In 2015 Young wrote an article in advocacy of genetically engineered intelligence, which he described as "progressive eugenics".

[6] In early January 2018, he was briefly a non-executive director on the board of the Office for Students,[7] an appointment from which he resigned within a few days after Twitter posts described as "misogynistic and homophobic" were uncovered.

Young later wrote that he was not popular at school: "My only friend was a black boy called Remi, who explained that the reason he'd taken a shine to me was because he knew what it was like to be a 'nigger'.

Having applied to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at Oxford University, he had been given a conditional offer of three Bs plus an O Level pass in a foreign language from Brasenose College, under an Inner London Education Authority scheme to provide university access to comprehensive pupils.

[23][24] He was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and studied at Harvard then spent two years at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he carried out research for a PhD which he left without completing.

[22] In 1991, Young co-founded and co-edited the Modern Review with Julie Burchill and her then husband Cosmo Landesman.

[29] Following Jack Davenport, Young performed in the West End one-man stage adaptation of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People in 2004.

"[30] A review in The Stage stated, "Despite Young's previous thespic experience being the only student at Anna Scher’s drama school not to get a part in Grange Hill and having been fired after a week as an extra on the film Another Country, he gives a thoroughly convincing performance as himself…".

[32] In 2005, he co-wrote (with fellow Spectator journalist Lloyd Evans) a sex farce about the David Blunkett/Kimberley Quinn intrigue and the "Sextator" affairs of Boris Johnson and Rod Liddle called Who's the Daddy?

[36] From 2002 to 2007, Young wrote a restaurant column for the Evening Standard and claimed in a PM (BBC Radio 4) club membership discussion (20 March 2024) with Evan Davis that he was previously blackballed from joining the Garrick Club, a decade earlier, for criticising their catering in his column, while working for the Evening Standard.

In addition to serving as a judge on Top Chef, Young has competed in the Channel 4 TV series Come Dine with Me, appearing as one of the panel of food critics in the 2008 BBC Two series Eating with the Enemy and served as a judge on Hell's Kitchen.

That means wheelchair ramps, the complete works of Alice Walker in the school library...".

In 2015, the London Review of Books's cover story for its May 7 issue was an article written by British journalist Dawn Foster criticising the free school movement.

In a letter to the London Review of Books, Young took issue with Foster's interpretation of free schools data and made claims that were challenged by the author Michael Rosen, journalist Melissa Benn, and education researcher Janet Downs in further letters written to the publication.

When I mentioned his name in the course of interviewing a former Department for Education employee for the piece, my interviewee headbutted the restaurant table in exasperation.

[60] In 2015, Young wrote an article for the Australian magazine Quadrant entitled "The fall of meritocracy".

Under a section titled "Progressive eugenics"[61] he discussed developments in genetically engineered intelligence, and proposed that should the technology for selecting embryos for high intelligence become practicable, it could be provided "free of charge to parents on low incomes with below-average IQs.” He argued this "could help to address the problem of flat-lining inter-generational social mobility and serve as a counterweight to the tendency for the meritocratic elite to become a hereditary elite," through a mechanism that should be acceptable to political conservatives and also argued that "This is a kind of eugenics that should appeal to liberals — progressive eugenics.

[72] An inquiry was launched shortly after Young's resignation by Peter Riddell, the Commissioner for Public Appointments.

[65] In March 2020, during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK, Young wrote in The Critic that he "suspect[ed] the Government has overreacted to the coronavirus crisis", expressing worry about the "economic cost".

Saying that he had probably contracted the virus, he wrote that "if the Government does end the lockdown, and it turns out that by the time I require critical care the NHS cannot accommodate me, I won't regret writing this".

[76] In January 2021, he appeared on Newsnight, and when he was challenged about his comments about the virus, he said: "hands up, I got that wrong" and made arguments against lockdowns.

[76] On 14 January 2021, the British press regulator IPSO ruled that an article Young had written for The Daily Telegraph in July 2020 was "significantly misleading" and that the newspaper had failed to take care not to publish inaccurate information.

[84] In September 2022, PayPal shut down the accounts of Young, the Free Speech Union and The Daily Sceptic website.

[86] In late 2024, Young was nominated for a life peerage by Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the Conservative Party.

[93] It was released in Britain on 3 October 2008 and reached the number one spot at the box office in its opening week.

[8] These included what an Evening Standard editorial called "an obsession with commenting on the anatomy of women in the public eye".

[105] He referred on Twitter to the cleavage of unnamed female MPs sitting behind Ed Miliband in the Commons in 2011 and 2012.

[107][108] One tweet by Young was in response to a BBC Comic Relief appeal in 2009 for starving Kenyan children.