Ian Jack



Profile:
Full name: Ian Jack

Area of interest: Current affairs, Politics, Social history, National identity, India, Scotland, London

Journals/Organisation: The Guardian

Email: [mailto:ian.jack@guardian.co.uk ian.jack@guardian.co.uk]

Personal website:

Website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/ianjack

Blog: Comment is free...

Representation:

Networks: https://twitter.com/IGJack



Biography:
About:

Education:

Career: Worked on a Scottish weekly in the 1960’s before joining The Sunday Times: reporter, editor, feature writer and foreign correspondent (mostly in India), 1970/1986; Independent on Sunday: co-founder in 1989 and editor, 1991/1995; Granta literary magazine: editor, 1995/2007; The Guardian: writer, 2007- Current position/role: Guardian writer


 * also writes/has written for:

Other roles/Main role:

Other activities:BBC Radio 4 - Open Book Booklist: Books on India - Ian Jack's choices

Disclosures:

Viewpoints/Insight:
 * "Sexing-up" those slack Saturdays The Guardian, 23rd August 2003 (Ian Jack recalls becalmed newsrooms, hyped headlines and a loss of nerve that cost him a royal scoop)
 * Ghosts in the stalls The Guardian, 26th June 2004
 * Ian Jack revisits his childhood home The Guardian, 21st January 2006

Broadcast media:

Video:

Controversy/Criticism:
 * Stephen Pollard: Is Ian Jack a complete idiot? - Spectator.co, Saturday, 26th April 2008

Awards/Honours: Has won reporter, journalist and editor of the year awards

Scoops:

Other: 

Books & Debate:

 * Before the oil ran out OCLC 18981883, 1987
 * The crash that stopped Britain OCLC46600550, 2001
 * The Granta book of reportage OCLC 62265821, 2006

Latest work: The country formerly known as Great Britain : writings 1989-2009 OCLC 690843469

Speaking/Appearances:

Debate: 

The Guardian:
Column name: Ian Jack on Saturday

Remit/Info: Current affairs, Politics, Social history, National identity, India, Scotland, London

Section: Saturday

Role: Commentator

Pen-name:

Email:

Website: Guardian.co / Ian Jack

Commissioning editor:

Day published: Saturday

Regularity: Weekly

Column format: Single topic

Average length: 1250 words



Articles: 2015

 * ‘Unacceptable’ is the new ‘something must be done’. David Cameron likes it because it lets him off the hook - The prime minister declares the migrant crisis in Calais “totally unacceptable”, but that’s hardly going to stop it happening. The phrase is a neat way of expressing outrage without taking responsibility - 4th July
 * Can David Shrigley’s monster mascot score a late winner for friendly, faded Partick Thistle? - This Glasgow football team had become a byword for Scottish secularism – then the management signed up for classes in machismo - 27th June
 * Twitter would never have waited two months for Wellington’s funeral - ‘Wait’ is a word that belongs to earlier times, when news travelled no faster than the quickest horse or swiftest boat - 20th June
 * If HSBC reverts to Midland, it will be a small victory in the fight against hollow brands - The prospect of the banking behemonth rebranding its UK branches with the name it dropped in the late 1990s is oddly cheering – Midland may not be that inspiring a moniker, but at least it means something - 13th June
 * An elegy for the sleeper train – a waning symbol that Serco has made into a brand - Britain should be grateful for the six sleeper services it has managed to retain – even if their survival points up how much else has been lost - 6th June
 * Georgian soap magnates and Russian oligarchs – joined in grand absurdity - Why did Andrei Guriev, or early 20th-century industrialist Arthur Crosfield and his family of just three, want to buy Witanhurst house – London’s biggest residence, besides Buckingham Palace, with 25 bedrooms and 365 windows? - 30th May
 * After many decades of neglect, perhaps the real ‘northern powerhouse’ has been and gone - Northern England has produced generations of the great and the good – but barring a surprising reversal, it seems inevitable that the eminences of the future will hail from the south - 23rd May
 * As the English resist their national identity, here's a painter who reminds you there can be beauty in it - It remains to be seen whether English nationalism will grow in response to the SNP’s surge – but Eric Ravilious’ benign, slightly mournful version is already booming inside one south London art gallery - 16th May
 * Did the end of the British Empire make the death of the Union inevitable? - Denmark once had territories across the globe just like Britain, but here too the old certainties about national identity have gone - 9th May
 * Why are today's Scottish politicians more appealing than the English ones? - It’s not just Nicola Sturgeon who has shown up her south-of-the-border counterparts – the Tories and Greens have better leaders in Scotland than in England and Wales. Has familiarity bred contempt in our media-obsessed times? - 2nd May
 * Nicola Sturgeon used to be a ‘historical fiction geek’. But not any more - The SNP leader has brushed up her reading list, and why not? Leaders who love books are a reason to rejoice - 25th April
 * The long read: The triumph of Nicola Sturgeon - The ‘most dangerous woman in Britain’ has become its most popular politician. Does her rise mark the emergence of a new Scotland? - 23rd April
 * West Fife: the march of suburbia has made my old constituency feel bigger - In the third of our pre-election series, Ian Jack returns to his home village, to find a middle-class influx that has transformed the area - 21st March
 * It’s not Leslee Udwin’s message that India is struggling to accept, it’s the messenger - The row about Udwin’s film, India’s Daughter, calls to mind the way Gandhi dealt with the sickening accounts of child bride abuse in Katherine Mayo’s 1927 book, Mother India. Governments hate to hear the truth from an outsider - 14th March
 * Parliament is falling down. So should Dunsop Bridge be the new capital of Britain? - … or Haltwhistle? Or Rochdale? If our MPs do go into exile, they should find a spot that moves the centre of political gravity away from the South. But good luck keeping the Shetlanders happy - 7th March
 * Why will the likes of Straw and Rifkind never learn? Because they are addicted to being liked - Greed might well have played a part in their disgrace, but Jack Straw and Malcolm Rifkind are clearly also dangerously susceptible to the flattery and glad-handing that pervade high politics - 27th February
 * Reporters hold their nose about advertising in newspapers. But history shows the risk that purists take - Journalists seem to be curious about everything in the world around us – apart from the people on the floor below who bring in the money - 20th February
 * The day I tried to become a non-dom – a scheme worthy of an Ealing comedy - For purely hypothetical reasons, a few years ago I met a City of London lawyer to find out how one becomes a UK non-dom. In his words, it takes ‘a peculiar mixture of fact and intent’ – and lots of money, of course - 14th February
 * Sir Alex Ferguson gets £108,000 a day — and he's retired. So why can’t football pay the living wage? - After three years of lobbying by the Living Wage Foundation, only Chelsea is set to pay staff fairly. Never mind that Alex Ferguson has earned more than £2m for 20 days’ work a year as a “global ambassador” since retiring in 2013 - 7th February
 * VS Naipaul’s notorious conceit has drained away – and the man who remains is hard to read - A writer’s personality can colour your sense of his work – but at a literary festival in India last week, the sad problem was almost the opposite - 31st January
 * In golf there are now many worse things than the club bore, and one of them is Donald Trump - Trump is the most flamboyant among the new breed of developers who ride roughshod over the landscape - 17th January
 * I'm not one of Douglas Carswell's 'angry nativists' – but I am an irritable one - Carswell’s defection was already a bit of a mystery, and his latest remarks suggest he is still in denial about what has fuelled Ukip’s rise. The nativism he identifies is certainly in the air – I even see it in myself from time to time - 10th January
 * How Deptford became the ‘apex of fashionability’ and other stories - South-east London is next on the property developers’ hit list – and another characterful neighbourhood is promised rebirth. Is there an alternative? - 2nd January



