World
Should Starmer be worried about the rail strikes?
Sir Keir Starmer has ended up in a very Starmer-esque pickle over the rail strikes this week. Yesterday he instructed…
China hawks demand TikTok answers
In Westminster these days, WhatsApp and Twitter are decidedly old school. Now the current craze is TikTok where MPs compete…
China’s increasingly authoritarian Covid pass
A Chinese health app, developed to enforce the Communist party’s draconian Covid-19 restrictions, is being repurposed to tighten political control…
Could Lithuania be Putin's next target?
When Russian troops started ‘military exercises’ on Ukraine’s borders, those of us living in Kyiv had grounds to worry. Putin…
Emmanuel Macron's future looks bleak
The single headline across the front page of the centre-left daily Libération said it all: ‘La Gifle’. But much more…
Boris versus the unions
In politics, a leader sometimes needs to be ruthless and mean, patiently soak up the public opprobrium directed his way…
Boris Johnson’s strike gamble
It’s day one of the RMT’s planned strike action after last-minute talks between train operators and Network Rail failed. The…
Israel’s politics is collapsing
Here we go again. On Monday, Naftali Bennett, Israel’s Prime Minister, announced that he would bring a bill to dissolve…
How Boris can defeat the railway strikers
Today, the RMT will succeed where the Luddites failed. For 24 hours, they will unwind the most impressive part of…
Millions more blown on parliamentary pantomime
Whether it’s crumbling rooftiles, weekly fire alarms being activated or bacteria in the water supplies, the creaking Palace of Westminster…
Are rail strikes the start of a summer of discontent?
This morning, the UK woke up to the largest rail strike in thirty years. As many as 50,000 workers are…
Is Britain heading into a wage-price spiral?
Are wages about to spiral out of control? Boris Johnson certainly thinks there’s a risk. Last week he warned that…
Tories beat inflation with glitzy ball
The cost-of-living crisis might be gripping the country but there was no sign of that at the Tories’ summer party…
Kamala Harris’s zombie disinformation board
After giving up on the border crisis and Ukraine, Kamala Harris seems to have found an issue much more her…
There is no transgender debate
Anyone still talking about ‘two sides in the transgender debate’ needs to look at the footage from Bristol yesterday. Actually,…
Why won't David Beckham criticise Qatar?
David Beckham has come under fire for failing to speak out about human rights abuses in Qatar. Amnesty International said…
How Meghan Markle can shake off the bullying allegations
She must be fit to be tied, the Duchess of Sussex. I know I would be. It was reported yesterday…
How Marine Le Pen silenced her critics
‘Stillborn’ is how Le Figaro describes Emmanuel Macron’s presidency after his Renaissance party failed to win an absolute majority in…
Marine Le Pen is the big winner in France's anti-Macron election
Emmanuel Macron has lost his absolute majority. The surprise winner was Marine Le Pen and her party, Rassemblement National, while…
Macron's nightmare is complete
French president Emmanuel Macron has been humiliated by voters, weeks after being re-elected by an unenthusiastic electorate. The hyper-president with…
Biden’s energy hypocrisy
Joe Biden promised on the campaign trail in 2020 that he would “transition away from the oil industry,” convert to…
NYT finally tackles gender therapy
Cockburn started his Sunday by spitting Darjeeling all over the pages of the New York Times magazine. The cause of…
Parenting matters. It's about time we were brave enough to say so
The Duchess of Cambridge has been out and about hosting roundtables with very important people, discussing what can be done…
Why Canada can’t put terrorists in jail for life
On 29 January 2017, Alexandre Bissonnette had breakfast, browsed the internet, had dinner with his parents, went to a mosque…
Why the Bible still matters
If you look to our schools and universities, you will not see a serious engagement with the Bible as part…