World
The Schofield saga has become an unedifying spectacle
In the mid-90s when I was a 19-year-old undergraduate I did work experience at the now defunct The Face magazine.…
The censorship didn’t begin with Kathleen Stock
It’s 2023 and a lesbian requires security guards to speak at the Oxford Union. That image of Kathleen Stock arriving…
Is it time to scrap the Covid inquiry?
Why do we have inquiries? The late Geoffrey Howe suggested six principal reasons: to establish the facts, to learn from…
Childline has a safeguarding problem
It is hard not to be increasingly concerned about the safeguarding of children at Childline, an arm of the National Society…
The unstoppable rise of the nanny state
It has been a pathetic sight to watch politicians pleading with the supermarkets to lower food prices. Inflation has yet…
The mystery of Boris Johnson’s missing WhatsApp messages
Where have Boris Johnson’s diaries and WhatsApp messages gone? The row over the demands of the Covid Inquiry for evidence…
Russian children are being groomed for the war in Ukraine
As we pass the 15-month mark of Russia’s war against Ukraine, it’s clear the Putin government is in a fix. It cannot…
Kathleen Stock and the rejection of gender reality
Last night, Professor Kathleen Stock told the Oxford Union that we need to talk about ‘reality’. She is absolutely right.…
Millennials have no reason to vote Conservative
For some time now, critics of the Tories’ strategy of soaking millennials to buy votes from boomers have been pointing…
Does Biden actually care about gay rights?
Joseph Robinette Biden, a practising Catholic, has travelled a long way when it comes to gay rights. In 1996, as Senator…
Can regulation stop artificial intelligence wiping out humanity?
The arrival of super intelligent artificial intelligence (AI) could wipe out humanity. That’s the fear of leading AI figures, who…
Why Iran and the Taliban are clashing over water
Remarkable as it may sound, it looks as if a border skirmish this week between Iranian and Afghan border guards,…
What to do when you only have modest wine on hand for a decorous guest
So, I’ve have been rooting around in Horace’s Epistles, which are full of amusing things. They really are not “epistles” in…
Michael Cimino’s gift to cinema
In the spring of 1981, I committed what the entertainment press of that day regarded as an act of self-abuse:…
The university union may be beyond redemption
Life is not terribly good these days for most university teachers. Colleges, once centres of collegiate administration run on a…
Succession’s only real flaw
It’s strange to reach the end of something you’ve relished with a sense of relief. HBO’s Succession has given me…
Brexit could fix inflation
Has food price inflation finally peaked? Figures released by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) this morning reveal that food prices…
France’s failure to tackle migration is a warning to the Tories
Perhaps the most illuminating comment made by Nigel Farage during his discussion with Fraser Nelson on Spectator TV earlier this…
Moscow is now a target in Putin’s war
Russian drones attacked Kyiv last night, the 17th such assault this month. But this time there was a difference: just…
Czech Foreign Minister: Ukraine needs to ‘transform’ before it can join the EU
It doesn’t take long for visitors to Prague to figure out how the locals feel about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.…
Can the Heritage Foundation unite the right?
Last September I was sitting in the crowd at the annual National Conservatism Conference, lamenting the fact that my hotel…
Blink and you’ll miss this libertarian moment
Political years are the opposite of dog years: they pass by in a blaze, with entire epochs elapsing in the…
A parting salute to the swizzle stick
We live in the age of takeaway-everything, a phenomenon amplified since the late, great plague by another barbarism: the drive-thru.…
How to become a ‘salad freak’
Imagine a summer morning in Southern California. You rise with the sun in a palm-shaded bungalow and stroll to a…
What the rise of Vox means for Spain
Vox, the most right-wing of Spain’s mainstream political parties, has emerged considerably strengthened from Sunday’s local and regional elections. With…