Articles: 2014

 * I never thought my vegetarian vow would be easy – but I thought I could resist a pork pie - Almost a year ago I wrote that I intended to become vegetarian, albeit gradually. But in an age of ennui it’s not easy to buck the defeatist trend - 27th December
 * The Christmas shutdown just makes us drunker, fatter, lazier and lonelier - It might feel like the near-total lack of trains and tubes at Christmas was ever thus, but in fact it’s a fairly recent development. So what caused it? - 20th December
 * Jim Murphy is too respectable to oppose Trident. For some, that makes him hard to love - Jim Murphy’s support for an independent nuclear deterrent alienates him from too many potential voters – and it could leave the Labour party dead in the water - 13th December
 * I had thought the New Era estate might spark a London revolution. I was wrong - The story of low-income tenants facing 400% rent hikes thanks to a profit-hungry consortium seemed just the kind of cause Londoners would rally behind. But even with Russell Brand in the vanguard, the barricades remain unstormed - 6th December
 * We should tax private schools as businesses, not beg to borrow their cricket pitches - Should state-school teachers and students feel gratitude to the rich for having to share their resources under Tristram Hunt’s plans? It will only reinforce our inequalities - 29th November
 * Buchan trap, blind siphon or Bristol interceptor – whatever you call it, it’s playing havoc with my drains - A Victorian house is a fragile and aging thing, filled with potential hazards and parts as unnecessary as tonsils or the appendix - 22nd November
 * Do you really ‘passionately believe’ in anything, Mr Cameron? Repetition makes you less convincing, not more - Politicians increasingly insist on their ‘passion’ for everything from equality to wind farms – but they forget the first rule of creative writing (and voter-convincing): Show, don’t tell - 1st November
 * I confess, I thought yes would win. But I’m glad Scotland has given Britain a fright - That nearly every Scottish adult over the age of 16 has been engaged, peacefully, in a crucial political decision is the referendum’s great achievement - 20th September
 * Scotland's 'passionate engagement' with the referendum seems like a mirage - If you weren't paying attention to the media, you might imagine that ordinary people were refusing to concern themselves with what has been decided is the great issue of the day - 16th August
 * Glasgow a friendly city? True enough, but this was not always its reputation - The city’s good humour seems to have become its official characteristic, bolstered by all this Commonwealth cheer. But of course, it’s a bit more complicated than that - 9th August
 * How working-class gardeners planted the seeds of a social revolution - Ordinary households have prized the beauty of their gardens since the 16th century, but it was the inter-war housing boom that made gardening a pursuit of the people - 2nd August
 * The Commonwealth Games opening ceremony: just the right side of kitsch - From clips of Andy Stewart to dancing teacakes and glorious aerial views of Glasgow, the festivities showed the city in a pleasingly romantic light - 26th July
 * What was life like before luggage had wheels? - My father carried our luggage long distances on his shoulder. But I roll mine on four wheels across Europe, gliding effortlessly between trains, boats and hotels - 19th July
 * Britain took more out of India that it put in – could China do the same to Britain? - Large parts of India's economy were destroyed by British technology in the 1800s, and by deals that favoured British shareholders. Today, it's China that holds that kind of power - 21st June
 * ''Was the 1980s Bradford headteacher who criticised multiculturalism right? - After this week's 'Trojan horse' row about schools in Birmingham, it's worth reflecting on Ray Honeyford, the headteacher who was vilified for his views on multicultural freedoms in British education - 14th June
 * How Harry Potter saved one small Highland town's economy - Mallaig's days as a bustling herring port are long gone, but the town is still full of people today. Few would have guessed that its commercial salvation would be owed to a modern fairytale - 7th June
 * The view from north of the border: metropolitan elites, Mackintosh and migration - As the referendum on independence moves ever closer and the debate about Scottish identity continues, one stereotype persists – the Edinburgh solicitor - 31st May
 * Are Sonia and Rahul Gandhi caught in a dance with destiny they can't escape? - Rahul's grandmother was gunned down and his father blown up in a suicide bombing. But even now, after a massive election defeat, it seems he and his mother cannot escape Indian politics - 24th May
 * It's hard to better traditional hymns when it comes to remembering the dead - The stirring, lovely music of the church might be the Reformation's lasting comfort to us, believers or not - 17th May
 * Private companies are making a fortune out of the unemployed - There are now two types of person in Britain: those who have to use our welfare agencies and those who are lucky enough that they remain a mystery - 10th May
 * The Scottish press is in decline – could it hold an independent Scotland to account? - Even if Scotland doesn't vote for independence this year, its government and intitutions are becoming stronger and more complex – and ever more in need of intelligent scrutiny - 3rd May
 * Is the BBC in Crisis? – review - The political vultures are circling, and the BBC must change to survive - 26th April
 * Narendra Modi: India's saviour, or sectarian with blood on his hands? - The likely new prime minister of India is wildly popular among his supporters, and has a rags-to-riches backstory to warm the hearts of meritocrats, but others fear and distrust him - 19th April
 * Demolishing Glasgow's Red Road flats for the Commonwealth Games could leave the city's reputation in rubble - There are honest arguments in favour of demolishing the Red Road tower blocks, but the idea that this is a 'respectful celebration' that will 'wow the world' is absolute flapdoodle - 12th April
 * Britain's manufacturing workforce may soon be gone altogether, with little to remember them by - Britain tends to measure out its modern history in wars and their last survivors, from the Somme to D-day. But its now dwindling band of industrial and manufacturing workers will likely remain unhymned - 5th April
 * Why do we pay more council tax than oligarchs in Knightsbridge palaces? - The unwillingness to charge appropriate amounts of council tax on the properties of the super-wealthy is inexplicable. Some boroughs could multiply their top rate by more than 100 - 29th March
 * If only we could hope that MH370's passengers really were safe in Shangri-La - James Hilton's 1934 novel Lost Horizon told of a plane that disappeared in the east without trace, but turned out to have landed in a remote paradise – giving us the idea of Shangri-La. The world was still big enough to get truly lost in then - 22nd March
 * The Russians did come – but not as some in postwar Britain imagined - More than 300,000 Russians are believed to be now living in London, but they came with credit cards and property brochures, not Kalashnikovs - 15th March
 * The rise of the 'posh butcher' is an upside of gentrification - Living among wealth can be alienating, but not all its effects are malign. The return of high-end independent food shops seems, on balance, a good thing - 8th March
 * Scottish émigrés are well-placed to see the true value of friendly union - The many Scots who've lived in England have a personal perspective on the historical benefits of close interaction - 1st March
 * Dining out in Britain has become a febrile, noisy, expensive ordeal - A meal out in Belgium recently was characterised by white aprons, hushed diners and a very reasonable bill. How different to the racket that greets you in the UK – especially London - 22nd February
 * This is the year of the sandbag – saviour of soldiers and fitted carpets - Whether called on to protect from shrapnel or floodwater, the sandbag, a model of cheapness, robustness and portability, is surely worthy of a medal - 15th February
 * Cars are choking Kolkata, even though only a tiny minority in India can drive - Once it was possible to enjoy a walk through the streets of Kolkata, now you take your life in your hands, for the car rules - 8th February
 * I'm in Kolkata, not Davos, and the view from here is somewhat different - At the World Economic Forum this week the Pope called for a redistribution of wealth, but here in India justice for the poor seems a long way off - 25th January
 * Inside Llewyn Davis has its pleasures and its flaws, as did the folk movement - The Coen brothers' new film about a 1960s folk singer in Greenwich Village is a reminder of how authenticity became the rod that folk music made for its own back - 18th January
 * An MBE for hairdressing? Why not – but the honours system really won't do - It's just about possible to take the honours system with a good-natured pinch of salt. But still inscribing "For God and the Empire" on every medal is not right - 11th January
 * Will fear for our imperilled planet be enough to make me turn vegetarian? - The impact of the meat industry upon our environment really should induce the kind of sleepless terror that forces people to give up their worst habits - 4th January



