Martha Gill
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Weekly opinion columnist: The Observer. Previously: Economist Britain correspondent www.theguardian.com/profile/martha-gill
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Articles by Martha Gill
As Farage sacks an acolyte for his ‘shameful’ words, how far is too far for the high priest of toxic politics?
Nigel Farage on top of a tank at York Hall, London, 2 April 2026. Photograph: Adam Davy/PA What counts as beyond the pale these days? Having successfully pushed back the cordon sanitaire that surrounds British politics, Nigel Farage is struggling to work out where, precisely, it now lies. Some decisions are simple. Attacks on Grenfell victims are, and have always been, beyond the bounds of decency.
Video: La Thuile EDR Highlights - Martha Gill's Edit
Jul 17, 2025 Video - Martha G Media When I decided to head to La Thuile I knew I wanted to create a video covering the Enduro World Cup, I wanted it to be something that was different to the current content that's out there. In my opinion, enduro doesn't have enough cool coverage at the moment, so I've tried my best to combat that problem! The racing was insanely tight and it all came down to the final night stage, where the atmosphere was truly electric... is enduro officially back?
Why resurrect the dire wolf when existing animals are facing extinction?
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Mental ill-health is losing its stigma, but it’s still used to blame victims of abuse
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Mental ill-health is losing its stigma, but it’s still used to blame victims of abuse
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Mια τρομακτική αλήθεια
16 oC Online Έκδοση Έντυπη Έκδοση tanea.gr > Έντυπες Ειδήσεις > Γνώμες > Mια τρομακτική αλήθεια Μια στο τόσο, έρχεται μια τηλεοπτική δραματική σειρά με τη δύναμη να αλλάξει τα πράγματα. Μία τέτοια περίπτωση είναι η «Εφηβεία» του Netflix, που εξετάζει τη διαδικτυακή ριζοσπαστικοποίηση νεαρών αγοριών από ακτιβιστές για τα δικαιώματα των ανδρών (MRAs), όπως ο Αντριου Τέιτ. Το παρόν άρθρο, όπως κι ένα μέρος του περιεχομένου από tanea.gr, είναι διαθέσιμο μόνο σε συνδρομητές.
We can’t move for therapists but do they help or harm mental health patients? | Martha Gill
I was struck by the news last week that GPs are so overwhelmed with mental health patients that they are directing them to the care of unregulated charities. Complex cases are now in the hands of therapists who are not always qualified to treat them. In one case, an autistic girl with an eating disorder was asked to self-refer to a local charity that offered “one-to-one support” – given by someone untrained in psychotherapy or counselling.
The Sussexes have to earn their bread somehow, so let them make cake
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The pill hasn’t been improved in years. No wonder women are giving up on it | Martha Gill
Something is changing when it comes to contraception. Lots of people aren’t using it. Last week we heard that this includes a third of young Irish people. Meanwhile, there has been a significant rise in abortions in England and Wales. Prescriptions for the contraceptive pill in England dropped from 432,600 in 2014 to 188,500 in 2021. And this month data from abortion clinics found that demand is being fuelled by women coming off the pill and using natural methods instead.
Our inhumane jails are promoting a vicious cycle that is criminal in itself
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There’s a word for people who prefer phones to meeting friends: addicts
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There’s a word for people who prefer phones to meeting friends: addicts
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Are you a traitor or a faithful? Just take your lead from everyone else
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Are you a traitor or a faithful? Just take your lead from everyone else
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In the moral panic over vaping, we risk forgetting that cigarettes kill
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We are in danger of forgetting what the climate crisis means: extinction
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Can you resist all the addictions modern life throws at you? Only if you’re rich enough
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Social media isn’t driving the plastic surgery boom. Who doesn’t want to look better?
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OPINION - Thames Water has failed London, it's time to let it go bust - or nationalise it
The longer a scandal rolls on, the harder it is to keep in perspective. It now seems almost normal that we live in a country that pours raw sewage into waterways on a daily basis. When we first heard water companies were releasing filth into rivers and the sea — killing fish and giving bathers ecoli, it did come as a bit of a shock. Now those stories are routine.
No promotions, no buzz. Home workers pay high price while bosses save on costs
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OPINION - London, we tried but it's time to end the experiment and ban e-scooters
Roads are dangerous, which is why breaking a traffic law is serious business. At least, that is the case when you’re in a car. But what if you’re on a precarious, nearly silent, almost invisible vehicle — that can be piloted by teens and nevertheless go very fast? Then you might just get away with it because the capacity of the police to deal with you — even if you cause an accident — has just about reached its limit.
When dogs recall toys, and horses plan ahead, are animals so different from us?
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OPINION - As the Grenfell report is published, why is cladding still on countless English homes?
As Britain absorbs the second phase of the report into the Grenfell Tower inferno, with its accumulation of horrors, an event last week serves as warning and a rebuke to the pace with which we have got here. Is it really possible, seven years after that disaster, that the cause of another London tower-block fire could be traced — once again — to flammable external cladding?
