Published by The Sunday Times (3rd August, 2025)
Policy / Politics / Sport
Starmer’s pitch at normality
Published by The i paper (3rd July, 2024) The reports make the game sound almost professional. Whites took the lead when a “fine, flowing movement” ended with Mark […]
Politics / Sport
The World Cup disgraces humanity
Published by The i paper (21st November, 2022) The greatest player in World Cup history was Pelé, who scored twice in his first final at the age of […]
Feature / Immigration / Policy / Race
Winners, on and off the pitch
Published by The i paper (5th July, 2021) One by one, the institutions that bind our country stumbled. We saw our collective faith in the banks, BBC, church, […]
Economics / Health / Policy
Blood on their hands
Published by The Mail on Sunday (19th January, 2020) Eighteen months ago, Kevin Sluman was out on his boat trawling for fish in the Bristol Channel, delighted to […]
Economics
How football raised its game
Published by UnHerd (10th May, 2019) Football. Bloody hell! First Liverpool’s brilliant fightback against Barcelona taking them to a second successive European Champions League final, then Spurs swept […]
Economics
A lesson in leadership
Published by The i Paper (9th July, 2018) Oh happy days. Suddenly the mood of our country has lifted thanks to the heroics of an unfancied group of […]
Europe / Russia
The World Cup has lost its lustre
Published by The i paper (4th December, 2017) I remember clearly the first World Cup that captivated me. It was Argentina in 1978, back in those distant days […]
Africa / Tanzania
Wayne Rooney and the new frontier
Published by The Mail on Sunday (16th July, 2017) When the vice-president of Tanzania heard Everton were planning to play in her country, she was amazed. ‘I could […]
Immigration / Policy
Leicester is a winner – and not just on the football pitch
Published by the ipaper (2nd May, 2016) When I started out in journalism three decades ago, I spent time on two work placements at regional newspapers. The first […]
Immigration / Policy
It’s easy to talk a good game on immigration
Published by The i Paper & The Independent (1st February, 2016) There is sometimes a single moment when talented young footballers do something so outrageous they declare themselves […]
Crime / Policy
Politicians in thrall to mentality of the mob
Published by The Independent (12th January, 2015) Just over four years ago in the United States there was a firestorm of protest over the suggestion a prominent quarterback […]