Published in The Daily Mail (June 6th, 2013) Even though it’s the birthplace of a Spice Girl, a former Gladiators champion and the Tory chairman Grant Shapps, nothing […]
Arts / Books / Politics
A politician with real class
Published in the Daily Mail (May 10th, 2013) This Boy: A Memoir of a Childhood by Alan Johnson (Bantam) When Alan Johnson was seven, his mother was in […]
Health / Policy
A helpline in crisis and doctors who refuse to put patients’ interests above their own
Published in The Daily Mail (May 6th, 2013) For weeks there have been many stories emerging of patients left hanging on the phone, fearful or in pain; urgent […]
Health / Policy / Politics
Cover-up: the public are sickened by such cynicism
Published in The Daily Mail (February 22nd, 2013) Julie Bailey is a heroine of our age. She is the cafe owner from Stafford who saw her elderly mother […]
Health / Police / Policy / Politics / Technology
Why does no-one ever take the blame any more?
Published in The Daily Mail (February 13th, 2013) When Nick Clegg dropped into Hampshire to boost his party’s campaign in the crucial Eastleigh by-election, he spoke passionately about […]
Africa / Tanzania / Travel
Discovering Tanzania’s great blue yonder on an island called Mafia (it’s perfectly friendly)
Published in The Daily Mail (February 2nd, 2013) A scrap of raffia roof is propped up by spindly sticks to offer shade from the blazing sun, and a […]
Disability / Health / Policy
What the NHS needs even more than money – a dose of kindness
Published in The Daily Mail (December 5th, 2012) Even today, 19 years on, I can still remember every second of the day my world crashed in. It was […]
Crime / Environment / Police / Policy
Philandering policemen, secret courts, and this insidious threat to our faith in justice
Published in The Daily Mail (November 20th, 2012) With his long hair, his sinewy body honed by daring feats of climbing, his stacks of ready money and his […]
Economics
There’s something profoundly wrong with a nation where only the ‘little people’ pay taxes
Published in The Daily Mail (November 14th, 2012) Amazon, Starbucks and Google are three of the corporate giants that define our age. In the space of just a […]
Aid / Politics
Warped priorities
Published in The Daily Mail (September 27th, 2012) At home, the talk is all about austerity. One half of the Coalition government holds its annual conference amid talk […]