How America lost the art of association
“In democratic countries the science of association is the mother science; the progress of all the others depends on the progress of that one,” wrote Alexis de Tocqueville after touring…
Meet London’s boat people
In a city like London, whether we know it or not, people agree to a strange kind of psychic bargain. There’s opportunity in the city — or at least proximity…
Robo-dogs will ruin your life
Of all the modern gadgets to come spilling out of the AI revolution, none is more hateful to me than the robot dog. The thought of replacing man’s best friend…
The scandal of two-tier degrees
As the academic year draws to a close, students up and down the country will be receiving their degrees. So, consider two different cases: Read more Keir Starmer’s lethal legacy…
Keir Starmer’s lethal legacy
A friend tells a blood-curdling anecdote about visiting Moscow for work, in that End of History interregnum, when the West still did business with the Russian bear. Even then, it…
Will France’s banlieues wreck the World Cup?
As France gears up for the World Cup, the French police are preparing for more violence on the streets, whatever the results brought home by the French team. Les Bleus’…
How Britain maimed its military
Britain’s armed forces have undergone a very long recessional. In 1945, the Army alone had some three million men under arms, with millions more in the navy, air force and…
Donald Trump knows how to party
A bloodied UFC fighter is lying flat on his back, arms akimbo. He has just been knocked unconscious by Josh Hokit, who celebrates by draping a playing card of himself…
The rise of Britain’s neo-Nazis
The first thing to understand about Alek Yerbury is that he is not trying to look like Adolf Hitler. He wears a leather overcoat similar to that which the Führer…
Hartley, not Orwell, foresaw today’s tyranny
When I first read L.P. Hartley’s neglected dystopian novel Facial Justice, published in 1960, I found it whimsical and utterly implausible. Rereading it after six decades, I find it one…