World
Has Keir Starmer found the sweet spot in British politics?
Are the final obstacles in the way of a comfortable Labour victory at the next election being swept away? The…
What trans activists can learn from Chelsea Manning
Chelsea Manning, who leaked hundreds of thousands of military and diplomatic records about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to…
Emmanuel Macron shies away from confronting the migrant crisis
On the Sunday that Britain honoured its war dead, France remembered its fallen from the terrible evening of 13 November,…
How did contemporary culture become so dismal?
Watching the Christmas John Lewis ad, over and over, I’m struck by how much British life has changed – and…
How Marks & Spencer spoiled Christmas
Working in a charity shop, where the Christmas cards go out in July, means I’m more aware than most how…
Rishi Sunak’s real Brexit problem
Are we heading for a return to Brexit wars? It’s been the theme of the week so far after the…
Kari Lake isn’t about to go away
Typically, when media outlets project election winners, the loser comes out soon afterward to officially concede the race. Yet when…
Meet the Navajo who wants Native Americans to vote Republican
How well Republicans fared this time around with Native American voters is hazy. Brookings reports that Native Americans “remained solidly Democratic in…
In defence of the One Love armband
Wales’ football manager Rob Page was clear about why his team’s captain Gareth Bale would wear the ‘One Love’ armband…
Fifa 1 – England 0
England have backed down in the ludicrous standoff with Fifa over the plan for captain Harry Kane to wear a…
A Swiss-style Brexit would delight Nigel Farage
Someone near the top of government – let us give him the random alias Heremy Junt – is stoking the…
Why does Rishi Sunak sound so desperate?
A year ago Boris Johnson lost his place in his speech to the CBI annual conference. He started blathering on…
Will beefy Botham get bowled out?
Much was made of Ian ‘beefy’ Botham’s ennoblement in 2020. The hero of Headingley was the headline announcement of the 36…
The Swiss-style Brexit delusion
Rotation is the clearest sign of intellectual muddle. When Britain left the EU, some leave supporters thought they could negotiate…
Fifa’s president has exposed the trouble with ‘decoloniality’
I laughed aloud when I heard Gianni Infantino, president of Fifa, identifying himself sanctimoniously with a whole list of disadvantaged…
Elon Musk, Donald Trump and the trouble with free speech
The Cursed Ratio strikes again. Twitter users have voted 52-48 in favour of Elon Musk allowing the return of Donald Trump to…
Should Iran be allowed at the World Cup?
As England’s football team prepare to face Iran in the first match of their World Cup campaign, the backdrop is…
Mike Pompeo prepares for 2024
The race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination began in earnest on November 9, 2022 — and it could prove far…
What happened to Stephen Fry’s belief in scientific reason?
Here’s my question for Stephen Fry after he said his trans friends had felt ‘deeply upset’ by some of the…
The Tories are taking from the young to pay for the old
To understand the Conservative party’s approach to government, it’s useful to think of there being two Britains. This is something…
Fifa’s president is feeling African, gay and disabled. I’m feeling confused
‘I’m defending football here, and injustice’ was the standout quote, for me, from what has been described as a ‘bizarre…
Ignore the climate doomsters: we should celebrate our 8 billion population
It almost certainly wasn’t Vinice Mabansag, the baby born in the Philippines last Tuesday and picked out by the UN…
Macron’s humiliating climbdown over Aukus
Guess who turned up in Bangkok this week at the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting? The forum, which includes the…
What will be the legacy of the Qatar World Cup?
In the glitzy Fifa museum, in squeaky-clean downtown Zurich, there is a new exhibition which sums up the upbeat, inclusive…
When America makes Orwell look like an amateur
Under today’s gathering dark clouds, a reread of Nineteen Eighty-Four shows how the otherwise prescient George Orwell was wrong to…