Articles: 2013

 * Skype and cheap calls give an illusion of closeness, but homesickness is still real - People are keener than ever to leave for new and faraway places; does technology keep them close to what they have left, or make them pine for it all the more? - 21st December
 * Repetition, not veracity, was my gripe with this week's Mandela mourning - My distrust of being told what to think and feel by the media has made the unrelenting Mandela fest hard to bear - 14th December
 * How far can privatisation go? Perhaps government itself could be outsourced - The 'selling of the family silver' that began in earnest under Thatcher is still in train; sometimes I wonder if the entire political class should be put out to tender - 7th December
 * Would I choose a British or Scottish passport? It's fast becoming a reality - The white paper on Scottish independence understands that the old, hard edges of nationhood are irrelevant to many - 30th November
 * Sachin Tendulkar's retirement was India's Princess Diana moment - In Mumbai this week, it was sometimes necessary to be reminded that Sachin Tendulkar had not in fact died, but merely given up playing international cricket - 22nd November
 * What of all the vanished foods we can never taste again? - Proust's madeleines opened a door to a forgotten world of feeling; but with Savormix, I just miss the taste - 16th November
 * The UK still needs lots of ships. If only we could build more of them ourselves - Warships have become the last ships that Britain really does. For a country that easily within living memory owned the world's largest merchant fleet, this looks like a savage form of self-harm - 9th November
 * I remember our killer storm of 1968, but who else south of Carlisle does? - The much-hyped winds of St Jude have made me reflect on a litany of natural disasters that have shaped Scotland's national identity – but are unknown tragedies for England - 2nd November
 * I first saw Grangemouth's flames as a boy. It's a relief they still burn for now - Grangemouth was one of the places that made Scotland seem modern when I was a boy – it survives for now, but the spectre of cheap shale gas from the US remains - 26th October
 * London will soon become home to only the very rich and the poor - The capital threatens to become the world HQ of speculative house-buying – the social damage may be immense - 19th October
 * The Indian civil service still rests on a frame built by the British - The Indian Administrative Service, the foundations of which were laid under British rule, survives as a still-impressive public institution. Here is one of the better legacies of empire - 12th October
 * The prospect of travelling used to excite me. Now it evokes a moderate dread … - 28 Sep 2013: Ian Jack: I used to make myself sick with excitement as a child at the prospect of a journey, but now there's one place to which I'm increasingly drawn - 28th September
 * Should we quote swear words? I'm not sure they're absolutely necessary - Despite Kenneth Tynan's pioneering work in the field of public swearing – and indeed this publication's rational attitude to quoting it – I don't feel I'm missing out if it is excised - 21st September
 * A century on from the first world war, the old narratives feel long gone - There is no longer any danger that marking the centenary will lead to blinkered patriotism; the popular narrative of mud, useless slaughter and poetry triumphed long ago
 * How did vast heaps of industrial waste become the pride of a community? - Greendyke Bing, a huge spoil heap outside Edinburgh once said to be visible from space, is now a treasured local landmark. The leagacy of any industry is not easy to predict - 7th September
 * Messing around in a boat off the coast of Scotland – this was my perfect day - Puttering around the Kyles of Bute under glorious sunshine on a bank holiday Sunday – a dream of Eden I have had for 50 years was fulfilled at last - 30th August
 * Dancing in the Streets fired my imagination for Glasgow - Ian Jack remembers how Cliff Hanley's Dancing in the Streets brought him closer to the city he longed to call home - 11th August
 * The Inverkip chimney is gone, and I'm glad. Does that make me a philistine? - Inverkip power station – and its skyscraping chimney – have been demolished. Some are lamenting the lack of one of Scotland's great modernist buildings, but not I - 3rd August
 * I don't want to abolish the monarchy, just the stupefying coverage of it - The everyday excesses of royal coverage – this publication not excluded – are an affront to us all, not just to republicans - 27th July
 * Shamed by Britain's railways, I longed for HS2. But I've changed my mind - No one wants to see our rail system modernise and thrive more than I do, but HS2 is not the way - 20th July
 * Andy Murray's tears are hard to watch - The Wimbledon champion turned to his dog for comfort in last week's documentary when recalling his terrible childhood experience in the Dunblane massacre. But I had to turn away - 13th July
 * A classic boat race brings home the vulgarity of today's have-yachts - A regatta on the Firth of Clyde gathered together the creations of the Fife shipbuilding family – who thrived during the last great age of rampant inequality - 6th July
 * LS Lowry provides our most vivid visual memory of industrial Britain - Industrial landscapes may not be beautiful, but they can be thrilling, as Lowry knew from the thump of the colliery machine - 29th June
 * Prince William's Indian DNA piques interest, not innuendo. That's progress - Some Anglo-Indian people used to go to extraordinary, even tragic lengths to hide their heritage. Reactions to the story about Prince William's Indian roots are much more relaxed - 22nd June
 * Lee Rigby will be long remembered. Not so every military casualty - The Indian sailors recruited by Britain's merchant navy died in their thousands during two world wars. Most of them weren't even commemorated at all - 1st June
 * Nigel Farage bombed in Edinburgh – what does that really tell us about Scottish antipathy to the English? - It could be to do with class more than nationality - 25th May
 * On masculinity: My father's generation were better at being men - Diane Abbott says the UK is facing a 'crisis of masculinity', with young men brought up on a diet of drugs and pornography, but it's a lack of love that really separates the generations - 18th May
 * Buying your own island tends to be a rich person's hobby. Which is a shame - The Scottish island of Tanera Mor could be yours for £2.5m. Better it continues as a tourist business than as a rich person's hobby though, surely? - 11th May
 * Sherpas and climbers on Everest never used to fight – so what changed? - Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing's Everest ascent was a team effort built on mutual respect; some of today's climbers don't even bother to learn their guides' names - 4th May
 * Optimism is appealing, but pessimism, alarm and anxiety are more my thing - Some believe the world, and humanity, is still capable of improving itself, but the endorsements for pessimism are often more persuasive - 27th April
 * North Sea oil fuelled the 80s boom, but it was, and remains, strangely invisible - The peace and plenty of late-period Thatcherism owed more to oil than to ideology – but the benefits of that oil were never popularly acclaimed, or indeed much noticed - 20th April
 * Dr Livingstone had an all-but state funeral, yet now he makes us uneasy - The Victorian explorer and missionary's send-off was a large, ceremonial affair, as Thatcher's will be. But how we say farewell does not predict how we will be remembered - 13th April
 * It's a century since Arran was last in the news; then it was even more dramatic - This week's blizzards have put this cold white island in a grey sea back on the news. The Goatfell Murder Mystery of 1889 was the last time all eyes were on Arran - 30th March
 * Is spending your last years in the sun avoiding British taxation really worth it? - Images of British retirees in Cyprus worried about losing their savings – while having enjoyed low taxation and the UK fuel allowance during 17C winters – raised conflicted feelings in me - 23rd March
 * 'Squeezed middle' is too cuddly a term for the harm done to British wages - Ken Loach's film The Spirit of '45 looks at how the postwar Labour government sought to address the relationship between capitalism and poverty – principles that politicians today seem to have forgotten - 16th March
 * It's shameful the way Britain kowtows to the super-rich - Prince Alwaleed bin Talal's tantrum at being listed as only the 26th richest man in the world highlights the detachment of the super-wealthy. Yet we are supposed to welcome such behaviour - 9th March
 * As non-Catholic kids, we did wonder about priests. But we were way off - In the Scotland of my youth, religious identity was layered like geology. Catholicism seemed shrouded in mystery, which led to childish speculation, but a very different reality has emerged - 2nd March
 * Asking business to reshape public services is not always mistaken - Fifty years ago Harold Macmillan's government paid Dick Beeching handsomely to tell it what parts of the railway it should cut or close - 23rd February
 * Publishing is tough these days – unless you're in nautical almanacs, apparently - Glasgow maritime publisher Brown, Son and Ferguson is 163 years old, and still in the hands of its original owners. This is something of a record – not that they would ever boast about it - 16th February
 * Scotland's independence referendum question is set, but who does it favour? - Present trends suggest a clear win for the no vote in Scotland next year – but my guess is it will turn out to be a close-run thing - 9th February
 * Such irony, that Michael Gove has the state to thank for saving English history State funding saved the monuments and heritage that are key to the education secretary's stress on national history - 2nd February
 * All that bloody mayhem and we're still supposed to take Django Unchained seriously? - Bang-bang-bang, spatter-spatter-spatter goes Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained. At least no horses were harmed - 26th January
 * It will take more than a few pop-up shops to save our high streets - When I was growing up, our tiny village had a dozen or so shops. Now some sizeable towns have barely that. It's hard to see this trend being reversed - 19th January
 * India's current outpouring of anger is unprecedented. Can it bring change? - Let's hope that the public revulsion in Delhi over the recent gang rape case leads to proper punishment of such crimes – whoever commits them - 12th January



