Ex-Mayor of Manchester Andy Burnham has stormed to victory in the super-consequential bi-election in Makerfield. His bid for the seat was the first move in a process to oust Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Burnham did not just win, he won resoundingly; trouncing the right-wing Reform candidate [...]

Jeffrey Epstein raped, tortured and likely murdered women and children. I’ll just reiterate that. “Financier” Jeffrey Epstein raped, tortured and likely murdered women and children. If you were a “friend” — and he seemed to have an awful lot of those [...]

Anyone could see she was a queen. That’s why they wanted to hurt her. She was born with the Sun and Moon in the royal sign, Leo, and Leo Rising. She emanated light. That’s why they wanted to snuff her out. Several Leo women I’ve met were abused as children. I have wondered if [...]

Peter Mandelson — liar or “the most charming man in Westminster” — may turn out to be the biggest traitor to this country since the Cambridge Four. Like them, he was deeply embedded in the British Establishment, so embedded, indeed, that they gave him a Lordship. Meanwhile, he was [...]

If you’ve never been to India, it’s hard to explain just how important Shahrukh Khan is. He is a V, V, V, VIP. Imagine someone who has the film star status of George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt rolled into one, who has the common touch of Jamie Oliver, and the business [...]

No child should be part of any conflict — ever. So far, at least 20,000 Ukrainian children have been abducted and taken for “re-education” into the heart of Russia. Meanwhile, at least 17,000 Palestinian children have been killed outright by the Israeli military in the last 18 [...]

Brian Wilson captured bliss — the first days of falling in love, the joy of driving, summer,  the beach — and crafted them into songs so densely filled with honied light that they will surely still be played hundreds of years from now. A twist of melancholy — we know those [...]

The Glastonbury Festival, the pop music extravaganza held in bucolic south-west England every June is now part of the established summer season, along with the Proms, Glyndebourne and Henley Regatta. It started off as Pilton Festival on Michael Eavis’ farm just outside Glastonbury, [...]

The second Saturn Return at around the age of 58 or 59 is a time when a chapter closes and a new door opens into what may be the final third of a person’s life. It’s as important as the one at 28, when real adult life begins and the first flush of youth is […]

In Mister Rogers’ neighbourhood people are honest, your feelings are important, and you are special. Mister Rogers exuded goodness of heart, purity of intention and folksy wisdom. He was the opposite of cynical. I was tiny when I watched his show but I still remember how Mister Rogers [...]

  “All I want is for people to experience a sense of joy when they wear my clothes.” If you have ever owned a garment made from one swathe of cloth, folded and cut into a shape that drapes and clings, flares and flutters, or creates an alien silhouette; that felt like a second, [...]

New York governor Andrew Cuomo’s daily briefings about the Coronavirus have become comfort-viewing for millions over the past few weeks. As he sits behind the great big wooden desk in New York’s state capital Albany every day and calmly explains the numbers, the plan and the [...]

She lives in daydreams with me She’s the first one that I see And I don’t know why I don’t know who she is … ” — She Talented, graceful Aquarian Harry Styles is much more than a pop star, indeed he appears to be channelling something bigger than himself [...]

Laura Dern just won the Oscar for best supporting actress. A well-deserved tribute to an actress whose electric screen presence is always mesmerising — even when she’s just ordering a kale salad in Marriage Story. Dern’s chart is just so Hollywood, with a massive stellium in [...]

Baroness Brenda Hale, head of the Supreme Court, delivered the devastating verdict on the government’s attempt at prorogation, yesterday. Her language was exceptionally clear and easy for even the most unlearned friend to understand. Also she looks like a sweet grandma out of a story [...]

When you venture into the dark woods of fairy tale, be careful of the creatures you meet — they might not be what they seem. The wolf may speak like a gentleman, the witch may live in a house of gingerbread. Hansel and Gretel’s witch lured them with sugarplums and cake; then she [...]

I’ve been thinking about the American writer Toni Morrison today, the day after she died, and remembering her book Beloved, which won her the Pulitzer Prize, and is considered by most critics to be her masterpiece. Beloved tells the story — in densely poetic language and imagery [...]

“Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, And though they are with you yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts, For they have their own thoughts. [...]

The fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld — wizard, shape-shifter, and, as he put it himself, vampire — died in February, leaving a fortune to his gorgeous pet, Choupette, the most famous cat on Instagram. Lagerfeld showed all the signs of being a kind of ultra-Uranian from the top of his [...]

I sometimes feel I need to shake myself like a wet dog after listening to Scott Walker, and, maybe, watch the droplets turn into glorious rainbows, transform into hummingbirds. Two lines into a Scott Walker song and you are immersed, taken into another, magical dimension. His perfect diction, [...]