Who broke Britain? Welcome to The i Paper’s opinion series in which experts and writers debate the issues that concern them about modern Britain.
• You won’t know James Bevan, but you should know what he did to this country• Boris Johnson wrecked Britain. But this man left even deeper scars• The arrogant superbanker whose stunning hubris brought Britain to its knees• The hardcore socialist whose ruinous idea is why Liz Truss became PM• The ‘Red Tory’ behind one of the most anti-feminist ideas in British politics• Martin Lewis: the money-saving expert… who accidentally cost Britons billions• The cooking revolutionary who overthrew traditional British dishes
Saturday evening television in the 1990s was a place of sex and violence, of Lycra and bar stools, of visible male nipples and eye-watering innuendo. I am talking, of course, about the iconic line-up of Gladiators, followed by Blind Date. One was a shiny-floor extravaganza of bruising conflict, swaggering ego, wild adrenaline and possible injury. The other was Gladiators. And it was the former that got us into this mess.
Modern dating is hell. Dating sites, algorithms and apps have left us shipwrecked on an island of commitment phobia, instant gratification and delayed maturity. It is possible to interact daily with hundreds of strangers and find intimacy with no one.