Articles: 2012

 * Rewatching a film 50 years on showed me something about modern memories - Distant memories used to be truly distant – fragmentary, blurred, unreliable. Now so many of them can be digitally refreshed online - 29th December
 * My parents never talked of 'empty nest' syndrome, but they felt it, as now do I - Children leave home – that's just what they do. Christmas is the one time they can be depended on to return - 15th December
 * The Dandy was drawn by a genius - I grew up with DC Thomson comics, but it's all changed now. Where did the polite tramcars of Cactusville go? - 8th December
 * The state: We've no more ownership of it than Chelsea fans have of the club - We live in a globalised age. Does it matter if a French company owns the electricity supply so long as it works? - 1st December
 * The 'nutrition gap' between Britain's rich and poor is vast – and wicked - The gulf between people's diets is worse today than it was when George Orwell wrote The Road to Wigan Pier in 1936. However complex the reasons, the fact is shocking - 23rd November
 * Just like Newsnight, I make mistakes. But good editors don't let them through - Last week I dropped two clangers in my column, but the subs caught both. Sadly, this kind of 'back office' work is under threat in many industries - 17th November
 * London is now full of war memorials, but the oldest are still the best - The timeworn efforts of Charles Jagger and Edwin Lutyens still stand head and shoulders above London's newer monuments and war memorials -10th November
 * Bertelsmann's pickup of Penguin shows the poor state of British publishing - With Penguin now largely German-owned, English-language publishing is now more than ever a European concern - 3rd November
 * I feel defensive about my second home – but my guilt is largely unnecessary - The passion for home ownership we have developed must be one of the biggest changes in Britain's social and economic history - 27th October
 * How quaint the plans for Armageddon seem half a century later - The Cuban Missile Crisis brought the threat of the end of the world very close to a 17-year-old schoolboy. Now we know more about what went on behind the scenes - 20th October
 * Why are our attitudes to poverty at home and abroad so different? - Compare our portrayals of India's industrious, devoted urban poor to those of the chaotically, hopelessly unemployed at home - 13th October
 * Whangee, crook or derby? I have entered the world of the walking stick - I never expected to have a walking stick, and I hope I won't always need one. But the right one can feel rather special - 6th October
 * Britain's long history of model-making may be the Olympics' biggest loser - Hornby, famous for its model trains, has made many changes to stay viable. But straying into the realm of Olympic souvenirs did it no favours - 29th September
 * Centuries of Indian life could be extinguished by the arrival of Walmart - The country's street sellers will almost certainly vanish once foreign supermarkets are allowed into the big cities - 22nd September
 * What is a 'true Scot'? I've no idea, but the phrase belongs to another era - Why is Scotland still happy to generalise, to see collective traits among the people inside its borders? - 15th September
 * The SNP says it would kick Trident out of Scotland. But at what cost? - Faslane and its surrounds could be economically devastated if Trident were removed. Would an SNP government really be able to keep that promise? - 8th September
 * I'm not passionate about Virgin. I'm backing Branson out of fear of the new - I've got used to Virgin's cramped seating and the ghastly branding, and I worry that any new service could be worse - 1st September
 * It's hard to let go of the lovely rituals of summer - How foolish we were when young to have seen the four seasons as nothing more than a piece by Vivaldi when what their passing marks is the milestones to our own mortality - 25th August
 * The implications of overpopulation are terrifying. But will we listen to them? - The Royal Court's new play about overpopulation, Ten Billion, could be seen as a wake up-call – or just a cry of despair - 4th August 2012
 * We remember Dickens and the Titanic. So why have we forgotten Henry Bell? - Posterity is a fickle thing – thus one of Scotland's true pioneers is now rarely credited for helping to shape the modern world - 28th July 2012
 * The tourists who could save Greece are the rich of China and India, not Europe - Contrary to what you might hear, Greece still welcomes German tourists. But they – and other Europeans – are just not coming in the numbers they used to - 21st July 2012
 * It's not what you know, but who – the return of an unfortunate reality - The better people are connected, says London City University's Julia Hobsbawm, the more they flourish. Sorry, but it still sounds like elitism - 30th June 2012
 * Leveson isn't unprecedented. The same issues came up 60 years ago - What Leveson is doing is certainly important, but a look back at the 1949 press inquiry shows how far Fleet Street's force has weakened - 23rd June 2012
 * Booze buses and drunken chip pan fires … time for a touch of temperance? - Many of my parents' generation in Scotland were near-teetotal, perhaps out of resolve to be better than their hard-drinking Victorian forebears - 16th June 2012
 * There's a strange beauty to the Hoo peninsula. Is this any place for an airport? - Along with birds and their habitat, the hidden traces of Hoo peninsula's previous eras of industry will be buried by railways and runways - 9th June 2012
 * Once the Thames was a forest of masts, and it will be so again tomorrow - The Thames pageant to mark the jubilee will give some small reminder of a bygone nautical Britain - 2nd June 2012
 * Phew! We don't need to worry about egalitarianism any more, apparently - Increasing social mobility is a bigger priority than reducing inequality, according to Nick Clegg - 26th May 2012
 * My 1960s wasn't all sex, drugs and rock'n'roll – and I suspect I'm not alone - For a lot of people, today's dominant narrative about the 1960s and the baby-boomer generation does not ring true - 12th May 2012
 * A cruise once seemed an 'elevated' form of tourism. Not any more - Accidents and revelations about low pay have damaged the image of cruises - 5th May 2012
 * Anti-London anger: why so slow to find effective expression? - The government is accused of being out of touch with the country – and in many ways, much of London is, too - 28th April 2012
 * The statute book of law is full of dead wood, and it's about to get a pruning - Politicians are brilliant at passing laws but very poor at clearing them out – so there are some very old, very strange Acts still on the books - 21st April 2012
 * I need an 'excuse' to read the Daily Mail – but its anger can be infectious - The Mail's anger occasionally highlights awkward facts that more liberal media find hard to express. But the real charge against it is its gross humbug - 14th April 2012
 * The great age of the Post Office is past, here and indeed all over the world - The pillarboxes and phone boxes remain, but as the letter vanishes as an instrument of meaningful correspondence, so does the Post Office itself - 7th April 2012
 * The Falklands war couldn't happen today – we don't have enough ship builders - The Britain that built the fleet of ships that sailed to the Falklands seems remote to us now - 24th March 2012
 * Printed encyclopedias were once a rare source of knowledge. But no more - Information – 'the sum of human knowledge' – had a different shape in the era of the printed encyclopedia - 17th March 2012
 * Does it matter that some of Hockney's blossoms look like evil yellow slugs? - I joined the crowds to adore Hockney's exhibition but I wonder about the significance of physical inaccuracies in art – and his disloyalty to the frail spirit of blossom-ness - 10th March 2012
 * As the recession bites, is a new kind of northern politics emerging? - Socialism in the north has a local, amiable identity – socialism at its most social – that makes it increasingly attractive today - 3rd March 2012
 * Shakespeare, Broadstairs, warmish summers – I'm an Anglophile, it seems - Can one be an Anglophile and also a Scottish nationalist? I can't see why not, despite the vitriol of the 'cybernats' - 25th February 2012
 * Filled with pills or potions, the bulky pharmacist's bag will come for us all - For many men, the first regular prescription can be a shocking sign of increasing vulnerability - 18th February 2012
 * Our attachment to the Queen is perhaps greater than we yet realise - The Queen is one of our last links to a workaday Britain that has nearly vanished, a country that Dickens would still recognise - 11th February 2012
 * Has our addiction to education created the wrong sort of jobseekers? - In our pursuit of the luxury trades, many essential but less glamorous jobs have been overlooked or forgotten - 4th February 2012
 * Metaphors, mysteries and mountains ... the battle for Scotland has begun - It used to be that you could live a long time in Scotland and never meet a nationalist other than the kind who wanted to beat England at football - 27th January 2012
 * Why must a captain never leave a sinking ship? - Francesco Schettino's transgression on the night the Costa Concordia went down was enormous. But those who know seafaring will take pity on him - 21st January 2012
 * Watch out! This year the Titanic disaster is about to wash over us again - As the Titanic's 100th anniversary rolls around on 15 April, a slew of events is planned and a lot of money has been parked on our perpetual interest - 14th January 2012
 * Germany once admired British workmanship – but that was a long time ago - Over the North Sea lies the richest country in Europe, its success built on the manufacturing industry that Britain has spurned - 7th January 2012



