democracy
A lesson from Italy on the futility of referendums
As we prepare in Britain for our momentous referendum in June, Italy has just had one. It happened last Sunday…
Long may we Brits laugh at our absurd demagogues
In Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke warned that ‘pure democracy’ was as dangerous as absolute monarchy. ‘Of…
Tax avoidance and the wisdom of pitchfork-waving crowds
In a way the headline to my fellow columnist Dominic Lawson’s Sunday Times commentary on 12 April said it all.…
Whoever invented the referendum deserves a kicking
My favourite quote of the year so far comes from the author Fay Weldon. ‘If this were an all-woman society,’…
Donald Trump's angry America
Welcome to Trump’s America, where greed is great and viciousness beautiful
A conservative case for voting 'in'
Europe has enjoyed an exceptional three decades of freedom and prosperity. Why risk that?
The 5 per cent of people who decide everything (and how to be one of them)
What happens when 95 per cent of people like something, but 5 per cent of people prefer something else? You might think…
Rwanda is sliding into a new tragedy. And this time we’re funding it
The ultimate ‘donor darling’ is becoming a dictatorship whose critics live in fear
Theatre and transgression in Europe’s last dictatorship
Juan Holzmann goes underground in Minsk with the Belarus Free Theatre
What Tiberius could teach Jeremy Corbyn about democracy
The virtuous Mr Corbyn is insisting that New Old Labour should return to its traditional republican ways and take decisions…
Why the Middle East needs more kings
What the Middle East needs is more constitutional monarchies
In praise of the ‘Don’t know’ voter
I am scraping the edges of my memory here, but I am fairly sure that opinion polls in my childhood…
How to vote like Hercules
To judge from elections, the purpose of politics is to win power by promising to make people better off. Plato,…
Deng Xiaoping: following in Mao’s footsteps
Much has been written about Deng Xiao-ping (1904–1997), most recently by Ezra Vogel in Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of…
The lesson of Athens: to make people care about politics, give them real power
Voters explain their apathy about politics on the grounds that the politicians do not understand them. No surprise there, an…
What really scares Beijing about the Hong Kong protests
Hong Kong’s protests reflect not just tension with the mainland, but a great Chinese tradition. That’s what really scares Beijing
Am I wrong to fear another Tiananmen?
Looking at these protests, I fear another Tiananmen
My ghosts of Athens; a shooting and a royal wedding
Athens This grimy semi-Levantine ancient city has its beauty spots, with childhood memories indelibly attached. There is a turn-of-the-century apartment…
What’s that I hear? Francis Fukuyama back-pedalling frantically
The problem with a futuristic thesis — particularly when summarised by a futuristic title — is that it is likely…
Would Alex Salmond give up his job to a heckler? It happened in Athens
Alex Salmond claims to be thrilled that so many people in Scotland are suddenly gripped by politics. The importance of…
The surprise winners from the referendum? Scotland. Politics. Big ideas are back at last
Whatever the outcome of the referendum, Scotland will be better for having had the debate
If we have to let generals run Egypt, must we pay for them, too?
America has let Egypt’s old military oligarchs take hold again. Must it carry on paying for them, too?
Without Paxman, the BBC will have just one interrogator: John Humphrys
In a double blow for the beleaguered BBC, the corporation has lost three of its most compelling attractions in little…
What Boris and Pericles have in common
What is Boris’s great secret? Does it lie in the bust of the Athenian statesman Pericles (c. 495–429 bc) that…
An escape to the country that became a struggle for Poland's soul
In 1993, John Borrell, a longtime foreign correspondent with no permanent home, decided to abandon journalism. Tired of writing about…
