Niall Gooch

Niall Gooch is a public sector worker and occasional writer who lives in Kent.

@niall_gooch

How Britain’s trains were derailed

09 Dec 2024

Assisted dying should not be promoted on Tube adverts Painful and deeply personal decisions are being reduced to catchphrases

24 Nov 2024

Will Justin Welby’s exit restore the Church’s credibility? Institutional action on abuse is still required

13 Nov 2024

Labour’s four-day week would backfire Breaks for public-sector employees may antagonise voters

11 Nov 2024

It’s time to re-enchant the world

28 Oct 2024

Wes Streeting could start a Labour revolt over assisted dying The Health Secretary's opposition reflects growing cross-party scepticism

24 Oct 2024

Pope Francis’s deacon decision is the last gasp of European Catholicism As this century unfolds, the Church will tilt towards the Global South

11 Oct 2024

Was the Just Stop Oil sentencing fair? Other, more serious, crimes are treated more leniently

28 Sep 2024

Why is Sadiq Khan prioritising housing for prisoners? Labour badly misunderstands Britain's current political mood

13 Sep 2024

Britain needs more prisons, not fewer prisoners Record overcrowding shouldn't be tackled by abandoning justice

07 Sep 2024

Jailing Brits for Facebook posts isn’t justice State policing of social media has become increasingly apparent

15 Aug 2024

Rail nationalisation won’t get Britain’s trains on track Despite Labour's progress, the infrastructure challenge remains significant

17 Jul 2024

Ed Davey’s stunt campaign is deeply cynical The Lib Dems have used photo ops to mask their contradictory policies

13 Jun 2024

The American empire is taking over the honours system Will Jamie Dimon and Eric Schmidt be ennobled?

06 Jun 2024

Liberals in shock as Pope reveals he is Catholic Francis may be on the political Left, but he is theologically conservative

09 Apr 2024

We need more cultural Christians like Richard Dawkins They understand what makes our inheritance unique and special

01 Apr 2024

Online conservatives skewer Jeremy Hunt with NHS memes The Chancellor claimed that the health service is a cause for British pride

08 Mar 2024

The Church of England’s reparations plan is un-Christian New Testament scripture promotes racial harmony differently

05 Mar 2024

The case against Shamima Begum Her suffering does not justify her return to Britain

24 Feb 2024

King Charles’s illness is a lesson in solidarity Rich or poor, we all have to confront our own mortality sooner or later

06 Feb 2024

Post Office employees deserve a royal pardon The King has a special authority to recognise this terrible wrongdoing

10 Jan 2024

Nobody wants a watered-down James Bond Trigger warnings on the classic films undermine their spirit

05 Jan 2024

The mysterious power of Christmas Each celebration is freighted with the remembrance of past festivities

25 Dec 2023

Doctor Who: the latest symptom of the BBC’s decline The broadcaster's upcoming licence renewal could spark a viewer exodus

04 Dec 2023

BLM was a magnet for grifters Xahra Saleem is just the latest activist to appropriate charity funds

01 Nov 2023

Our Victorian forebears would be ashamed of HS2 Modern Britain seems utterly incapable of building anything

02 Oct 2023

Extinction Rebellion should leave kids alone Dutch police have threatened to report parents for taking their children to protest

13 Sep 2023

Why it’s time to leave Hobbitland behind J.R.R. Tolkien gave Brits an overly romanticised view of the countryside

02 Sep 2023

Why are climate activists so angry? Frustrations about the environment are a cloak for separate resentments

23 Aug 2023

Churches should not cancel services for the football British Christianity is trying too hard to be liked

19 Aug 2023

The rewritten history of Captain Tom The story told about the war veteran was always strangely partial

06 Jul 2023

Cricket may be stuffy, but it’s not racist A new report conflates tradition with discrimination

28 Jun 2023

Why the Coronation left me feeling sad My conservative heart was moved, but the country is too far changed

07 May 2023

The mystical paradox of Good Friday Even for believers, the story of Easter is full of strangeness and difficulty

07 Apr 2023

Kate Forbes’ Christian beliefs illustrate the limits of secularism Certain perspectives are inherently disqualifying from public life

21 Feb 2023

George Pell avoided self-pity to the end The cardinal rose above the accusations levelled against him

11 Jan 2023

‘Good King Wenceslas’ is an anthem for cosmopolitanism The carol reveals a longtime British fascination with Eastern Europe

