...Read More...

Christopher Howse chews the [email protected] in today's Telegraph: The most annoying department of arithmetic when I was a little boy was called practice. If I had known that practice had another meaning, “deception”, I would have found the name right and just, for the whole subject seemed to be trial and error ...Read More...

David Thompson writes: From the New York Times, Jennifer Medina on sex education for teenagers: Consent from the person you are kissing — or more — is not merely silence or a lack of protest, Shafia Zaloom, a health educator at the Urban School of San Francisco, told the students. They listened ...Read More...

Recently I asked after a friend's seventeen-year-old daughter. "Oh, she's gay again." "Again? You mean she was gay and went straight for a bit and thought better of it. So she's bisexual?" "No, it doesn't work like that anymore. Young people aren't one or the other or a bit of both like in our day. ...Read More...

Spare a thought for the suffering soldier of Allah. From The Telegraph: A British jihadist with Isil has moaned that his Arab comrades are rude, do not know how to queue and eat like schoolchildren. In a bizarre rant, Omar Hussain also complained that his fellow terrorists talk loudly when ...Read More...

Nobody could accuse the urbane, cultivated and mild-mannered Charles Moore of being extreme. His piece on Islam in The Telegraph is so gentle and understated, he should be re-christened "Charles Less", Still, some good points, and carries force because Moore has overcome an initial reluctance to see ...Read More...

A few days before the UK General Election, Ayann Hirsi Ali hoped for a Conservative victory. From The Times: On Mr Cameron’s watch, websites promoting Islamic extremism have been targeted and hate preachers kept out or kicked out of the country. The charity commission has also been given new powers ...Read More...