OPINION - As the Grenfell report is published, why is cladding still on countless English homes?
As Britain absorbs the second phase of the report into the Grenfell Tower inferno, with its accumulation of horrors, an event last week serves as warning and a rebuke to the pace with which we have got here. Is it really possible, seven years after that disaster, that the cause of another London tower-block fire could be traced — once again — to flammable external cladding?
I love the nanny state, but let’s leave outdoor smokers to puff away in peace | Martha Gill
‘It’s thanks to smokers that the rest of us get to pretend, in July and August, that we live in Spain.’ Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian Have you ever wondered why pubs in Britain bother with gardens? They seem like a solid enough investment now, in summer, sure. But what’s the draw for the other 10 months of the year, as rain howls sideways under the awning and the only heater is on an automatic timer, meaning you have to get up to press the button every 10 minutes?
Riots, shootings, sadism… blame it on the boredom of social media
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Riots, shootings, sadism… blame it on the boredom of social media | Martha Gill
A study confirms that watching endless online content is a tedious pastime. Photograph: Mindful Media/Getty Images ‘The age of boredom… has now passed”. So begins On Boredom , a 2021 essay collectionthat claims the likes of TikTok and YouTube have driven it to extinction. These days, “the time needed to be bored is no longer available”.
OPINION - Should we eat into England's green and pleasant land or make our cities taller? I know my choice
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has said the New Towns Taskforce will ‘work together with local people’ (Ian Vogler/Daily Mirror/PA) (PA Wire) We are in desperate need of new homes — a fact on which Brits tend to agree. They tend to disagree, though, over where to put them, and these battles generally concentrate on the edges of cities. Take the Government’s new plan to build on grey-belt land — “poor quality and ugly areas” — which is already causing ominous semantic squabbles to break out.
Practice doesn’t always make perfect – that’s why you’re not in the Olympics | Martha Gill - NewsBreak
Illustration shows three female athletes competing in hurdles, with one racing ahead and the other two sweating heavily Illustration: Dominic Mckenzie/The Observer Stefan Holm was told he was too short to be a high jumper. But by the time he won Sweden a gold medal in the 2004 Olympics, he had honed himself into the perfect projectile. It was the result of a 15-year obsession: his whole life had been pulled into alignment with this goal.
The Science Museum should not bow to climate change activists: take the oil money and be grateful to get it
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OPINION - The Science Museum should not bow to climate change activists: take the oil money and be grateful to get it
The Science Museum (Science Museum London) Among its many lively claims to a place in history, the summer of 2024 will surely come to be known as the one that finally killed corporate sponsorship of the arts. Recently a group of literary festivals divested themselves of Baillie Gifford, a company that had helped fund them for decades, for the crime of being some two per cent invested in businesses related to fossil fuels.
Forget the tired franchises, horror movies are in
By Martha Gill / The Guardian There’s nothing I find so cheering, these days, as the rise of the horror movie. Take its intrusion into this year’s summer blockbusters. We have the usual soulless franchises and deadly repeats — Despicable Me 4, Deadpool 3, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Bad Boys: Ride or Die — and then we have a flicker of light in the dark. Turns out that audiences do want new stories, they do want new characters, and they do want inventive film-making after all.
Forget the tired franchises, a new wave of horror movie will make us jump out of our seats
Shelley Duvall, who died last week, has only recently been recognised for her masterful performance in The Shining, 1980. Photograph: Warner Bros./Allstar There’s nothing I find so cheering, these days, as the rise of the horror movie. Take its intrusion into this year’s summer blockbusters. We have the usual soulless franchises and deadly repeats – Despicable Me 4 , Deadpool 3 , Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga , Bad Boys: Ride or Die – and then we have a flicker of light in the dark.
Woke capitalism is not to be sneered at. Gen Z is a mighty force for change
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D-day deserter Rishi Sunak didn’t do his duty, so why should gen Z be expected to do theirs? - NewsBreak
RAF veteran Bernard Morgan salutes fallen D-day comrades at the Bayeux war cemetery, in Normandy. Photograph: Aaron Chown/Reuters Rishi Sunak is in an unfortunate position. Anything he does that even slightly cuts convention will now be read as a terrible blunder. Once a narrative like this picks up steam it is hard to stop. The press wants to add to the story arc. A delighted Labour will help it along.
OPINION - London councils are betraying locals by renting out parks to festivals for a pittance
Muddy conditions at Brockwell Park (Brockwell Park Association / Twitter) At this time of year, Londoners are gasping for green space. The lucky few have a garden, but most of us head for a park — this is what they are for. But then you hit festival season. For weeks there is preparation, cutting across lunch breaks, picnics and football games. Giant metal walls go up, obliging locals to travel along the edges or through high-walled pathways, with large sections inaccessible.
