Piddington’s very English revolution
At a packed village hall meeting in picturesque Piddington, parish council leader Tim McNally railed against the British state. “The Government has stacked all of…
How the Constitution failed America
Next month, Americans mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence from the British Empire. Although the present US Constitution was written in 1787, ratified in 1788, and first…
Size mattered for the Founding Fathers
In the summer of 1776, just a few weeks after the Thirteen Colonies had declared their independence, George Washington was in New York, preparing for the first and biggest fight…
Labour’s war on gay rights
The Labour Party is waging war on gay people. As one of Keir Starmer’s parting shots, his government is about to introduce the single most anti-gay piece of legislation since…
Why Burnhamomics will fail
Britain’s political journalists have already settled on a narrative for Keir Starmer and Andy Burnham. Starmer, they’ve decided, was simply not a politician. He entered politics late in life and…
AI: A God we can’t trust
Robert Wright is the author of several books that fall somewhere between popular science and original speculation and is the publisher of the consistently interesting Substack Nonzero Newsletter, a lone,…
South Africa’s warning for Britain
As Britain reacted to an eruption of anti-migrant violence in Belfast earlier this month, seeing images of burnt-out terraced housing and hearing accounts of African nurses apprehended at checkpoints, a…
The myth of the King of the North
“Too Northern”; “Not really Northern at all”; “Strategically Northern”; “A plastic Northerner”; “A professional Northerner”; “A Northern soul populist.” Not since Jon Snow rode South in Game of Thrones has…
Does America deserve a happy ending?
Until recently, I had never seen Ewan McGregor’s movie adaptation of Philip Roth’s American Pastoral. I had hardly heard of it. And when I researched it, I found that it…
Jeffrey Donaldson’s wicked crimes
Jeffrey Donaldson, one of the most notable politicians in Northern Ireland, was convicted of child rape on 22 June. The BBC’s News at Six bulletin made no mention of it,…
All hail, Mel Brooks
No filmmaker better captures the spirit of America at its best than Mel Brooks. His life and work embody its can-do confidence and joyful exuberance, its promise as a melting-pot…