Sebastian Payne, Author at Catholic Herald

Sebastian Payne

Sebastian Payne’s Diary: Poignant moments in a Pugin cathedral

February 27, 2020

Arriving in Newcastle lifts the soul for those of good taste and good faith. The Central Station, once decaying and spattered in pigeon dung, has been transformed into an uplifting cathedral for trains. Thanks to the new Japanese locomotives that shoot you to and from London in less than three hours, both the places I

Brexit is back

September 13, 2020

If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs… Brexit bickering is back and oh, how it has not been missed. There is something about the EU question that sends Westminster — and the rest of the country — around the bend. As with last autumn, British politics is now dominated

100 days of lockdown

July 01, 2020

Today marks the 100th day of lockdown in the UK. It has been sixteen weeks since Boris Johnson declared “we can turn the tide within the next 12 weeks” on the pandemic sweeping the world. The prime minister added, with his typical exuberance, that he was “absolutely confident that we can send coronavirus packing”. A

Covid has killed spontaneity – in Westminster and beyond

June 02, 2020

However surreal this new workplace feels, the sheer joy of socialising lifts the soul Commuting in the age of corona is even worse than you might imagine. With Transport for London oddly keeping dozens of Tube stations shuttered, my sojourns into Westminster have doubled in length and tripled in discomfort. Yet despite the tedium and