Michel Houellebecq: ‘Leftist scum monopolised intellectual debate in the 20th century’
That dream of connection also leads Houellebecq far from liberal individualism. He is a fan of Auguste Comte, who opposed individual rights in the name of scientific…
A quarter of teenagers think Churchill was fictional: we need historians now more than ever
Not that he is ever dull when reaching into the more distant past. Few will forget his description of Edward Gibbon, with his big flapping cheeks, 4ft…
Philip Larkin deserves to be celebrated, not cancelled
Larkin is an Englishman, steeped in a sense of the English past. His poetry is that of a man conscious he is living in an old country,…
We got Mary Whitehouse wrong: in many ways she was a force for good
And the thing is she was often right. The lunacy of the Paedophile Information Exchange, something that could only have been dreamt up in the 1970s and…
We got Mary Whitehouse wrong: in many ways she was a force for good
And the thing is she was often right. The lunacy of the Paedophile Information Exchange, something that could only have been dreamt up in the 1970s and…
‘We’re not the PC police!’: what sensitivity readers really do
But is the use of sensitivity readers really such a radical change in the publishing sphere? Writers have always sought advice on portraying cultures or groups with…
Howard Jacobson: ‘A male writer is not obliged to like women’
In 1965 he sailed to Australia with his first wife, Barbara, to teach English literature. All the self-consciousness he’d felt at Cambridge, being Jewish, being proletarian, slipped…
If the Bishop of Ely’s woke idiocy prevails, he’ll have to demolish his own cathedral
I am sure the bishop would not be so stupid or crass as to suggest that these poor people mattered less because they were not black, or…
JK Rowling is too big to cancel – so now the Left wants to pretend she never existed
Every death threat I have ever had, every woman I have spoken to about being stalked or abused, has heard these words. They have “no place”, they…
Publishing must shun the Twitterati, not give in to their demands
Perhaps authors have lost their guts, or their creativity, in recent years. Upon finding out that the publishers Maunsel and Company and the printer John Falconer had…
What the British public really think about ‘controversial’ stand-up comedy
Common to nearly all those to whom we spoke was a sophisticated appreciation of comedy’s core principles: the remit to stir mood-boosting laughter and the value of…
Virginia Woolf shouldn’t be cancelled – her influence has been overwhelmingly benign
“I do not believe that gifts, whether of mind or character, can be weighed like sugar and butter,” Virginia Woolf once wrote. Camden Council clearly does not…
Is the class of 2022 angry about all the wrong things?
Most one-time undergraduates can recall marches against the war in Vietnam, say, or protests over Israel-Palestine – but the vocal minority organising over internal institutional spats is…
Meet the small publishers standing up to groupthink
In the past few weeks it has been easier to buy a copy of Mein Kampf than a book by Kate Clanchy. Last month it was announced…
First Jimmy Carr, now Anna Delvey: it’s time we got a grip on Netflix
And Ofcom’s responsibilities are only getting bigger. In November 2020 Ofcom was also given oversight of platforms such as TikTok and Only Fans, while Dawes talked about the…
She may have had her share of cock-ups, but Adele is just too lovable to be cancelled
It’s hard not to feel a little bad for the other guests on The Graham Norton Show last night, who were basically just there to fill time…
How ‘cancelled’ Death On the Nile star Armie Hammer could come back
While watching Death on the Nile this week, I was reminded of a brilliant running joke on the DVD commentary for This is Spinal Tap. The track…
The woman who turned Truly Tasteless Jokes into publishing gold
When is a joke, not a joke? The outrage over Jimmy Carr’s “career ending” (his words) joke about the genocidal murder of Roma and Sinti people has…
Omid Djalili, review: plenty of punchlines, but short on punch
Omid Djalili’s latest tour, an ode to the end of Covid lockdowns, is an enjoyable if unoriginal affair. The British-Iranian comic, who grew up in Kensington, is…
Omid Djalili, review: plenty of punchlines, but short on punch
Omid Djalili’s latest tour, an ode to the end of Covid lockdowns, is an enjoyable if unoriginal affair. The British-Iranian comic, who grew up in Kensington, is…
The student forced out after standing up for women
The contested territory between such feminist groups and trans activists is well documented. The core issue of sex, gender and gender self-identification has developed into arguments about…
Kate Clanchy removes most offensive terms from book at centre of ‘cancel culture’ row
Kate Clanchy, the author at the centre of a “cancel culture” row, has reissued her controversial book with most of the offensive terms removed. Ms Clanchy parted…
The depressing creative decline of Woody Allen
I come not to praise Woody Allen’s latest film, but to… wait, it has buried itself, you say? The director’s 49th feature, Rifkin’s Festival, just trickled out…
Spotify’s ‘content warnings’ are anti-rock’n’roll – and won’t work
The likelihood is that this ugly elitism of big business intervening into the free choices of listeners will have the opposite effect, driving more people to Rogan’s…
‘Christopher Morris, does that ring a bell?’: when Brass Eye ambushed The Time, The Place
“He went into all this nonsense about ‘this is outrageous, how dare you, I’ve got a new book, it was one of the conditions of me coming…