World
What Miriam Cates gets right – and wrong – about declining fertility
Fulfil your civic duty. Get married. Have children. That was the message from Miriam Cates, the increasingly prominent Conservative backbencher, to guests…
The chilling attack on a Northern Ireland police officer
An off-duty senior detective in Northern Ireland’s police service was ambushed last night by masked gunmen as he helped at…
Why we’ll miss ‘Motty’
There’s a sheepskin coat hanging just inside the Pearly Gates. Yes, John Motson has died. That appears to be the…
Can a football regulator save the beautiful game?
English football will soon have an independent regulator, with the power to block clubs from joining breakaway leagues and also…
Kate Forbes and the conundrum of marriage
The fuss over Kate Forbes’ opposition to gay marriage shows that the concept of marriage has become a serious muddle.…
Rishi risks another asylum outcry
With the likelihood of a deal on the Northern Ireland Protocol fading this week, a new issue has emerged to…
The DUP has a right to be difficult over the Northern Ireland Protocol
It’s easy to take an unsympathetic view of the Democratic Unionist Party. For many, its politicians are caricatures of the…
In defence of the Free Church of Scotland
Recent days have shown an upsurge of interest in a small Presbyterian church (the Free Church of Scotland, colloquially referred…
The Union has no substance
It’s always useful to be told what we’re allowed to think. The news from the Kate Forbes leadership campaign is…
America has too many state secrets
Last September, when 60 Minutes asked Joe Biden what he thought of the August raid at Mar-a-Lago where the FBI found…
Drinking with soldiers in Ukraine
Getting into Ukraine can be tricky, especially if you don’t speak Ukrainian or have a national television network paying your…
Fox News’s ‘silent ban’ on Donald Trump
It’s by now well-established that Fox News, the American media behemoth, is no longer on the Trump Train. Trumpworld’s union…
Small boats are Rishi’s big problem
Small boats are becoming a big problem for Rishi. Four Tory backbenchers raised the issue at PMQs. Andrew Selous asked…
The real reason to be scared of Kate Forbes
Kate Forbes’s religious views remain the only thing anyone wants to talk about in the contest to replace Nicola Sturgeon.…
Corporation tax could be one of Hunt’s biggest Budget headaches
Public sector pay. Re-negotiating the energy price guarantee. Another fuel duty freeze. Jeremy Hunt’s first Budget on 15 March is…
Will Tony Blair ever give up on ID cards?
Is Tony Blair ever going to give up hope of foisting ID cards on us? As prime minister, he was…
The SNP leadership race has turned into the mother of all culture wars
Bring back Nicola Sturgeon. The race to replace her as SNP leader and first minister has turned into the mother…
Is Facebook’s verification scheme a scam?
Is Facebook’s scheme, announced over the weekend, to encourage its three billion users to pay $12 (£10) a month to…
Why don’t Harry and Meghan sue South Park?
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are hardly averse to taking matters to court. From their privacy tussles with the…
Does Kate Forbes support austerity?
Watching Kate Forbes this week struggle to reconcile her social conservatism with her ambition to be First Minister of Scotland…
Grandees attack the Guardian over its Corbyn leader
It seems the wokest paper in all the west has blundered once again. Last Wednesday the Guardian published a leader…
Kate Forbes isn’t homophobic for opposing same-sex marriage
Let me get this right. In Scotland’s political class it is de rigueur to believe that someone with a penis…
What do SNP members think of Kate Forbes’s views?
Kate Forbes’s religious views have sparked a backlash among her SNP colleagues. The party leadership contender’s announcement that she would…
Nicola Bulley and the shame of the TikTok ghouls
Ghoul – ‘a person morbidly interested in death or disaster’ – is such a descriptive word. There are a lot…
Victimhood and mudslinging now define American politics
The 2024 campaign has hardly started, but the air is already filled with noxious fumes, most of it from desperate…
