World
New York election officials keep it stupid
For decades, the American Idol and Eurovision TV talent shows have calculated millions of votes during commercial breaks with barely…
Poll: 2019 Tories still backing Boris
It’s by-election day in Batley and Spen tomorrow. The only constituency polling done in the West Yorkshire seat suggests that the Tories…
Who killed Ashli Babbitt?
Who shot Ashli Babbitt, the pro-Trump Air Force veteran who was killed by police during the January 6 riot at…
The infrastructure Trojan horse
The official Twitter account of VOX Madrid, the local chapter of a Spanish political party, noted a funny and familiar…
Tucker versus the Deep State
Tucker Carlson is at war with the National Security Agency, and it makes great TV. Two nights running, the Fox…
The sausage war ceasefire is a good sign for UK-EU relations
The sausage dispute between the UK and the EU may sound like something out of Yes Minister but it is…
The Covid battle Sajid Javid still has to face
Despite the humiliation of Matt Hancock’s exit, Sajid Javid, the new Secretary of State for Health, might in fact find…
The EU is stoking the culture war between East and West
Other EU countries ‘should not interfere in the affairs of Hungary,’ Czech president Miloš Zeman said on Sunday in support of…
The strange religiosity of Covid compliance
Something has gone badly wrong with the Established Church when it appears more indignant at the breaking of social distance…
Is communism authoritarian capitalism?
On July 1, 1921, the founding congress of the Chinese Communist party was held in Shanghai, when 12 men gathered in…
What do Extinction Rebellion have against a free press?
One can only hope that the profound political thinkers of Extinction Rebellion took care not to dump cow manure on…
Should we be mixing AstraZeneca and Pfizer shots?
To date, the Covid vaccination programme in Britain has involved two doses of one of three vaccines – AstraZeneca, Pfizer…
How much longer can the Treasury rig the housing market?
The past 15 months have produced a bizarre economic paradox. In 2020, the economy shrank at the fastest rate recorded…
Will the American media stand up for Hong Kong before it’s too late?
On October 1 of last year, the New York Times printed an op-ed from Regina Ip, executive council and legislative…
What does Starmer actually stand for?
The biggest reason Keir Starmer has proved a flop is not that he leads an unelectable rabble, or that Labour’s…
The economic illiteracy of anti-capitalists
Back in October, World Bank chief economist Carmen Reinhart recommended that countries borrow heavily during the pandemic. ‘First, you worry…
The growing extremism of France's Green party
On Sunday evening I met three left-leaning French friends for a picnic in a Parisian park. We’d hardly begun the…
The EU's founder should be a saint – but he created a monster
There was a certain degree of cynicism when the Pope decided to place the EU’s founder on the path to…
Sajid Javid's optimistic Covid forecast
Sajid Javid used his first appearance at the despatch box since his appointment as Health Secretary to paint an optimistic…
Matt Hancock and the problem with China's surveillance tech
There can have been no more avid viewers of the CCTV footage of Matt Hancock’s snog and grope than China’s…
Is Marine Le Pen’s presidential bid doomed?
Nothing went as predicted in France’s regional elections. Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National did not win a single region and…
Japan's punishing workplace culture
Are the world’s hardest workers about to get a well-earned break? That seems to be the hope of the Japanese…
Why an EU-Russia summit was always going to fail
When Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel unilaterally proposed a European Union summit with Vladimir Putin, they managed to open deep…
How crises shape government
Crises often exhaust the capacity of governments to renew themselves. All consuming problems do not allow prime ministers to have…
Why Labour should stick with Starmer – even if he loses Batley
Things could be bleak for Labour in the Batley and Spen by-election this Thursday. Throughout an ugly and dispiriting campaign…