Articles: 2011

 * Watching old films in the post-Christmas lull is bliss from an earlier epoch - As a teenager I'd scoff at the unreality of the Hollywood musical, but now their numbers seem utterly delightful - 31st December
 * I don't believe in God, so why is it that I don't want to be labelled an atheist? - As a definition, atheism belongs to the same dull category as non-driver or ex-smoker; an inadequate guide to self - 24th December 2011
 * Seen from my sick bed, a scene straight out of The Singing Detective - A blend of sympathy and comradeship still lives inside hospitals and the NHS. It flashes now and then like kindly lightning - 17th December 2011
 * Four historians, two arguments, nobody dead. Does it matter? Well, yes - Whatever political side you're on, history cannot be taught as lists of grievances and comforts - 19th November 2011
 * We know the terrible legacy of our love of fossil fuels. But will it stop us? No chance - Not a tonne of coal or a barrel of oil will be left in the ground if money can be made from extracting and burning it - 12th November 2011
 * How often we bend true stories into the shapes of familiar fictions - The reporting of India's 'real-life Slumdog Millionaire' proves the appeal of making the truth fit the familiar fiction - 5th November 2011
 * Do the English know anything about Scotland? I've set a quiz to find out - I'd guess that for every 10 people in southern England who have visited Scotland, there would be 100 coming the other way - 29th October 2011
 * Sadly I don't know enough about life in Britain to be allowed to remain here - But the three institutions that have shaped my life, the BBC, NHS and Beano are neither singularly English, nor Scottish - 15th October 2011
 * I grew up near Rosyth naval docks: the sight of these abandoned ships is hard to take - Liam Fox's cutbacks have made the 'degenerated' navy of four years ago look as grand as a battle line firing broadsides - 8th October 2011
 * Dinner at Downton Abbey has livelier debates than party conferences today - If the money that pays for party conferences went to our examination of banks, we might have a better idea of our fate – and struggle against it - 1st October 2011
 * At their best, newspapers became beautiful objects. I shall miss them - Newspapers are in crisis – if they survive at all it will be at an artisanal cheese kind of price that turns them from a habit into a hobby - 24th September 2011
 * The Titanic disaster meant a life of shame for its CEO. Not so BP's Tony Hayward - 'Moving on' from the Deepwater Horizon environmental catastrophe, Tony Hayward is now set to make millions from a Kurdistan oil deal - 17th September 2011
 * There is a new, unexpected feeling in Scotland: a pity for the state of England - At the moment, from the Scottish perspective, England looks a more fractious, turbulent and uncertain society - 10th September 2011
 * steaming on the Clyde is a summer ritual that deserves preserving'' - 29th July 2011
 * Rupert Murdoch end up like Citizen Kane?'' - Rupert Murdoch, like other recent media moguls, is from a long line of Scottish Presbyterian stock, but he may be the last remarkable figure in a tradition of swapping God for Mammon - 23rd July 2011
 * Ships ahoy'' - The Tall Ships at sea are a beautiful sight: we should build many more of them - 16th July 2011
 * great age of Britain's popular press is drawing squalidly to its close'' - Lord Northcliffe reinvented the popular press 100 years ago, and long remained the model for the modern British proprietor - 9th July 2011
 * Pincher was Fleet Street's spycatcher. His secret? A good lunch'' - Chapman Pincher was a kind of official urinal in which ministers and defence chiefs could stand patiently leaking - 2nd July 2011
 * north of England lacks a political champion. Step up El Presidente Pickles'' - It seems easier now to think of the north as a negative, a not-south, with southern England a norm to be emulated - 25th June 2011
 * memories of the Festival of Britain? 'Oh, not another queue''' - The Festival of Britain made sure conquest and war were none of its business, and instead saw irony become part of our nature - 11th June 2011
 * rebranding Bute as a middle-class holiday haven halt its decline?'' - You might see in Bute all the material for a state-of-the-nation novel – wounded trees, derelict farms, decamped nobility - 4th June 2011
 * the jumble, the story of Britain's age of silver'' - A cluttered and closed Birmingham silverware factory stands testament to a noble time - 28th May 2011
 * not the arithmetic of genocide that's important. It's that we pay attention'' - Every day, foreign conflicts with complicated origins reach us dressed with appealing simplicity - 21st May 2011
 * new sense of possibility shines on Scotland – but what will come of it?'' - Altering the nationalist template of Scotland as a small, brave and, above all, hard-done-by nation has taken time - 14th May 2011
 * Tagore was a global phenomenon, so why is he neglected?'' - Is his poetry any good? The answer for anyone who can't read Bengali must be: don't know. No translation is up to the job - 7th May 2011
 * wedding then, and now'' - Thirty years ago, when Charles and Diana married, we took the most extraordinary things for granted - 30th April 2011
 * one's homeland before fleeing overseas, Martin Amis, is a cliche'' - For Martin Amis, celebrity, narcissism and tabloid superficiality are the villains of modern British life - 23rd April 2011
 * has London's atmosphere as a rich city-state felt so extreme'' - Geographically, never mind socially, we are not all in this together. Life in London feels different to anywhere outside - 16th April 2011
 * close, yet so far away – Europe is still a mystery to many of us'' - The mainland certainly seems closer than it used to, but our ignorance of its social structures remains profound - 9th April 2011
 * diplomacy' is fine, but India and Pakistan will need more than that'' - The tussles over water that are at the source of India and Pakistan's historical conflict are not over. Some people are looking for new solutions, but not enough - 2nd April 2011
 * education for young Scots? Only if the English students pay full whack'' - Native Scottish students are unlikely to be lumbered with tuition fees, but students from the rest of the UK at university in Scotland could see their bills soar - 26th March 2011
 * all know the slogan Keep Calm and Carry On, but would we?'' - We think of stoicism as a very British virtue – all Blitz spirit and 'women and children first' – but would we react to a disaster with the kind of resilience the Japanese have? - 19th March 2011
 * much in Glasgow has changed, but violence against women persists'' - Police statistics show offences of domestic violence rise spectacularly when Glasgow's two football teams clash - 12th March 2011
 * coverage of the Libyan crisis is just a snapshot. We need to know more'' - The conflict in Libya is dominating the news. And yet most of us know so little about the country - 5th March 2011
 * army of book-loving volunteers has signed up for the big society'' - World Book Night will involve passionate readers distributing free books to anyone who might take them. But the idea has not been universally welcomed - 19th February 2011
 * stamp our feet about bankers, then return to gawping at their lives'' - We're more intimate with the rich than we've ever been, more able to compare our own incomes with theirs – but there is not the resentment of the rich you might expect - 12th February 2011
 * riptide of modern aspiration has not reached Kolkata – but that can't last'' - India's riptide of modern aspiration has not reached Kolkata – but that can't last - 5th February 2011
 * baby boomers blame ourselves for this mess, but is it that simple?'' - We have been luckier than generations on either side, but whether that makes us morally inferior is another matter - 22nd January 2011
 * Logue and the king'' - Their friendship was more formal than in The King's Speech, but remarkable nevertheless - 15th January 2011
 * rail should not be all about Londoners'' - Britain's modern railways were invented in the north. But with the proposed new high-speed line, it seems the capital is the start and the destination - 8th January 2011
 * have less judgment in journalism and more interesting real lives'' - Obituaries are not enough. We should quiz the old and interesting before they die - 1st January 2011



