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…
Taylor Swift: feudal princess
Our chronically leaky national governments could learn a thing or two about from Taylor Swift’s wedding planners. Rumors swirled for weeks in the run-up. New York streets were closed off.…
Can Los Angeles be saved?
Last March, a makeshift drug factory exploded next to Los Angeles resident Juan Galicia’s craftsman-style home, built in 1910. The flames spread to his gas line, setting off a fire…
L’euthanasie de l’Occident
On raconte que Gandhi, interrogé sur ce qu’il pensait de la civilisation occidentale, aurait répondu après quelques secondes : « Ça pourrait être une bonne idée ». C’est drôle et…
Katie Price’s horror show
When I heard last year that Sky was making a documentary series about Katie Price, my first thought was that they were taking a risk: on her social media posts,…
Jonathan Haidt: Why the Right should support the social media ban
Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation must count as one of the most influential books of the decade. Within a year of its publication, countries across the Western world were moving…
The great German own goal
Can it be a coincidence? For three World Cups in a row, Germany has failed to make it to the last 16. For the 16 previous tournaments — from 1954…
Why populism fails
The rise of President Donald Trump has transformed the Republican Party, moving it in a populist direction. On the Left, we see the rise of figures like Maine senatorial candidate…
AI and the false consciousness trap
The trouble with impressive new technologies is that they have the uncanny ability to expose the awfulness of our relationship to one another, not to mention to our own selves.…
How Germans made America
Donald Trump was made for America 250. The looks, the flair, the beguiling mix of arrogance and fun — the 47th president is his country in flabby flesh and bone.…
The euthanasia of the West
It is said that when Gandhi was asked what he thought of Western civilisation, he paused for a few seconds before replying: “I think it would be a very good…