World
The decline of traditional university study is no bad thing
University vice-chancellors will find some uncomfortable reading in their New Year in-tray today. Last month the chairman of accountancy giant…
An ode to Mrs Brown’s Boys
‘A mother hen watching all her chicks, a sassy old lady full of tricks’. Mrs Brown’s Boys recently returned to…
How likely is a global recession this year?
The best thing that can be said about global economic growth prospects for 2023 is that no-one is expecting very…
An ode to smoking
Studies show that fewer than half of Americans keep their New Year’s resolutions. The other half, I assume, are bald-faced liars.…
Coming soon: Meghan’s memoir?
And you thought we’d seen the last of them in 2022. The new year kicks off with some old score-settling:…
Pope Benedict helped me know and love Christ
It was Benedict XVI’s election as Pope, his speeches and his writings that prompted my conversion, and it was his…
Pouria Hadjibagheri and the UK’s abandoned open data revolution
With a new year comes the New Year’s Honours and I’m struck to see an MBE given to Pouria Hadjibagheri. He’s the…
Why yesterday’s men will loom large in 2023
New year, old politicians. Yesterday’s men will loom large in the politics of 2023. British politics has a nostalgia problem,…
The Home Office shouldn’t shy away from exposing Islamist extremism
Like many with an interest in national security, I’ve spent this week closely following the news that there has been…
Boxing is right to stop men fighting women
I hate the fact that I felt a major sense of relief when I saw the news that the World…
How the Tories can defuse their demographic timebomb
Even in their most difficult moments, there’s an aura of invincibility about the Conservative party. It is, after all, one…
Pope Benedict: a theologian with a profound belief in reason
Pope Benedict is dead; now only Pope Francis remains in the Vatican. And the Catholic Church is diminished by his…
Putin’s wish for 2023
Following an unusually quiet December for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin has emerged to deliver his traditional New Year’s Eve…
Venezuela’s anti-socialist opposition has faltered
2019 was a banner year for Juan Guaido, a relatively obscure Venezuelan lawmaker who announced to a crowd of thousands…
Might Michel Houellebecq become the next Salman Rushdie?
In August this year Salman Rushdie was stabbed multiple times. The novelist survived the attack, to the outward relief of…
My debt to Pope Benedict XVI
Back in early 2019, my wife discovered that she was pregnant with our fourth child. A few weeks later, we…
What unites Greta Thunberg and Andrew Tate
So, are you Team Tate or Team Thunberg? Do you side with the muscled misogynist who has convinced tragic TikTok…
Fusion energy and the coming fight for the Moon
It’s been hard to miss the excitement since the US Energy Department announced that its Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory had…
Why I’m giving up on diehard Remainers
What’s your New Year’s resolution? Eat less, move more? Or perhaps you’re a contrary cuss aiming to eat more and…
Why it isn’t mad to oppose the World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum (WEF) and its long-serving founder and Executive Chairman, Professor Klaus Schwab, are the subjects of many insane conspiracy…
Why should we test all travellers from China?
What’s the point in asking people flying in from China to present a negative Covid test? Rishi Sunak has stepped…
Putin has failed to bring Europe to its knees
Unforeseen events which provoke global crises – such as Covid — have come to be known as ‘black swans’. By…
Twixmas and the truth about why people liked lockdown
We don’t have a standardised name for the little clutch of strange days between Christmas and New Year. There is…
Rest in peace, Pelé, the undisputed King of football
When Lionel Messi won the World Cup for Argentina earlier this month, it not only filled the last hole in…
Why won’t the Conservatives stand up for conservatism any more?
Is it supposed to be enough for those of us of a culturally and socially conservative persuasion to know that some Tory…