26 Dec 2022

King Charles should not meet Ngozi Fulani An overly apologetic monarchy will not survive

05 Dec 2022

Why I feel sorry for Just Stop Oil activists Their pain has emerged from a religious vacuum

09 Nov 2022

The Trad case for Brutalism

29 Sep 2022

Why the Queen’s death affects us all so deeply She served as a mysterious and vital connection to the nation

09 Sep 2022

The Pope is a Russia realist Francis has refused to side with the West since the invasion

03 Sep 2022

Farewell Jeremy Paxman, student scourge The departure of a familiar face is always a melancholy business

17 Aug 2022

It’s official: I’m a member of New York’s hottest club It's taken nearly 2,000 years, but Catholicism is back in fashion

10 Aug 2022

Why is the BBC smearing Prince Charles? Its reporting of the latest synthetic scandal is plainly motivated to cast doubt

21 Jul 2022

The British case for free train travel The UK has much to learn from its Spanish counterparts

18 Jul 2022

I worry about the future of the monarchy A real test is looming when the current reign comes to an end

04 Jun 2022

In defence of Queen’s Speech pomp and pageantry Ceremonies like yesterday's connect us to the past and future

11 May 2022

Good riddance to Britain’s Brutalist architecture I won’t mourn the disappearance of our post-war monstrosities

01 Apr 2022

Boxing Day need not be an anti-climax The Feast of Stephen is just the beginning

26 Dec 2021

Is Britain on track for a rail renaissance? The re-opening of Okehampton in Devon sets a hopeful precedent

24 Nov 2021

The romance of sleeper trains

04 Oct 2021

There will never be another Only Fools and Horses It was the last TV show collectively watched by the nation

20 Sep 2021

Viktor Orban vs the Pope: rival strains of Christian thought Supporters of both worldviews can point to strong theological backing

14 Sep 2021

Test Match Special is no longer the sound of summer Beloved old eccentrics are being replaced with bland reporters

18 Aug 2021

Covid isn’t the end

11 Aug 2021

New rules bring politics into the classroom by stealth Schools should be about education, not "social justice"

06 Aug 2021

The media focus on racism obscures the real story Tales of abuse in recent days have been poorly reported

20 Jul 2021

The queering of The Lord of the Rings Progressives think Sam and Frodo were more than good friends

05 Jul 2021

Farewell then Wisden, my sanctuary from the culture war One of the most venerable names in sport publishing has gone woke

09 Jun 2021

Why is the National Trust so embarrassed by Britain? The group's chairman is leaving — but don't expect anything else to change

27 May 2021

What conservatives can learn from Karl Marx

25 May 2021

Prince Philip embodied the KBO spirit Representative of the wartime generation, the Duke kept buggering on

09 Apr 2021

Prince Philip embodied the KBO spirit

01 Apr 2021

County flags, coming to a government building near you Tories intend to cut red tape to allow councils to fly their historic flags

26 Mar 2021

In defence of moral panics

26 Feb 2021

It’s official: I’m a menace to society A member of the EHRC liking my tweets has become a news story

02 Dec 2020

How to resist the new totalitarianism

12 Nov 2020

What is the point of the National Trust?

20 Oct 2020

In praise of autumn, the best of seasons

04 Sep 2020

Do our politicians know themselves?

28 Aug 2020

The fourth plinth must get its just deserts It's time to permanently fill the empty platform with a traditional statue

05 Aug 2020

Where England sinks into the sea

04 Aug 2020

Manners maketh the society

22 Jul 2020

Tolkien’s mythic plan for England

23 Jun 2020

Junipero Serra, the latest target for progressives The Catholic saint represented an older world hated by today's Left

22 Jun 2020

The great artist of Deep England

10 Jun 2020

The pre-modern idyll of Thomas the Tank Engine The children's book celebrates its 75th anniversary this week

14 May 2020

How we mythologise the Second World War

08 May 2020

Lockdown is just a holiday from modernity

22 Apr 2020

Do conservative Catholics get fair trials? Cardinal Pell had many enemies in Australia

07 Apr 2020

Our decadent society has ground to a halt

24 Feb 2020

Can poetry survive in a secular age? When the afterglow of Christian culture has finally faded, the poets will be in trouble

21 Feb 2020

The YouTube-ification of the Right

04 Feb 2020

What if we made our MPs go to church?

02 Jan 2020

Did you have a Brexit-free Christmas?

24 Dec 2019

It’s time to reverse the Beeching Axe

29 Oct 2019