Opinion

Another sporting star came out at the weekend. How good it feels to say that almost mundanely, like I’m reading out cricket scores or recounting a chicken-pox outbreak at the local nursery. The fact is, of course, that Rugby Union star Sam Stanley’s decision to come out in an interview with the Sunday Times is anything but mundane. Coming as it did just a fortnight after the coming out of another rugby player Keegan Hirst, you could be forgiven for thinking this was no big deal, but if anything, Sam’s...

I once read an interview with a recording artist in which she claimed she never went to McDonald's or read Heat because "it's so bad to be basic". Is it? Basic is an interesting word – so evocative and yet covers a lot of bases. And a lot of basics. I find it yucky, but I'm nothing if not a massive hypocrite and have, of course, used it myself here and there. Yet I still puzzle over its meaning. It does seem it's a byword for poor, or less fortunate, or less cultured...

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone. It seems we have reached the end of an era. According to today's Sunday Times' Style magazine barometer of what's hot and what's o-v-a-h, the GBF (Gay Best Friend) is done, replaced by the BMF –  Best Man Friend. I'll assume they mean that the BMF is a straight man. Straight men are "men" and gay men are "gay". I think that's how it works. Anyway, ignoring that every so slightly acidic twist of the heteronormative knife, here's why I'm glad my services as a...

Wimbledon fortnight starts Monday, one of the Top 10 shrillest sporting events on the face of the Earth. Despite the fact it is a magnet for braying upper middle-class Aga enthusiasts and certified poshoes who think even the Queen is too common for the Royal enclosure, I love Wimbledon. It’s really easy to watch – just the right ratio of dullness to nail biting tension. Plus tennis players are much more bangable than football players. My 'love affair' with Wimbledon properly began as I waited to start my second year...

It has been in the news this week that skinny jeans can kill you. But what a way to go. Thanks to the sterling efforts of Darwinism, a young woman in Australia almost threw a seven in her spray-ons after she did one too many squats helping someone move house, rendering herself immobile for hours when her calves swelled up. Before you laugh yourself out of your very own drainpipe slacks, remember she was hospitalised and it was all very serious and that kind of thing. She’s recovering now. When I was...