Articles: 2010

 * it be a 'TV Christmas'? Probably, though not quite the way it used to be'' - The days of 28 million people all huddled at home watching the same programme are gone – but we will still be as idle as ever over the Christmas week - 18th December 2010
 * a language is one thing, but I'm saddened by Scotland going Gaelic'' - Gaelic is a 'national' language – the signs are everywhere. Shame the same cannot be said of its speakers - 12th December 2010
 * the Charles and Camilla photo, the royal mask finally slipped'' - After nearly two centuries of royal composure came a moment of fear that resonates in our world as well as theirs - 12th December 2010
 * to put a price on education devalues the curiosity of everyman'' - Prince William may have studied art history, but I'd rather talk about Rembrandt with someone who just visited the royal collection - 4th December 2010
 * English will surely have their day. But it will be a long time coming'' - 'British' still seems to offer a looser and more civic identity, not based on blood and soil - 27th November 2010
 * hired: white van man and the real apprentices'' - A work scheme for school-leavers is tackling 'the deadness at the heart of so many young men' – and having remarkable success - 20th November 2010
 * Cameron's Britain – open for business'' - The call to raise the 'human rights issue' in China is the flickering of a fading British impulse - 13th November 2010
 * we need one more war memorial'' - A Muslim woman killed in 1944 for being a British agent could subvert our view of religious identity - 6th November 2010
 * Glasgow Boys: Pioneering Painters'' - The Clyde stank, you couldn't see the sunshine, and people lived in overcrowded tenements – no wonder the Glasgow Boys preferred to paint nostalgic rural scenes than the city from which they took their name - 30th October 2010
 * British fleet with no aircraft carrier. Unthinkable!'' - Britain is about to become a different country – the loss of the Ark Royal is the least of it - 23rd October 2010
 * returns to the Potteries' heart'' - Stoke is suffering - pubs, factories, churches all empty. But there are important signs of hope - 16th October 2010
 * in glass houses target Ed Miliband'' - The Milibands' impressive property portfolio is fascinating. But what does it really tell us? - 9th October 2010
 * Delhi is still a contractors' city at heart'' - Events leading up to the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony have echoes of the past - 2nd October 2010
 * Titanic mistake we can all learn from'' - New evidence suggests the tragedy could have been prevented. Why has it only now come to light? - 25th September 2010
 * Benedict and the St Ninian revival'' - Catholicism and Scotland have a long and complex past. Did the papal visit change anything? - 18th September 2010
 * novelists: small and mean maybe, but in big demand'' - Modernist Gabriel Josipovici's criticisms of Martin Amis and Ian McEwan grab the attention but miss the point - 11th September 2010
 * good life according to Tony Blair'' - From her prosecution of poll-tax defaulters to his memoir, riches have been high on the Blair agenda - 4th September 2010
 * swimming in Cornwall - freezing in Bute'' - Why the middle-class craze for what was once called 'going for a dip' won't catch on up north - 7th August 2010
 * manufacturing fill Britain's economic vacuum?'' - From military hardware to Marmite, Britain still makes products wanted the world over. But, after years of neglect, is it too late for the sector to rescue the economy? - 24th July 2010
 * coats this hunger for the past'' - The fairy cake was a pale cousin of its wildly popular American relative – the cupcake - 17th July 2010
 * churches for their history - not religion'' - These buildings are an important part of our landscape – even if they are not used for worship - 3rd July 2010
 * search of the perfect round rolling object'' - The soccer ball brought to Kashmir in 1890 is a far cry from the hi-tech one of today – so's the game - 26th June 2010
 * God said, let there be cheap chicken'' - The middle class may loathe it, but in rundown areas Tesco can appear to be doing the Lord's work - 13th June 2010
 * together the story of Potters Bar'' - Eight years after the rail tragedy, an inquest still offers the best chance to find out what happened - 5th June 2010
 * toys, then models and now works of art'' - Now only exhibitions remind us that replica boats were once popular children's playthings - 29th May 2010
 * in the age of ridicule'' - Satire's limits will always be expanding to tackle new subjects – no matter how wicked or tragic - 22nd May 2010
 * in the north, but Not-Brown in the south'' - Not even in the south did David Cameron's virtues appear to rise above the negative of not being Gordon Brown- 8th May 2010 (Cif at the polls)
 * pursuit of Somerset royalty in the hyper-marginal hinterland'' - It's hard enough for the Tories to demonstrate social inclusivity with one highly privileged candidate. But two? - 24th April 2010
 * Brown seen as asset to Labour by Scottish voters'' - Scottish fear of the alternatives to Labour should make Labour seats safe – and enable the recapture of two recent losses - 17th April
 * election 2010: A touch of class is still an issue'' - Despite the piety of politicians who say that social background and where you went to school do not matter, the same old elite stays in power – whatever the party - 10th April 2010
 * Olympic tower is a monument to historical irony'' - Among the ArcelorMittal Orbit's unexpected twists is a revealing tale about the UK and India - 4th April 2010
 * unauthorised history of Smythson's'' - Samantha Cameron's £800 bags fit right in at a firm indirectly made rich by the sale of public assets - 27th March 2010
 * are we snooty about musicals?'' - The cost is staggering, the queues off-putting, but here it is: I was curiously moved by Lloyd Webber - 20th March 2010
 * Glasgow dreams that turned into a nightmare'' - Joblessness, drugs and now deaths – the history of Glasgow's Red Road has been defined by decline - 13th March 2010
 * the borders between fact and fiction'' - Polish reporter Ryszard Kapuscinski's amazing stories may have been just that, a new book suggests - 6th March 2010
 * Falklands oil dispute has a long history'' - As in the buildup to the 1982 war, oil is colouring Argentinian and British views over its sovereignty - 27th February 2010
 * for £1.4m – and you won't pay a penny'' - The people of Bute have bought a chunk of their island to boost prosperity. What's not to like? - 20th February 2010
 * beautiful ghost of big government'' - On both the left and the right, voters say they feel powerless. And in many ways they are - 13th February 2010
 * goodbye to those violent intimacies'' - The arrival of the ebook will overturn existing models of economics and production - 6th February 2010
 * Burns Night – sae let the Lord be thankit'' - Here's to a rare thing: a genuine popular festival with no commercial strings attached - 23rd January 2010
 * for a 'wavering and fearful heart''' - Both Gordon Brown and Nelson Mandela name the poem Invictus as a favourite – and no wonder - 16th January 2010
 * from the worst journey in the worl'' - Compared to early polar expeditions, this icy snap is like 'eating vanilla ice with hot chocolate cream' - 9th January 2010
 * new year was all about reflection'' -The atmosphere in which Scots sing Auld Lang Syne has changed to one of defiant celebration - 2nd January 2010



