In 1653, the year Cromwell became Lord Protector of England, there appeared the first edition of what would become a classic—Izaak Walton’s The Compleat Angler. A country then devastated by war turned gratefully to the pastoral peregrinations of ...
As an aficionado of the atrocious, I thought I"d sneak a peek at Rebecca Black's song "Friday." For those too engrossed in such small matters as Libya to notice, the song has been almost universally derided by "negative Nancies" ...
The English are in love with murder. From The Woman in White and The Hound of the Baskervilles to Lord Peter Wimsey and Hercule Poirot, the mid-market English have long reveled in tales that are simultaneously sanguinary and strangely soothing. But ...
On January 22, Sky Sports announcers Andy Gray and Richard Keys were overheard joking about female assistant referee Sian Massey. Keys said: "Somebody better get down there and explain offside to her." Gray replied: "Women don"t know ...
Boles, Nick. Which Way's Up?: The Future for Coalition Britain and How to Get There. London, Biteback, 2010, 133 pages, £8.99. Nick Boles not only belongs to the new generation of British Conservative MPs, he's arguably their epitome. Boles has ...
Last month, Tony Blair's half-sister-in-law Lauren Booth announced that she had converted to Islam following "a holy experience" in Iran. It was the latest attention-seeking stunt from an attention-seeking clan whose members always contrive ...
Few causes could get the heads of the BBC, Channel 4, the Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, Guardian and Mirror to co-sign a letter to the government. What unites these disparate interests are a dislike of Rupert Murdoch and a disapprobation of ...
The guests were singing maudlin folksongs trying to drown out the TV's noxious noises. Live Aid had been going on apparently forever and would go on for weary hours more, and even at a whiskey-sodden wedding reception it seemed no one would be ...
The UK Treasury is considering replacing the copper in some coins with nickel steel as an economic measure. The scheme has been met with protests, but not from monometallists " rather in the impressive shape of the Automatic Vending Machine ...
On August 29, the London think-tank Demos released a report called The Power of Unreason, which is "the first ever analysis of conspiracy theories in the ideology and propaganda of fifty extremist groups." These theories, say the authors, ...
Tories perturbed by the party's lackluster election and shacking up with the Ludicrous Democrats were mollified by the inclusion in the Cabinet of William Hague as Foreign Secretary. Since those delicious Brown-defenestrating days, the ...
As the cooling winds of austerity move in across superheated Britain, one gallant group is arming for war. The large trade unions, headed up by the so-called "Awkward Squad" of leftist leaders, are on the move. It is time, the Awkward ones ...
