How long will Germany’s anti-AfD ‘firewall’ last?
Berlin awoke this morning in a state of shock. Although opinion polls had predicted that the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD)…
Britain has a long history of authoritarianism
If Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is seriously intending to crack down on ‘hateful and harmful opinions’ – as she has promised to…
Did the Prime Minister have an affair with a woman half his age?
As a connoisseur of British political scandals I have long puzzled over one of the most intriguing of all such…
How could Hitler have had so many willing henchmen?
Richard J. Evans tackles one of the Third Reich’s great mysteries. Why did so many apparently ‘normal’ Germans end up as perpetrators of mass atrocities?
The trouble with ‘spy swaps’
Yesterday’s exchange of prisoners at Ankara airport in Turkey will have been personally ordered by President Putin. He is a…
Why the Bolivia coup failed
Latin America has long been the traditional home of the military coup – or ‘golpe’ in Spanish – so the…
Labour purges are nothing new
Sir Keir Starmer’s determination to prove to voters that Labour has changed, by purging the party’s far left, may look…
The sad decline of the Evening Standard
It’s always a sad day for journalists when a newspaper goes to the great printing room in the sky. But for…
It’s time for Nigel Farage to get off the fence
Rishi Sunak’s snap summer election means that Nigel Farage faces a decisive moment. For months if not years, Farage has…
Slovakia is united after the assassination attempt on Fico. It won’t last
Somewhat unfairly, Slovakia is often overlooked and ignored as a quiet and peaceful backwater in the often turbulent turmoil of…
Is Dominic Cummings’ ‘start up party’ a non-starter?
We haven’t heard much from Dominic Cummings since he walked out of No. 10 Downing Street in November 2020. Now…
Why Portugal’s coup worked
Fifty years ago today, on 25 April 1974, Europe was stunned by an almost bloodless military coup that removed the…
Europe’s coffee houses are in trouble
There’s bad news for coffee fans: the price of your favourite beverage – which has already rocketed in recent years…
Does Reform believe in democracy?
For the third time in recent years a party created by Nigel Farage is threatening the Tory party’s fading hopes…
Was Russia right to torture the Moscow attackers?
The court appearance of the four men accused by Russia of carrying out the Moscow massacre of 137 innocent concert…
Who really betrayed the Great Escape prisoners?
Anyone for whom a screening of the film The Great Escape is an annual Christmas tradition will know how strong…
In defence of private members’ clubs
The members list of the men-only Garrick Club in London’s West End has remained a closely-guarded secret – until now.…
The enduring lesson of Julius Caesar’s assassination
In Rome today a group of ancient history enthusiasts will drape themselves in togas and re-enact that most infamous act of…
Meet Portugal’s new hard-right kingmakers
Portugal goes to the polls this weekend for parliamentary elections and it looks likely to become the latest European country…
Germany is the West’s weakest link against Putin
Two massive security scandals this weekend have given a shot in the arm to Putin’s war on Ukraine. Yet again…
David Cameron and the long history of the posh Arabist
Anyone with a smattering of knowledge of Britain’s troubled history in the Middle East will be unsurprised by Lord Cameron’s…
King Charles’s openness about his health marks a change for the Royals
The great ages achieved by King Charles’ mother, the Queen (96), and maternal grandmother, the Queen mother (101), show that…
Why have Germany’s spies opened a file on their old chief?
It’s not often that an ex-spymaster is spied upon by his former colleagues. But just that has happened in Germany,…
What explains the rise of Austria’s Freedom Party?
We don’t hear much about Austrian politics in Britain, which is not perhaps surprising since the landlocked Central European republic…
Conrad Black adheres firmly to the ‘great man’ view of history
The movers and shakers of Volume I of his projected history of the world are Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Hannibal rather than any socio-economic forces
