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…
Russell T Davies is stuck in a purity spiral
My father was a great admirer of the television show Dr Who, right from the start in 1964. Because I’m so old, I remember three Doctors: William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton…
How the unions sold out Britain’s workers
On a plinth outside the Trades Union Congress headquarters in Bloomsbury stands a modernist sculpture by Bernard Meadows. Called “The Spirit of Brotherhood”, it was commissioned back in the Fifties,…
Can pubfluencers save the proper boozer?
I recently visited a pub called The Camel in Bethnal Green. Tucked down a side street, its entrance was covered in chestnut tiles but the rest of the building looked…
Can religious families survive liberalism?
Fjord — the inspired-by-real-events drama that wowed last month’s Cannes Film Festival, earning the Palm d‘Or — explores the limits and paradoxes of liberalism. Does liberalism require tolerance for religious…
Inside Britain’s broken war machine
“Time and again, leaders have looked the other way, only re-arming when disaster is upon them. This time, it must be different.” These were Keir Starmer’s sage remarks to the…
Donald Trump: false prophet
The epic disaster that followed Donald Trump’s air assault on Iran was the expression of two extreme likelihoods. One concerned the assault itself, which almost everyone knew would empower the…
How misology stole our humanity
Man, Nietzsche wrote, is “the unfinished animal”. He meant that nature goes only so far in shaping human beings. We become who we are through the distinctively human capacity to…
The hollow ‘accusation’ campaign targeting Graham Platner
Graham Platner’s campaign to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins in Maine can come across as pretty rote — mostly just reheated Bernie Sanders mantras. It’s hardly surprising that many in…
Can Modi crush the cockroaches?
Once again, the young in India are misguided. Every generation, it seems, must discover afresh that it has been hoodwinked by the ruling class, and, in response, throw itself into…
Why Gen Z is obsessed with horror
It’s often observed that horror films are a good barometer of pressing cultural anxieties. If so, the weather doesn’t look very good for social interaction right now. Backrooms has just…