Why silly scandals suit our politicians
I wonder if we will ever be able to resist fixing the suffix ‘gate’ to the end of any not-yet-sufficiently-salacious…
What America gets right about the abortion debate
There are two things non-Americans can almost never understand about America and should probably never speak about. The first is…
Fractured: can the West fix itself?
So why be ashamed of ourselves?
The art of changing your mind
Some years ago there was a study at Harvard that tried to find out what people did when they held…
I feel sorry for Rishi Sunak
Perhaps I should stress from the get-go that I do not know Rishi Sunak. So far as I know, we’ve…
How to lose an election
I have remarked here before about our era’s tendency to accept election results if your side wins but to reject…
How should Prince William respond to questions about slavery?
It is uncanny how swiftly British culture imitates the worst of American culture. Take Whoopi Goldberg, who distinguished herself again…
The day I nearly brought RT down
It is interesting to watch Ofcom finally remove the broadcasting licence from the Russian propaganda channel Russia Today (RT). I…
The West has rediscovered its purpose
Over recent days I have been reflecting on War and Peace. Or Special Operation and Peace as it must now…
Why C.S. Lewis was right about war
Well, at least Covid is over. No sooner had Vladimir Putin’s tanks rolled into Ukraine than the UK’s Covid advisory…
What the right gets wrong about Putin
A fracture on the international right may seem small fry given everything that is going on right now. But it…
The tyranny of Trudeau
Early in the corona era the historian David Starkey gave some thoughts on Covid. ‘We’ve got a Chinese virus,’ he…
Work is no place for your ‘whole self’
One of the few things I have learned in this life is that Dante Alighieri was wrong. In the Inferno…
In defence of bad jokes
I was once at a terrific Shabbat dinner where late in the evening one of the other guests suddenly said:…
Is our Ukrainian ambassador OK?
I know the following sentence is going to get me into trouble. Still, there are times when you wonder whether…
This government’s greatest failure is economic
‘The main job of a government is to ensure that the economics don’t go wrong.’ So argued an economist friend…
‘Operation Red Meat’ won’t beef up the government
Are you ready for ‘Operation Red Meat’? If not, then you should brace yourself. For it looks set to be…
I tempted fate – and got Covid
Well, I did warn you. As I typed my column last week on the imminent end of Covid I said…
I’m calling it – Covid is over
If anyone had any doubts about the wisdom of tempting fate then they probably haven’t considered the case of Betty…
Our growing unwillingness to understand the past
I was recently reading the works of the 17th-century antiquary John Aubrey, who at one point mentions a ghost craze…
Does Kamala Harris deserve to be vice president?
Is it rude to refer to the Vice President of the USA as the world’s most famous diversity hire? Possibly.…
'The type of person who makes the world work': remembering Anthony Smith
I’m not sure how many readers know the name of Anthony Smith, who died on Sunday aged 83, but a…
The American identity crisis
There was no reason for the world ever to hear the name Kyle Rittenhouse. Except that in the summer of…
MPs aren’t the elite – faceless bureaucrats are
I see that the most boring conversation in the nation is back. The one even worse than people in the…
What if Clinton had come clean?
What if Bill Clinton had told the truth? Would America’s sexual and political history be different? The thought occurs because…
