Andy Burnham’s grooming gang hypocrisy
“Here we go again!” That’s what I find myself thinking as I watch the latest “confusion” surrounding the early release of serious sexual offenders and murderers. Another headline. Another announcement.…
Has Nigel Farage become a laughing stock?
An opposition MP, just two years after being elected, announces that he’s leaving Parliament to trigger a by-election, in which he will stand again as a candidate, and some in…
We need to talk about Fight Club
Philadelphia, 2019. An Uber is hauling me to the nearest Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, and I ask the driver to name the best parts of Philly. A twenty-something black guy, he…
Welcome to Fortress Iran
This week, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei reshuffled the Islamic Republic’s security apparatus as his country entered its sixth month of war with the United States. Given the byzantine…
Blame Jesus for Jason Arday
When I was a fresh-faced undergraduate, newly arrived at Jesus College Cambridge in 2007, I remember listening to a speech by its then-master. He was very, monotonously, clear: the college’s…
JK Rowling is reaping the Potter whirlwind
I have a confession: as a child I was the biggest Harry Potter fan in the muggle world. I had the books in special-edition hardback. A Gryffindor cloak. A collection…
The Odyssey as AI allegory
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey has returned Homer’s epic to the center of popular culture, a feat that must be welcomed. Many have asked me to review the film. I declined.…
Why fashion falls for fascists
Oscar Wilde commanded that “one should either be a work of art or wear a work of art.” What happens, though, when the shirt is sublime but the soul is…
Can Britain survive its petty-crime wave?
This month marks a grim anniversary: 15 years since the London riots of 2011. Beginning with protests over the police shooting of Mark Duggan in Tottenham, the unrest spiraled into…
How France became a big-tech colony
The term itself is almost quaint nowadays. But when Emmanuel Macron leaves office next year, he won’t have much to show for his 2017 pledges to turn France into the…