Ancient and modern
Coronavirus and the lessons of the Athenian plague
Plagued by the past
Viral hysteria
Last week Ross Clark expatiated on the hysteria and panic generated by Covid-19 that threatens to send the world into…
Boris is taking an emperor’s approach to briefings
The PM is insisting that the briefings he finds in his red box every evening should be, well, brief, and…
What Boris has in common with Roman emperor Augustus
The PM was filmed introducing his new cabinet by getting them to answer in unison how many hospitals, how many…
Ancient Athens would have been horrified by Trump’s impeachment
An impeachment trial is overseen by Congress and Senate, who both make the law and (in this case) sit in…
The ancients would have thought Boris was deluded
The gloom that envelopes the Labour party stands in strong contrast to the confidence and hope that the Prime Minister…
Lord Heseltine could launch a Farage-style fight-back
Lord Heseltine’s electrifying hair once whipped the party faithful into paroxysms of euphoria. But since today he sees his hopes…
What would the ancient Greeks have made of Megxit?
There are as many explanations for Harry and Meghan’s problems with the royal family as there are commentators. May as…
Does ‘equality’ mean the same to Rebecca Long-Bailey as it did to Plato?
The candidates battling for the leadership of the Labour party never stop banging on about ‘social justice’ and ‘equality’. But…
What difference will ‘weirdos and misfits’ make to the civil service?
Dominic Cummings has written a modest blog inviting mathematicians, physicists, AI specialists and other experts to help him revolutionise the…
It’s science, not protest, that will save the planet
One might expect that the challenge of climate change would encourage many young people to take up Stem (science, technology,…
We could certainly do with a Tacitus now
As a contemporary John Clapham reported, Queen Elizabeth I ‘had pleasure in reading the best and wisest histories’, and translated…
Socrates would have made the leaders’ debates real interrogations
There is something deeply unsatisfying about the debates featuring party leaders. The questions put to them, whether by an audience…
The ancients were aware that there’s more to making speeches than just words
Cicero said that the good orator could arouse in the listener many different feelings: ‘delight, grief, laughter, tears, admiration, hatred,…
For the ancient Greeks, the only point in taking part was to win
The England team reached the final of the rugby world cup in Japan but they lost. As athletes, they knew…
Could a sex-strike solve Brexit?
Last week the Lawyers Group of the charity Classics for All held its fifth moot (cf. ‘meet’) in the Supreme…
Roman funerals had real ‘emotional intelligence’
Today’s funerals, featuring shiny black hearses and top hats, lack (we are assured) ‘emotional intelligence’. Colourful coffins featuring pictures of…
Who advises Dominic Cummings?
Dominic Cummings, chief adviser to the Prime Minister, thinks that there is no ‘better book than Thucydides as training for politics’. But…
Extinction Rebellion proves Aristotle was right about the follies of youth
Extinction Rebellion is blocking the streets again, foolishly demanding the impossible on a very important issue. But what does one…
Would the Athenians have held a second referendum?
The Athenians invented the referendum: after debate in the citizens’ assembly, they voted through all political decisions by a show…
David Cameron would be a winner in Ancient Greece
David Cameron is convinced he was right to call a referendum and to promise to enact it. Justifiably: there was…
Tacitus knew how to handle stories from ‘insiders’ and ‘sources’
We read much about ‘fake news’ these days and of efforts to rid the internet of it. But what of…
How to deal with Brexit anger, according to the ancients
Sir Philip Pullman, tweeting that thoughts of hanging the PM came to mind after the decision to prorogue parliament, later…
For a solution to the backstop, team up like Rome and Carthage
The EU is demanding that, in return for a new deal, the UK must come up with a solution to…
Boris is facing his Sparta moment
The PM’s hero is the Athenian statesman Pericles, and a Periclean crossroads is now approaching. According to the biographer Plutarch,…
