Putin, Ukraine and the end of 'the end of history'
As Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops onto Ukrainian soil, the initial Western response was swift, if not underwhelming. Trade in…
Britain is trapped in a Boomerocracy
‘If the young knew what was good for them’ the historian Niall Ferguson once remarked, ‘they’d join the Tea party’.…
What is so enraging about a group of white men?
Pity the poor 41 Club. The last time an image of a group of men eating dinner caused this much…
What's worse: kicking a cat or racism?
The best football teams are adept at turning defence into attack. After a video of centre back Kurt Zouma practising…
Life after Plan B: are we ready for the 'new normal'?
Is Covid over? With Plan B restrictions finally lifted, there’ll be no more working from home. Masks will no longer…
Operation Save Big Dog and the real scandal of Boris’s leadership
There is a theory which states the primary reason for Boris Johnson’s political longevity is that there are simply so…
The Foreign Office isn’t fit for purpose
Now that the dust from the choppers has settled, we are left with two abiding images of the West’s adventure…
Kyle Rittenhouse and the failure of the American state
Kyle Rittenhouse is innocent. We knew that anyway, but the simple fact of something being true in no way guarantees…
Lukashenko and Putin are exploiting Europe's migration muddle
At the border of Belarus and Poland, camps of migrants wait for a chance to cross the border into the…
Oxford has more to be ashamed of than Gove
Being the most prestigious university in the English-speaking world comes with its drawbacks. While the rolls of alumni are littered…
The problem with PC policing
Ah, the last days of summer. Long evenings, sunny weekends, and crusty Extinction Rebellion hippies blocking arterial traffic lanes to…
Older voters are killing British democracy
There is an idea of the state that argues that the role of government is to act as a benevolent…
The UN's American obsession
Under other circumstances I wouldn’t mind living in the American empire here in Britain. The tithes are reasonable and the…
Why the Oxford Queen portrait row matters
The sheer scale of the outrage over Magdalen College Oxford electing to remove a portrait of the Queen from the…
What the England team doesn’t get about ‘taking the knee’
England’s players being booed by their own fans is not a new phenomenon. But for the booing to be about…
What happens now that Rhodes didn't fall?
Oriel College, Oxford’s decision to retain the statue of Cecil Rhodes has generated the usual voluminous fury. It has also shown it…
Let's call time on Britain's gerontocracy
The boomers are eating their grandchildren. They don’t see it this way, of course, but they are doing it nonetheless.…
Why unconscious bias training doesn't work
It’s hard not to feel a bit sorry for Bill Michael, who recently resigned as UK boss of KPMG. While he…
Reparations can't right the wrongs of the past
It’s all change at Jesus College, Cambridge. The marble memorial to Tobias Rustat is coming down. His portrait is no longer…
Did slavery really make Britain rich?
‘It’s a sad truth that much of our wealth was derived from the slave trade’, said London’s mayor Sadiq Khan.…
Abolish the police. Then what?
One of the best rules of thumb to emerge from systems theory is Stafford Beer’s famous statement: the purpose of…
