One thing I can attest from spending as much time watching the Leveson Inquiry as at sundry inquiries into the Iraq war: never has such a vast amount of legal time been poured into dissecting the workings of the British press
Read full article...Oh, all right then. My colleague Quentin Letts has thrown his trilby in the ring to run the BBC. Not so fast, Quentin
The American author William Faulkner wrote that the past is never dead: it is not even past. The same is true of our schooldays, as I have just had reason to recall, having published a magazine piece on my own years at a comprehensive school
A shock outbreak of common sense at Westminster council: its mulish leader, having alienated theatres, restaurateurs, No 10, the Mayor, the Evening Standard and just about everyone who wants to spend time in the borough in the evenings, has departed
I made a terrible social faux pas on Sunday and phoned a contact to discuss NHS reform at the worst possible moment. "I'm watching Sherlock," she snapped. So, it turns out, were a lot of other people - just under nine million for the series launch, a record number catching up on iPlayer and the fabulously strange Mr Cumberbatch grasped firmly to the nation's bosom as a time-travelled but eternally awkward Sherlock.
She's very odd, Louise Mensch. Sharp, gifted, uncommonly pretty and prone to putting her elegantly shod foot in it. Having graced Tatler magazine, she has now moved on to a GQ poster shoot, attired like a sexed-up Holly Golightly in leather-fronted skirt, while complaining that discussion about her appearance had "obscured" her political statements.
Really, what is Jemima Khan on about? Small luxuries matter
After their little local difficulty over Europe, Nick didn't turn up to sit next to Dave in the Commons. Which was reckless but at least better than the memories of Gordon slumped in a pasty sulk next to Tony when they were at loggerheads
It's groundhog day in the great battle of the British newspapers. No sooner have we become accustomed to the extraordinary length of submissions to Lord Leveson's committee (does Hugh Grant hold the record for complaining without notes?), than the whole business starts all over again in Parliament
Football shirts daubed with "RIP", candles outside Apple stores ... We must put an end to this 'Dianafication' of mourning
Celebs are different from us, and not just in the old-fashioned way of having more money. Homo Celebus is on display at the Leveson Inquiry this week, the best free ticket in town
We are all enlightened about childcare nowadays - especially our own. Gone are the days when we used to pretend we were leaving early because the carburettor needed fixing
Ladies, the man you may not wish to talk to about your beauty routine and accompanying expenditure is right here in London. David Colquhoun is a professor of pharmacology at University College and, frankly, a liability to any woman's dreams of transformation by skin cream
If you have tiger mother tendencies, the very worst thing you can do is visit China. It will only increase your determination to squeeze some achievement out of your young. And you know how popular that makes us
The head of St Paul's Girls' School has decided that London's brightest and best females need parenting classes - a privilege previously reserved for the Vicky Pollards, now to be extended to the Sophies and Ambers
I was standing contemplating £12's worth of black, rotting avocado salad, purchased in the foodie temple at Selfridges, fit only for the bin. My two freshly baked soda breads from Whole Foods had turned out to be a horrible mulch of uncooked dough.
Tin hats on for the Man Booker wars. It is one of the delights of London life that a prize with the elevated task of picking the Commonwealth's best read should end up with the sort of backstage sniping last seen when Cheryl Cole left the XFactor
The trouble with the Berezovsky-Abramovich court case is that it leaves satire for dead
The semi-groomed haystack who is our Mayor rose with a perfectly calibrated, pretend-shy gaze and then let rip. Boris Johnson's speech is the early climax of this gathering and the Tory tribe regards him with moon-calf adoration
Are the rich getting away with low taxes? Warren Buffett heads the club of very rich men who are now saying they would be willing to pay more. He might well not have been so generous when he was still making his wealth: extreme net-worthers can afford to be a bit more relaxed about these things.
We sent one lucky family off to experience inspirational Iceland. Read the full story here.
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