World
Why women trust Farage more than Starmer
Labour’s attack dogs have Nigel Farage firmly in their sights. A vote for Reform will leave women and girls at…
Sally Rooney to use BBC royalties to support Palestine Action
The UK government’s proscription of campaign group Palestine Action saw over more than 500 protestors arrested this month – the…
Serbia is descending into violence
Belgrade There are two kinds of Balkan crises: the ones that actually happen, and the ones that feel inevitable until…
BBC admits Huw Edwards hasn’t returned six-figure sum
Now the beleaguered BBC is facing fury from its own staff – after it emerged that Huw Edwards has not…
How long before Rachel Reeves introduces a ‘FTSE tax’?
As figures out today show the salaries at the top of business soaring, there are plenty of good reasons for…
Why Putin wants Donetsk
Will Ukraine’s fate depend on Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, Druzhkivka and Kostiantynivka? These may not be household names, but they are…
Terence Stamp bent the Swinging Sixties to his will
There are two famous images of the late Terence Stamp, one taken from one of his films, the other from…
Labour will regret its attack on nature
Environmentalists always feared that Brexit would lead to a weakening of environmental protections, but who would have guessed that it…
America’s most radical mayor?
American politics is often reactionary. Barack Obama rode the dip of the 2007-2008 financial crash, but after eight years of…
How to solve Britain’s shoplifting epidemic
Fifteen years ago, at the tail end of Blairism, I was running things for the Home Office in Southwest England.…
Has France got what it takes to stand up to the Islamists?
In the early 1990s, an underground organisation was launched called the Barbie Liberation Movement (BLM). Its mission statement was a…
Hamas is using Israel’s protests as a weapon of war
Israel is caught in a tragic paradox: the finest qualities that define its national character – its compassion, solidarity, and…
Starmer’s coalition of the willing has been saved from itself
It is commonplace to accuse politicians of being out of touch. There is often some truth in the charge, and…
The uncomfortable history of Narva
The Alaska talks between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin might have happened on American territory, but the symbolism of their…
God save the great British pudding!
There are certain names of puddings that, if whispered to an Englishman of a certain age, will bring back near-Proustian…
Xi’s purge is expanding
Of all those who have been purged by President Xi Jinping, disappearing into the communist party’s vast network of black…
How Ireland became a haven for Hezbollah’s cocaine
In the end, it was a combination of the Irish weather, European maritime intelligence and engine trouble that scuppered a…
Oxford is being consumed by bureaucracy
The governance of Oxford University is plumbing new depths – and this doesn’t mean dons or deans, but the university’s…
Was the Treaty of Versailles really to blame for the rise of the Nazis?
The 1919 Versailles peace conference that followed the end of the first world war became the most famous, or notorious,…
Mounting Russian deaths will not deter Putin
In June, a grim milestone passed. The Ministry of Defence said that one million Russians had been killed or wounded…
Can tariffs replace income taxes?
Can tariffs replace income taxes paid by Americans earning an income under $200,000 annually, as President Trump has suggested? We…
Male cheerleaders? Who cares
The most famous cheerleaders in the National Football League once belonged to the Dallas Cowboys. Both fans and haters of the…
Chicago Public Schools have failed. But there’s another option
Illinois recently released its 2024 Educational Report Card. The grades are, not surprisingly, bleak. Eighty schools reported not a single…
The 12 minutes of the Trump-Putin summit that shook the world
The Trump-Putin press conference in Anchorage was 12 minutes that shook the world. Putin got precisely what he wanted, which…
The many blind spots in Nicola Sturgeon’s memoir
Throughout her memoir, Nicola Sturgeon emphasises her achievement in becoming the first female first minister of Scotland. While that achievement…