Articles: 2009

 * the Beatles brushed away repression'' - The remastered Fab Four albums are more than a musical experience – they are a key to the past - 19th December 2009
 * sign of the 'sea-broken people'?'' - London is an ethnically diverse city, and climate change is global – but protests don't reflect this - 12th December 2009
 * you want your son to be a plumber?'' - Our rush to embrace higher education has started to become economically destructive - 5th December 2009
 * nation divided by the weather'' - The Atlantic's storm track has slipped south, and the rain is more persistent than ever - 28th November 2009
 * and loathing in Dagenham'' - On a walkabout in east London, Nick Griffin is a magnet for feelings of grief as well as anger - 21st November 2009
 * powered by patriotic flim-flam'' - My country's resistance to nuclear energy is easy to understand, but its alternative is baffling - 14th November 2009
 * taxman cometh'' - In the 60s, the Isle of Man recast itself as an offshore tax haven. How will the Manx 'nation' react now that status is under threat? - 7th November 2009
 * unrivalled Diana Athill'' - A bestseller at 91, she forged the modern memoir - 31st October 2009
 * murder that sparked a Delhi pogrom'' - India's progress has confounded those who predicted chaos after Indira Gandhi's death - 31st October 2009
 * Griffin's view's are far from outdated'' - In the past, discussions over population were often overshadowed by ideas of 'Us' and 'Them' - 24th October 2009
 * Modern's journey into artistic nothingness'' - Giggling crowds mistake Miroslaw Balka's new exhibition for a fairground, and who can blame them? - 17th October 2009
 * country of cold beef and ginger beer'' - David Cameron's speech to the Conservative party conference has echoes of Wind in the Willows - 10th October 2009
 * salt of the earth to scourge of society'' - Cruelty existed in social housing in the 1950s too, but never has it been flaunted so uninhibitedly - 3rd October 2009
 * fiver for the Elgin marbles, anyone?'' - Only in Britain are all the national museums and galleries free – it is time to show our gratitude - 26th September 2009
 * the glass really is half empty'' - In the shade of unchecked materialism, social pessimism continues to grow - 19th September 2009
 * target poppy fields and not breweries?'' - While opium farmers in Afghanistan are bombed for spreading ruin, sellers of cheap drink reap profits - 12th September
 * story looks different from the end'' - Coal made Britain strong, shaped our psyche and set us on a journey towards global warming - 5th September 2009
 * – a test of national character'' - The Lockerbie bomber's release has become a defining moment for Scotland's self-image - 29th August 2009
 * America back on track is no easy task'' - Barack Obama's plan to get the US using trains instead of cars may be beyond even his rhetorical gifts - 22nd August 2009
 * and endlessly upwards'' - Alan Milburn's report on mobility offers a snapshot of a 'closed shop society' - 25th July 2009
 * wasteful indulgence was a thing of beauty'' - Classic yachts are still loved by all who sail or see them. But where are the yards that built them? - 18th July 2009
 * subtext of the university brochure'' - For prospective students familiar with the coming-of-age narrative, staying at home simply isn't done - 11th July 2009
 * the double-glazing salesman'' - The biggest threat to conservation areas is not new development - it's PVC windows - 27th June 2009
 * strange case of the vanishing cow'' - How can such a singularly milky culture be so careless of the fate of its dairy farmers? - 20th June 2009
 * happened to Tigmoo?'' - I am a Labour party member – a useless one. This week I attended my first meeting since 1974 - 13th June 2009
 * to sell a novel using 140 characters'' - Jonathan Ross's Twitter book club promotes reading in a refreshingly wayward manner - 6th June 2009
 * last stand on Lewis and Harris'' - As a ferry service exploits a law intended to enforce equality, many feel their way of life is in danger - 23rd May 2009
 * expenses: We never found ourselves despicable'' - Fiddling expenses is wrong. But it doesn't seem that way when you're the one doing it - 16th May 2009 (see: MPs' expenses: summary)
 * Brown feels the dread hand of sympathy'' - Like that other failed leader, Anthony Eden, the PM is being regarded with 'thoughtful eyes' - 9th May 2009
 * age of the gifted amateur has returned'' - The woes of publishing make it easy to forget that Fielding, TS Eliot and others were part-timers - 2nd May 2009
 * little train company that could'' - Wrexham & Shropshire's recent victory over Virgin has restored the dignity of our local geography - 18th April 2009
 * unstoppable rise of the citizen cameraman'' - They are powerful, but one thing photographs and video can never do is give us the full picture - 11th April 2009
 * now: please form an orderly queue'' - The G20 demonstrations failed as a spectacle, but next time they may not be quite so restrained - 4th April 2009
 * suffering became a public act'' - Kathleen Ferrier and Jade Goody: two celebrities who died young. And there the similarities end - 28th March 2009
 * will protect the vital habits of democracy?'' - The demise of local papers means the official version of events may soon be the only version - 21st March 2009
 * Riding leads us up the garden path'' - David Peace's fiction should be interpreted as the product of a writer's mind, not of an age - 14th March 2009
 * and be damned'' - Her son says she is 'insane'. Her husband says she's 'devastated at what she's done'. Pundits have been quick to condemn her. So was novelist Julie Myerson right to write about her son's drug use? - 7th March 2009
 * does the voice of trust sound now?'' - There is another casualty of the banking crisis - the Scottish accent's ability to inspire confidence - 28th February 2009
 * horse isn't so huge in Ebbsfleet'' - Wallinger's sculpture has wowed the media, but is the last thing on the minds of local people - 14th February 2009
 * I wanted to live and die in India. Not now'' - Britain is depressed: a well of melancholy. But there are still plenty of reasons to be cheerful - 7th February 2009
 * say it's poverty porn - but not many'' - Here in India, films about poverty used to cause great offence. But not Slumdog Millionaire - 24th January 2009
 * era of the true art collector has returned'' - Thanks to the recession, unintelligible works will no longer be sold for unintelligent prices - 17th January 2009
 * the display cabinet killed Wedgwood'' - The pottery's problem is that they made too much - who wants it once everyone can afford it? - 10th January 2009
 * search for tourists has become witless'' - Scotland's Year of Homecoming is misconceived - those that left did so happily - 3rd January 2009



