Articles
Michael has written a weekly current affairs column for The Times since 1999. Click here to link to The Times website.
30 Jun 2008 : No dumb Cowboy Colonels in these memoirsA tradition of condescension towards America has blinded many Britons to the intellectual quality of the US military | more |
23 Jun 2008 :
Q: When is a Royal Ascot hat not a hat?
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16 Jun 2008 : Boyhood tastes with an adult flavourThe greatest sophistication lies in taking a simple sensation and raising it to a higher level. | more |
9 Jun 2008 : Magna Carta - it's all arrant nonsenseThere are a number of important authors who have renounced the barons and all their works. | more |
3 Jun 2008 : Why the sums don't add up when it comes to raising school standardsOUR living standards and quality of life are going to be profoundly affected over the next decade by three forces - first, the rise of Asia; second, the increasing importance of high technology and, third, the growing gap in education standards between the richest and poorest in our society. | more |
20 May 2008 : Muskets crack, pikes clash and I'm in HeavenBearded royalist musketeers berated the Gove family for their rebel sympathies while lobster-helmeted New Model Army troopers saluted us | more |
16 May 2008 : Opportunity should knock, not be blockedWhen Nasa sends satellites into space their movements are tracked by following a robotic series of sounds, which repeat endlessly, until eventually everything fades into a dark vacuum of nullity. | more |
13 May 2008 : I'd love to read The Gruffalo for the 777th time but, alas, duty callsIt's not a clincher when you say you can't do the bath because you have to take a call from Radio Rockall, on whose drive-time phone-in you're guesting. | more |
6 May 2008 : Sex and the City, an episode in emptinessThe hardest thing in life is knowing when it's over. Realising that your moment's passed, the mojo's gone, you are now in that terrible zone where the harder you try to make yourself relevant, the more it shows how past it you are. | more |
22 Apr 2008 : In the colour debate I'm neutral. Beige, to be preciseThe greatest of all drinks, made from angels' tears and tasting of peat, the Islay malt, is a pure, clear beige | more |
15 Apr 2008 : My naughty pleasures between the coversSerious-minded souls would suggest that you'd be better off having a quick Lees-Milne only after three courses of Noam Chomsky or Robert Fisk | more |
8 Apr 2008 : Take our quiz to find out whether your partner is Just Tory EnoughIs his favourite film a) The Dam Busters; b) Elizabeth; or c) any film in which British imperialists get it in the eye? | more |
1 Apr 2008 : Anti-Semitism is finding new allies on both Right and LeftHatred of the Jewish people, which united the likes of Klaus Barbie and Tariq Aziz, hasn't been contained | more |
25 Mar 2008 : Paradise is Hell: why I hate Desert Island DiscsRadio 4 is supposed to be soothing. | more |
18 Mar 2008 : Don't let's be beastly to the Germans: I'm one of them myselfJust as we have an inner age, we have an inner nationality. Whatever it says on our passport, most of us may find that we are spiritually something else | more |
11 Mar 2008 : Et in Orcadia ego: confessions of a D & D addictPretending to be an elf for an afternoon is ludicrous. But for a few spotty years I was that geek | more |
4 Mar 2008 : Will my verbal seedlings take root and flourish?Chipping Norton is the fear that hits you, on your way to the airport, that you left the cooker on. | more |
2 Mar 2008 : I won schools lottery, but want it abolishedIs it a crime to want the best for your child? | more |
20 Feb 2008 : I admired Tony Blair. I knew Tony Blair. Prime Minister, you are no Tony BlairThere are few feuds as destructive as the squabble over a legacy. | more |
19 Feb 2008 : Trafalgar Square plinth should be the public's decisionWalking across Trafalgar Square the other day I paused before the statue of General Charles Napier. And I realised where we'd gone wrong as a country. | more |