World
How Shabana Mahmood’s police reforms could backfire
This afternoon, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood unveiled a set of sweeping police reforms. These include increased police response times, the…
Rael Braverman joins Reform (again)
The in-and-out movements of the Bravermans have been quite something to behold. This morning it was the turn of Suella…
Real conservatives should join Reform
That sound you can hear is panic. In the past week, articles have appeared by leading Conservatives including Danny Finkelstein,…
Has Xi Jinping fought off another coup?
According to unconfirmed reports, General Zhang Youxia, China’s vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), sent a company of troops…
Reform’s by-election hypocrisy
The Tory defections to Reform are continuing to mount up, with former home secretary Suella Braverman the latest to cross…
America is far safer than you think
‘If it bleeds, it leads,’ Skim through the headlines of today’s American papers and you’ll struggle to find much that’s…
What centrists keep getting wrong
There’s a reason why centrists keep failing: their formula of triangulating between two sides of a debate in order to…
There’s no great mystery to the Andy Burnham affair
A doe-eyed Andy Burnham has appeared looking sad across media outlets, hurt that he has been politically outmanoeuvred by Sir…
Suella Braverman defects to Reform
Another one bites the dust. Suella Braverman this morning was unveiled as the latest defector to Reform UK. The former…
David Abulafia was a rare, truth-seeking historian
Death arrives on a day just like any other, often rudely unheralded. We all know that, but it never ceases…
Belsen haunted my friend to the grave
A patient, an old woman with white hair, stripped of speech by dementia, followed us each shift, staying an inch…
Facts, unlike opinions, are hard to come by in Minneapolis
Did an ICE officer kill Alex Pretti in self defence after being alerted that he was carrying a gun in…
Starmer, Burnham and the narcissism of small differences
Andy Burnham’s bid to stand as an MP – and Keir Starmer’s decision to block him from doing just that,…
This year’s Australia Day brings a painful realisation
In broad daylight, two monuments were smashed in Melbourne’s Flagstaff Gardens last week. One of them was an 1871 memorial…
Is there a free-speech defense of Grok’s deepfakes?
There are scenes in blockbuster teen movies from the 1980s and 1990s that wouldn’t fly today. I think of Revenge…
A conservative in the chaos of Minnesota
If you live in Minnesota, as I do, don’t turn on your TV. Don’t log on to social media. Don’t…
Is it over for the Old Firm?
For 40 years Glasgow has held the power in Scottish football. Since Alex Ferguson’s Aberdeen won the league in 1985,…
Labour MPs would be mad to ditch Keir Starmer
Keir Starmer used to be our MP and I have always had a soft spot for the blinking dafty ever…
The culture wars are exhausting Britain – and puzzling its friends
As an outside observer sitting in Warsaw, there is a peculiarly persistent oddity in the culture wars of Britain. For…
Can Shabana Mahmood save the police?
Over the past week, government ministers and police chiefs have been ‘rolling the pitch’ for what the Home Office is…
Burnham hits out at Team Starmer
Poor old Andy and those sad eyes of his. The Mayor of Greater Manchester has had a pretty rotten day,…
The two winners from the Burnham block
Andy Burnham has been blocked from standing in the Gorton and Denton by-election. The vote this morning by Labour’s ruling…
Starmer blocks Burnham from parliament
Keir Starmer has blocked Andy Burnham from running for parliament, with the party’s National Executive Committee voting 8-1 against his…
The real trouble with Naomi Osaka
Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka is at the centre of controversy again, losing friends and alienating people as she has…
The British right is where the energy is
The British right is tearing itself apart. The departure of Robert Jenrick, for many Tories the obvious king over the…