Articles: 2008

 * are all suburban now'' - In popular culture the suburbs are always somewhere we long to escape from. Not true - 20th December 2008
 * is the strongest taboo in Britain'' - Our failure to understand the financial world is the result of a great failure of journalism - 13th December 2008
 * hear it for a little literary favouritism'' - Considering the rubbish filling bookshops at this time of year, nepotism is the least of our worries - 6th December 2008
 * will never be the same again'' - Even in the worst times, European visitors to India have not felt threatened before - 29th November 2008
 * as if we've moved from a warm living room into a chilly kitchen'' - David Hare calls his new play 'pure fiction', but it feels more like a relic from the age of Blair - 15th November 2008
 * Brand v Thomas Hobbes: no wonder the BBC is floundering'' - At least the 17th-century philosopher had some editorial guidelines for 'edgy' comedy - 1st November 2008
 * circus has come to town, but Glenrothes is otherwise engaged'' - The overcrowded A92 is of more concern to local people than the future of Scotland or Labour - 25th October 2008
 * only thing we have to fear is not feeling fearful enough'' - Canary Wharf fulfilled the dream of Manhattan in Europe, and the brakes have still to be applied - 11th October 2008
 * was hailed as a great work of cinema - it made people cry'' - Terence Davies's new film rescues Liverpool from nostalgia and self-conscious parody - 4th October 2008
 * cloud puts booze, fags and fry-ups in the shade'' - A new study looks past the obvious to cast fresh light on why Scotland is so unhealthy - 27th September 2008
 * (and how to lose it)'' - Why JK Galbraith's account of the 1929 Wall Street Crash can provide a lesson for these times of no confidence - 20th September 2008
 * Lidl parmesan goes a long way for shoppers feeling the pinch'' - Discount stores are booming as the credit crunch bites, but what price a bargain? - 13th September 2008
 * new democrats are due a lesson in the economics of taste'' - With no world shortage in Damien Hirsts, the credit crunch may be about to visit Britart's pioneers - 6th September 2008
 * industrial revolution brought Titians and Renoirs to Scotland'' - The name Sutherland is infamous, but its bearers have been enlightened custodians of art - 30th August 2008
 * Public baths, tiled spittoons and how to save Britannia's waves - Once the English were the world's best swimmers, and the nation swimming-mad - 23rd August 2008
 * miracle of a Scottish wasteland given up for dead'' - Steel parts now come in boxes like Ikea furniture, but the shipyards are coming back to life - 16th August 2008
 * Fashionable paddling - or why the Browns chose Southwold - For his summer holiday the prime minister has chosen to visit England in the 1950s - 19th July 2008
 * Is it a secret river, an ornamental waterway, or a sewer? - Efforts to restore London's lost landmarks can be stylish, funny and tiresome - 12th July 2008
 * Who will come second in the fight for freedom? - David Davis's resignation has triggered not just a byelection but a scramble for publicity - 5th July 2008
 * After 1998 students didn't need to begin essays with a blank screen - Disgraced psychiatrist Raj Persaud is just a footnote in the current plagiarism wars - 28th June 2008
 * To think that someone would decree the width of a shoulder strap - Royal Ascot returns us to a Hogarthian England in which loafers and princes were in the same stew - 21st June 2008
 * When it comes to railways, the government is on the wrong track - The benefits of electric trains are clear-cut but ministers have been reluctant to commit - 14th June 2008
 * The mother of all battles being fought against guns and knives - To be an activist role model today you have to be a sufferer. There's no room for moral tourism - 7th June 2008
 * How a 1960s actor shopping in a junk shop foretold the future - The revolutionary decade also saw the birth of a brand new fashion for nostalgia - 31st May 2008
 * The Routemaster has become as iconic as the Venetian gondola - Boris Johnson faces the humbling prospect of reneging on his pledge to bring back the bus - 24th May 2008
 * Hebron is a ghost town where joggers carry automatic rifles - For the settlers, subsidies and tax breaks have become as important a motive as Deuteronomy - 17th May 2008
 * In paintings by Monet and Manet we see how men's hobbies begin - Britain invented the steam railway, but France has better pictures and more skilful engineers - 3rd May 2008
 * If Boris Johnson wins next week... it might be time to leave England and move north - 26th April 2008
 * Cheerleaders, loud music and penalties - but it's still cricket - As the county season begins in the cold at the Oval, a flashy new league is launched in India - 19th April 2008
 * Friendly barmaids, cosy fires, but hardly a drop to drink - The traditional British pub, now in decline, has been idealised since Orwell invented it - 12th april 2008
 * The land where the hippy trail reaches a historic impasse - Adventurous travellers have found many things in Goa. Innocent escape was never one of them - 15th March 2008
 * My silence about the terrorists was only partly cowardice - Twenty years on from the SAS shootings in Gibraltar, memories in Belfast are selective - 8th March 2008
 * Land of ordinary bricks, heaps of dust and ancient clay - The closure of the last brickworks in Bedfordshire has attracted little cultural attention - 1st March 2008
 * God's little acres sit smugly in the knowledge their value is soaring - 23rd February 2008
 * How roses got caught between the supermarkets and the greens - As Covent Garden market fades, the Dutch are winning the battle of the flower trade - 16th February 2008
 * The events we choose to mark tell us who we are - Football and the media have swollen together, removing all memory of another 1958 disaster - 9th February 2008
 * Oranges, lemons, almonds and the poisoned apple of Iraqi oil - The happy memories of a Baghdad Jew remind us that everything could have been so different - 2nd February 2008
 * Pity the poor estate agents, caricatures of boosterish greed - The boom is over, and rows of glass desks and steel chairs are empty visions of the recent past - 26th January 2008
 * In a few sheds near Wakefield, you can hear the rhubarb grow - 19th January 2008
 * Our chessmen were taken, but Scotland is heaving with stolen art - The fight to reclaim national treasures is fought the world over, and is rarely successful - 12th January 2008
 * If it caters only for cars, the new Forth bridge is a road to nowhere - Costs are rising a month after a replacement for the decaying 1960s bridge was announced - 5th January 2008



Articles: 2007

 * In a corner of an Indian field, Marxism goes back to its roots - By clinging to their land, Bengali farmers have defied industrialism and divided the left - 15th December 2007
 * The Scottish fisherman who didn't want to play golf - Few locals share Michael Forbes' hostility to Donald Trump's £1bn development plan - 24th November 2007
 * We behave as if there is no penalty for our luxurious consumption - Climate scientists are warned to avoid words like 'disaster' - they lead to apathy and fatalis - 17th November 2007



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