World
We should not need a court’s permission to criticise Islam
Those who believe in free speech, and those who are particularly concerned by plans to have ‘Islamophobia’ codified, ought to…
Sunday shows round-up: Culture Secretary concerned about BBC bias
The BBC is set to apologise for the misleading editing of a Donald Trump speech it featured in the Panorama…
Why Prevent doesn’t work
Our state counterterrorism strategy ‘Prevent’ is overwhelmed. This is the strand of our national plan, ‘Contest’, to defeat extremism. Prevent…
On less famous presidential assassins
Everyone can name JFK and his (probable) assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, or Abraham Lincoln and everyone’s least favorite actor, John…
What’s the point in a Generational Smoking Ban?
With the Tobacco and Vapes Bill travelling through the House of Lords, I think it’s high time we looked at…
Remembrance Sunday is about more than just the two world wars
At 11 a.m. today, much of the nation will fall silent in remembrance of those who have made the ultimate…
David Bowie was no starman
No one has a bad word to say about David Bowie, but it’s about time they did. The pop star’s…
What the Romans did for the English language
‘Apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what…
What will Trump do in Venezuela?
Venezuela has been on tenterhooks for weeks, waiting as the United States gathers an armada of warships. Next week, the…
The leaked BBC memo is no surprise
As a BBC News journalist who has been driven to distraction by the corporation’s repeated displays of apparent bias, I didn’t think…
What will Jacinda Ardern do next?
When I first met Jacinda Ardern in the early 2010s, the notion that the young MP with the toothy smile…
The case for narcotics licences
I’ve just been in New York for the first time in two decades. It’s a young person’s city, it has…
How Britain can win again
It is time to win again. Britain does not have to be in decline. The state of our country today…
JCB hand £200k to Reform and Tories
The battle on the right is well underway, with competition between Reform and the Tories for attention, ideas and personnel.…
James Watson deserved better
James Watson has died at the great age of 97. Obituaries of the American scientist, who, with his late British…
What the heck is Rachel Reeves up to?
Welcome to my first Evening Blend. Unless there are earth-shattering events each Friday, my intention is to try to cut…
The October Budget was Reeves’s original sin
With hindsight, Rachel Reeves’s first Budget in October last year looks even worse than it did at the time. It…
Britain has imported Ireland’s sectarian strife
At times, I still hear my late father, Sean O’Callaghan’s, voice echoing in my mind. Sean died in 2017 but…
The French state is ashamed of its rose queens
Every summer in small French towns from Créon in the Gironde to Salency in the Oise, a young woman dressed…
No, Elon Musk: we Brits aren’t hobbits
‘When Tolkien wrote about the hobbits, he was referring to the gentlefolk of the English shires, who don’t realise the…
We begged Hollywood for Sydney Sweeney
Sydney Sweeney is back in the news again, because the news keeps making the news about Sydney Sweeney. This week,…
Is Labour trying to make life harder for poor kids like me?
Bridget Phillipson and I have a lot in common. Like the Education Secretary, who started life in a council house…
When will the prisons minister face up to the jail crisis?
The latest episode in the rolling farce that is His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service was this week revealed to be yet another foreign-born…
Prevent’s purpose is drifting from terrorism
When I was a Prevent counter terror officer a decade ago our case load was largely focused on Islamist terrorism…
Why has Martine Croxall been censured by the BBC?
Martine Croxall’s eyes spoke louder than her words when she corrected the clumsy and unnatural use of ‘pregnant people’ on…
