World
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…
In defense of Twitter
Twitter probably isn’t going anywhere. Major platforms don’t just vanish, after all. If we’re not still posting in 2023, then…
Left-wing Twitter goes full Apocalypse Now
In the film Apocalypse Now, Martin Sheen’s Captain Willard comes upon a remote outpost defending a bridge. Hoping to confer…
Why Biden has given MBS immunity over the Khashoggi killing
For US President Joe Biden, Saudi Arabia is the problem that never goes away. First came his decision to refrain from slapping…
Why is Eventbrite censoring feminists?
I could not have been more delighted when the group Women’s Place UK (WPUK) asked me to chair an online…
Why Macron won’t criticise the Qatar World Cup
France has adopted a different approach to the World Cup in Qatar than most of its European rivals. While the…
Is Donald Trump the Jeb Bush of 2024?
Donald Trump has been running for president for at least a decade. His campaign did not start on June 16,…
A very demoralizing trip to Barnes & Noble
America is enduring a mental health crisis, and you need go no farther than your local Barnes & Noble bookstore…
The Republican march on Rome
Perhaps the greatest defeat the Roman Republic ever suffered was at the hands of Hannibal at the Battle of Cannae…
Britain is no country for young men
If I had to give one piece of advice to Britons under 30 it would be this: go. Leave. Skedaddle.…
Britain needs its missing workers back
Amid all the economic gloom at the moment, the unemployment figure is one bright spot. It is just 3.6 per…
The UK is getting caught in an austerity trap
The teenagers are once again in charge of UK fiscal policy. The teenagers are not the Chancellor and his team,…
The choice between higher immigration and even higher taxes
‘Only the higher-than-expected numbers of migrants coming to the UK under the post-Brexit migration regime adds materially to prospects for…
