The Big Apple

The British are the way they are because our climate is damp, dour and undemonstrative

If we consistently had summers like they have in Rio, we wouldn't just grow bananas, we'd go bananas

The British are the way they are because our climate is damp, dour and undemonstrative

If we consistently had summers like they have in Rio, we wouldn't just grow bananas, we'd go bananas

Guess what? There are exciting plans for Battersea power station - and pigs can fly

If so much as a single flat is built, I will personally hire a squadron of airborne porkers for a fly-past

Copenhagen's Tivoli gardens can teach us a lot about grace, tranquillity and tradition

The sight of Danes enjoying themselves in an amusement park filled me with envy

Why do we accept anodyne architecture in our public spaces?

You can learn a lot squatting in a sewage works, propped against Queen Victoria's ample bottom

The best sat-nav is the one inside your head

Has all this emphasis on cognitive thinking led to a withering of our instincts?

Let's get back to our roots - and plant more trees

The tree's worst enemy remains the developers who tear down oaks on ground which could be more ‘profitably' occupied by a new supermarket

For once, let's hear it for the boys

The disengagement of teenage boys from education, society and the world of work and responsibility, is one of the tragedies of our time

Got a problem? I'm sure there's a pill for it

Supply everyone over 50 with this miracle polypill and we will all be leaping around like demented frogs and bonking like frisky rabbits

Spare a few million for the arts, guv

For the money that Roman Abramovich would have to spend to bring one decent striker to Chelsea, he could buy the services of an entire British...

Our Zeitgeist: just more of the same?

Far from making quantum leaps into the future, our era seems to be going backwards. We have abandoned manned space flight and supersonic...

Opera: why can't we do it like the Norwegians?

This was a celebration of culture. You wouldn't expect the British Establishment to get excited by that

I'm cycling back to happiness

The ironic truth is that the humble bicycle has become, by default, the sole remaining transport of delight in urban Britain. It is also...

Reasons to be cheerful (or why Britain isn't that bad)

Let's look on the bright side. After all, the trees are in bud. There are lambs and daffodils lighting up the countryside

Seize the day - as night will fall before you know it

Anthony Minghella seized his moment by creating films so honest that his contribution to humanity's wisdom is beyond dispute

Beware: Big Brother has got you fingered

Beware: big brother has got you fingered

As far as I'm aware it's not yet forbidden to object to sinister surveillance - though it's probably only a matter of time