Melanie McDonagh 
Let’s hope Vicky Pryce’s book does teach us about prison
The departure of Chris Huhne and Vicky Pryce from prison yesterday has its lessons for us all, on how to make the most of adverse circumstances. Certainly that’s the happiest… Continue reading
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Who stands to gain from the Kosovo-Serbia deal? The EU
Britain’s very own EU High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs, Cathy Ashton, has not had a terribly good press after a report from the European Parliament said her department… Continue reading
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For 79p a download you can outrage the Establishment!
During the period when Ireland had its own sort of censorship, a version of the Vatican’s Index of Forbidden Books, there was an ugly rush by publishers and writers to… Continue reading
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What was it that made the Vicky Pryce trial so compelling?
Just about the only respectable moral that can be drawn from the grisly extended farce that was the Vicky Pryce trial is that the defence of marital coercion is a… Continue reading
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The bossy state shouldn’t stop us buying cigarettes with pleasing packaging
The Government’s bid to make Britain that little bit more like Australia, in a bad way, by requiring cigarettes to be sold in plain white packaging may well be announced… Continue reading
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Keith O’Brien’s resignation is no good thing. But it might be good for the Catholic church
The downfall of Cardinal Keith O’Brien could not have been more complete if it had been orchestrated by Stonewall, which, if you recall, awarded him Bigot of the Year for… Continue reading
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How Pope Benedict’s wisdom was often lost in translation
The pope made his first public appearance since his resignation today, before putting ashes on the foreheads of pilgrims for Ash Wednesday. It’s one of those jos which isn’t itself… Continue reading
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Nick Clegg forgets that many married couples struggle to pay their way
The disadvantage of live phone-in radio programmes is precisely that you don’t get to weigh your words. No doubt Nick Clegg would have expressed himself a bit differently on the… Continue reading
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Women on the frontline isn’t simply a matter of equality
It won’t take long for the US decision to allow women in combat roles to travel here according to The Times today, on the basis of, it must be said,… Continue reading
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Eric Pickles ‘does God’, but does the government really agree?
Personally, I don’t wear a cross, on the basis that I’m not much of an advertisement for Christianity and I’d risk diminishing the brand. But for Eric Pickles, Communities Secretary,… Continue reading
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Gay bishops and women bishops are not the same issue
This being the Ephiphany, churchgoing Anglicans will be on the receiving end of any variety of sermons on the visit by the three kings to the infant Christ. There won’t,… Continue reading
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The formidable female politicians of the year
Audits of the last year are a blessing to journalists: a postmortem of the gainers and losers of 2012 are a useful means of covering for the fact that there’s… Continue reading
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The political impact of immigration
It won’t actually come as a surprise to anyone living in London that the census results from the Office of National Statistics this week showed that ‘white British’ are down… Continue reading
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Justin Welby’s social conscience
One of the things we know about the next Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, is that he doesn’t like bankers. Another is that he has given a good deal of… Continue reading
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In defence of the CofE’s House of Laity
Even friends of an Established church like myself – though I’m a Catholic – should think twice about the wisdom of the idea after the naked political interference in the… Continue reading
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Marriage tax breaks would alleviate child poverty, Mr Duncan Smith
The problem about relative poverty is precisely its relativity. The child poverty index, which measures whether a family’s income is below 60 per cent of the average, is a case… Continue reading
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George Osborne’s combination of austerity and social libertarianism is repellent
George Osborne’s spirited bid in The Times (£) earlier this week to appropriate the Obama victory for the Tories is a curious mirror image of the Labour Party’s arguments to… Continue reading
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Harriet Harman was not ‘bullied’ at PMQs today
Barack Obama’s re-election has naturally perked up the Labour party, on the optimistic basis that the Obama formula for success, sans Obama, could work perfectly well here. But there’s a… Continue reading
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Labour’s three-line whip on gay marriage is illiberal
Ed Miliband tells the Evening Standard today that Labour will give ‘wholehearted’ backing to gay marriage and says that churches and religious bodies should be allowed to conduct these ceremonies.… Continue reading
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The one thing worse than universal benefits? Means-testing them.
There’s nothing, but nothing, easier than for politicians to sound off about universal benefits, and sure enough, Nick Clegg was complaining on the World at One today about the iniquity… Continue reading
56 Comments