Pubs
In praise of Michael O’Leory
NatWest has returned to full private-sector ownership 17 years after the £46 billion bailout that took it into state hands…
The truth about my relationship with Phil Spencer
I never thought I would read a headline like ‘Kirstie Allsopp’s husband enables upskirting’. Regrettably, this type of nonsense has…
Give us a pubs tsar – but spare us Tim Martin
More than a third of UK universities are in financial doo-doo: staff cuts, cancelled courses, slashed research budgets and possible…
No tips please, we’re British
I hate tipping, not because I am intrinsically mean but because of the anxiety it induces. You pitch up at…
Fellowship of the Lamb
How a group of regulars are saving Tolkien’s pub
Bring me my Spear
Where do you see paintings by Ruskin Spear (1911–90)? In the salerooms mostly, because his work in public collections is…
Barometer
Positive thinking The government wants us to test ourselves for Covid-19 twice a week, using lateral flow kits which will…
Rapid recovery means no negative rates – and a good time to buy a pub
It’s obvious from the body language of Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey that negative interest rates — much talked…
Barometer
Last orders The new tier restrictions have made life difficult for pubs. How many are closed? — According to the…
Going for a song
Alexandra Coghlan on how we became a nation of choirs and carollers
Wishful drinking
Pubs have always been good at bending the rules
Dublin pub crawl
Far be it from me to utter a word against the patron saint of Dublin pubs, Roddy Doyle. Granted he’s…
Viva la vulva!
I spent half an hour this week listening to a woman make a plaster cast of her vulva. Kat Harbourne,…
Barometer
Leicester lockdowns Leicester was forced to impose the first local lockdown, in response to a reported surge in cases of…
Letters
Is ‘the Science’ scientific? Sir: I hope that those in the highest places will have read and will act upon…
How do Britain’s pubs get their names?
An easy one: what links Jack Straw’s Castle, The Labouring Boys and The Jolly Taxpayer? No, not the parliamentary expenses…
We need an inquiry into the Elizabeth Line farce
If you know my personal history with Barclays, you may be wondering whether I’m for or against Edward Bramson. To…
Children are everywhere – and they’re spoiling everything
There was a time when middle-class liberals used to complain that the English were a nation of child haters. They…
Concept
‘It was nothing special, but it was a pub,’ said my husband, looking up from his copy of Bar magazine…
The perfect pub
Whenever one of those news stories appears about how many pubs have been forced to close in the last year,…
Last orders
The fight to save the Gladstone Arms is the fight to save London
Diary
I now live in the hippest part of London, Shoreditch. It must be Tony Blair’s idea of heaven, a multicultural…
Diary
Hard on the heels of the 90th birthday of Nicholas Parsons (10 October) comes the 65th birthday of the Prince…