Filthy lucre is everywhere, but book festivals are an easy target for protesters’ fury | Martha Gill
Advertising for Baillie Gifford at this year’s Hay festival. Photograph: Steven May/Alamy How gratifying to chuck dirty money back in the face of a would-be benefactor. Such moments mark literature. Pip refusing funds from Magwitch, a convict. Will Ladislaw disdaining the charity of George Eliot’s corrupted Bulstrode. The statement is this: scruples do not belong only to the rich. There is a price at which I, too, cannot be bought. And yet.
Grinding our bums, flashing our boobs: the internet is making juveniles of us all | Martha Gill - NewsBreak
Illustration by Dominic Mckenzie. Illustration: Dominic McKenzie/The Observer How will technology change us as a species? In Silicon Valley, all prophesies seem to have converged into one: that it will usher in some sort of planetary Buddhist revolution. To read its mission statements and watch its Ted Talks is to hear phrases such as “connectedness”, “common understanding” and “overcoming barriers”.
Tony Blair had it, Boris Johnson too... the quality that wins Angela Rayner support despite her gaffes
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OPINION - Britain is now a shoplifter's paradise - and these people are to blame
The number of shoplifting offences hs risen above 400,000 for the first time since current records began (Alamy/PA) (PA Media) Things have changed in my local sandwich shop. Every so often, in the middle of ringing through my americano, the server will go stock still, like a savannah predator who has spotted a tiny rustling movement in the grass.
Mental health is a measure of success, not a reason for politicians to sneer | Martha Gill
Take up painting and revel in the benefits it provides. Photograph: Witthaya Prasongsin/Getty Images There’s more to life than money, but societies can struggle to express it. When we talk about the state of nations and their citizens, we tend ultimately to boil it down to a few economic indicators. These can tell us a great deal, but they don’t quite tell us everything.
One thing stops us from prising teens from their phones: peer pressure | Martha Gill
Illustration by Dominic Mckenzie. Illustration: Dominic McKenzie/The Observer Across the rich world, a problem emerges. Children are spending more time hunched over iPhones working on their personal brands and less time building mud huts in the woods with their friends. Social stakes have got higher: the right post, message, or photo can give you a huge blast of approval; one mis-step could make you an outcast.
Would ID cards be such a bad idea if they made things work a bit better? | Martha Gill
The recent introduction of voter identification at polling stations has eased the country in the direction of ID cards. Photograph: Andrew Matthews/PA ‘Britain has never been a ‘papers, please’ society,” said Jacob Rees-Mogg, speaking on his GB News radio show last week.
Cute, cuddly, and often crippled: look where the love of dogs has taken the British | Martha Gill
Germany is tightening its laws on the breeding of dachshunds with traits that may cause suffering. Photograph: Dan Baillie/Getty Images/500px You may have missed a recent international incident. Last week, we Brits got wind of a very worrying development across the Channel. “Sausage Dogs to be banned in Germany,” ran alarmed headlines in the UK press. The Germans, for their part, were so baffled by this response that they reported on it themselves.
Britain is great in a crisis, but useless in a slump. Just take a look at the NHS | Martha Gill
A message of solidarity to the NHS during the pandemic. But the service is still in dire trouble. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian If Britain were a person, they might strike you as a familiar type. They’re the type that slumps on the sofa, letting problems pile up. There’s that rising damp they should get to grips with, there’s that long-term nagging cough. Their marriage has been falling apart for months, they should really look into counselling. They don’t, though.
Andrew Tate may have been arrested, but the internet's misogyny problem isn't going away
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OPINION - Andrew Tate May Have Been Arrested, But The Internet's Misogyny Problem Isn't Going Away - Evening Standard
Is it all over for Andrew Tate? On Monday, Tate and his brother were detained in Romania and handed an arrest warrant by UK authorities. The allegation is “sexual aggression”, in a case that dates back to 2012. The two have rejected the charges but this is just one more addition to — in December 2022 Tate was arrested in Romania over allegations of rape and . Tate denies these too. We do not know the specifics of
Can’t read a map or add up? Don’t worry, we’ve always let technology do the boring stuff | Martha Gill
This variation on the March of Progress illustrates the fear that technology is leading us away from the lives we are ‘meant’ to lead. Photograph: Design Pics Inc/Alamy Stock Vector The dystopian novels of the last century were mostly filled with terrifying visions of the rise of technology – a genre of which we are still to tire. Charlie Brooker’s hugely successful Black Mirror series in which technology kills, maims or subjects people to terrible fates will have a seventh incarnation this year.
Like cigarettes, junk food should come with a warning: ‘Can kill’
By Martha Gill / The Guardian The 1970s was a confusing decade in which to be a smoker. People knew, of course, that smoking was bad for them: the evidence linking it to lung cancer had been incontrovertible since 1956. But despite government education programs, hiked taxes and restrictions in selling to children, these warnings hadn’t fully permeated the atmosphere. How could they? Daily life bathed the brain in the idea that smoking was fine.
Like cigarettes, junk food should come with a warning: ‘Can kill’
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