World
The West is doing Putin’s work for him
Ukraine, as is periodically observed, means borderland. Geography will forever influence its destiny as an independent state. With tensions between…
Hanging up the MAGA hat
I’d like to state for the record that I’m officially sick of Donald Trump. Last Wednesday, Cory Lewandowski took to…
San Francisco is decaying
During the pandemic, a growing number of people in floridly psychotic states screamed obscenities at invisible enemies, or at my…
Will Trudeau’s clampdown on the Freedom Convoy backfire?
Canada has long been viewed as a peaceful, welcoming country. Like most western democracies, it has witnessed some difficult historical…
How Britain’s fracking industry was regulated into irrelevance
This week the fracking company Cuadrilla announced that it was permanently closing its two shale mines in Lancashire, after the…
The fading legacy of Deng Xiaoping
After Mao Zedong’s death in 1976, it was clear to pragmatists in the Chinese Communist Party, led by Deng Xiaoping,…
Stonewall’s disgraceful attacks on the EHRC
Whatever happened to the brilliant gay rights movement led by people like Ian McKellen, Simon Fanshawe, Matthew Parris and Angela…
The dog catcher, the terrorist and the dark history of Sinn Fein
The dead in the ground and those who put them there in the name of ideology do not rest easily…
Meet Sergey Naryshkin, Putin’s spymaster in Ukraine
On a cool October day in Moscow in 2017, Sergey Naryshkin, the head of the SVR, Russia’s foreign intelligence service,…
The academic taking on the trans activist bullies at Bristol university
Raquel Rosario-Sanchez’s case may prove to be a landmark one in the current war on women. She is a PhD…
Licoricia and the forgotten expulsion of England’s Jews
About three minutes’ walk from my house in Winchester is Jewry Street. It runs from the Theatre Royal at one…
Why the Trump toilet story stinks
While President Trump was in office, White House staff periodically discovered wads of printed paper clogging a toilet and came…
Is the future of the American right at Mission Navy Yard?
What is the future for American conservatism? That was the question posed at a Manhattan Institute event on Thursday night,…
Can Labour members ever learn to love Keir Starmer?
Keir Starmer is the master of all he surveys. Thanks to partygate, Labour now enjoys a consistent poll lead over…
Ukraine’s plight paints a bleak vision of Europe’s future
It is tempting to view Vladimir Putin as a Cold War relic: a former KGB officer who hasn’t got over the…
How long can Japan keep foreigners locked out?
A colleague has posted on the ‘Return to Japan’ Facebook page that his hotel quarantine at Tokyo’s Narita airport is…
Is this the reason America has had such a disastrous pandemic?
If Francis Fukuyama was wrong about the end of history, he was right about one thing. Back in the scary…
Boris buys himself a reprieve
After a difficult few weeks, Boris Johnson has made it to parliamentary recess. Given few expect a no confidence vote to…
What Mitch McConnell knows about January 6
For a party that claims it wants to move on, the Republicans are doing a remarkable job of turning the…
Does the Bodleian really need a race adviser?
It’s a difficult time for libraries. Budget cutbacks, online competitors and rival forms of media all point to a grim…
How democratic are the French elections?
There are just 59 days to go until voters turn out for the first round of the French presidential election…
How high could interest rates go?
The last time that US inflation hit 7.5 per cent, Ronald Reagan was a recently-elected president. And he, older readers…
Is scrapping self-isolation safe?
Is now the right time to lift all Covid restrictions, as the Prime Minister suggested he might do from 24…
Women-only carriages are a bonkers idea
Here we go again. Another suggestion, this time by the SNP transport minister, Jenny Gilruth, to introduce women-only carriages on…
Boris vs the Blob: the real reason John Major can’t stand the PM
The embattled denizens of Downing Street must be quaking in their loafers as another incoming missile streaks in. This one…
