Surveillance
Learning difficulties: The University of Bliss, by Julian Stannard, reviewed
The bureaucrats have taken over, treating both academics and students as administrative nuisances in a searing satire on university life
Nordic dream or nightmare?: The Mark, by Frida Isberg, reviewed
A test has been developed in Iceland to assess a citizen’s sensitivity and potential for anti-social behaviour. Will the looming referendum make it compulsory?
The authoritarianism of British Transport Police
When our freedoms are being taken away we are like the proverbial frog boiled alive in water where the temperature…
Pre-crime has arrived in China
The idea of ‘pre-crime’ was popularised by Philip K. Dick’s story ‘The Minority Report’ and the 2002 Steven Spielberg film…
The strange new liberal attraction to the feds
In a political era defined by abnormalities, few developments are as bizarre as the newfound liberal admiration for federal law…
TikTok is the world’s fastest-growing – and goofiest – digital platform, but should we fear it?
In November last year, an internet video made by a 17-year-old American went viral. The video was less than a…
How to catch a thief
My tech guy Andy appeared on the doorstep in a puff of smoke. I had just texted him to ask…
How capitalism killed sleep
What can you make a joke about these days? All the old butts of humour are off limits. No wonder…
In China’s new surveillance state, everyone will be watched, reviewed and rated
The bullet train from Beijing to Shanghai is the fastest in the world. It takes just over four hours to…
A Girl in Exile: Ismail Kadare’s novel is full of absence
My last review for The Spectator was of Julian Barnes’s biographical novel about Shostakovitch. A Girl in Exile also depicts…
The watchers and the watched: Patrick Flanery's I Am No One
‘First and last I was, and always would be, an American,’ Jeremy O’Keefe, the professor narrator of Patrick Flanery’s new…
The heavens are falling
The dystopian novel in which a Ballardian deluge or viral illness transforms planet Earth has become something of a sub-genre,…
My dirty secret: I don’t care either way about state surveillance
The Snoopers’ Charter. I ought to care about this. I’m a sort of libertarian. I believe in personal freedom. I’m…
By the book: The NSA is behaving like a villain in a 1950s novel
The continuing drip-feed of stories about governments and friendly-seeming internet giants sifting through our data has left some citizens feeling…
Ten reasons why conservatives should take Edward Snowden seriously
So why are British conservatives determined to ignore his revelations?
Dear Mary: How can I escape my neighbour’s spy cameras?
Q. I have a problem with what might be called location blindness. I live in Balham, but when I arrange…
