Browsing: Simon

Poet laureate Simon Armitage reads a poem called ‘The Campaign’. It was commissioned by Yorkshire Cancer Research, a charity that funds research and works with people…

Cancer is a subject the poet laureate Simon Armitage has always shied away from. “I find it very daunting,” he said. “I’ve lost friends and family…

Simon Yates, one of Britain’s most storied riders and the winner of last year’s Giro d’Italia, has stunned cycling by announcing his retirement at 33.The Visma-Lease…

For those who lived through the cold war, the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989, was an unforgettable moment. The sinister watch towers…

Merry Christmas, Sir Keir, and a happy new year. Or as they say in Downing Street these days, make merry for tomorrow you may die. At…

Nigel Farage is storing up trouble by welcoming yet another tranche of Conservative defectors to Reform UK’s ranks. I should know. When I was chief whip,…

Towards the end of her life, I was a friend of the writer Jan Morris. I had known her for many years and, much to my…

A couple of months ago the health secretary, Wes Streeting, rolled out his latest master plan to save the NHS. From 1 October, it became compulsory…

Juries are an archaic and inefficient feature of Britain’s collapsing justice system. They survive only in some English-speaking countries as quaint relics of medieval jurisprudence. They…

As opera-goers trooped into the London Coliseum this week, three helpless drunks were camping on the adjacent front steps. One was struggling to stop another pulling…