How Badenoch bounced back
One of the origin stories about Kemi Badenoch’s career as politician is that, while waiting to be interviewed as candidate…
The battle for Antarctic krill is about to get uglier
Krill – the small, shrimp-like crustacean – is a keystone species. It underpins the marine ecosystem of the Southern Ocean,…
Britain doesn’t need to become great again – it already is
After three-and-a-half years as Poland’s ambassador in London, I’ve come home with two strong impressions. The first: the United Kingdom…
The Liberal Party that forgot what held it together
I have been quiet for a week and a half. Now it is time to return to battle, a metaphorical…
Did Band Aid make a difference?
Is this the year that ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’ – the charity song written by Bob Geldof and Midge…
Save our Boxing Day football
Football’s race to destroy the sport’s finest traditions has surpassed itself, yet again. For the annual Boxing Day feast of…
How terrorism changed Christmas
Christmas is traditionally a time of joy, merriment and peace on Earth. Not so in the little town of Erbach, Germany,…
Christmas and the luxury of fallow time
Christmas is now a festival of family and overeating, yet it keeps its pockets of quiet reflection, even for those…
Cultural frustration and the Age of Influencers
Tate and Chatfield are not building culture; they are selling it
Australia needs a Joseph
Preventing private debt collapse through wisdom, foresight, and just policy
The King’s speech hit the wrong note
When the King delivered this year’s traditional Christmas Day speech – the fourth he has now given – he chose…
Politicians are washing their hands of Bondi with rushed gun laws
Australia’s decision to largely disarm, made under the leadership of John Howard during the 1996 gun buyback, distinguished us ideologically…
Iron Maiden at 50: how heavy metal became mainstream
The death of the Black Sabbath singer Ozzy Osbourne this July, and the huge reaction it provoked worldwide, represented something…
Christmas dinner is hell for vegans
It’s one of the last bastions of national orthodoxy, one that people look forward to for months, but many vegans…
The revolutionary meaning of Christmas
As stale as it is flawed, the Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee’s view of Christmas nonetheless encapsulates secularist scepticism in revealing ways. Published…
Born in a cave
Here it is – Christmas again. And once again it can hold a lesson for us. For perhaps it really…
Merry Christmas from the heartland of Santa Claus
From Munich: German Christmas markets are the best in the world. There’s something about Germany that makes Christmas feel more…
How to stop the next massacre of British Jews
No one remembers the ones they catch in time. Walid Saadaoui and Amar Hussein will quickly be forgotten and so…
Is this finally the end of non-crime hate incidents?
Roll up for a Christmas surprise on the policing front. According to a leak from the College of Policing to…
Chelleh Night (Birth of Light)
Chelleh Night, or Shab-e Yalda, takes place at the time of the winter solstice, around December 21, the longest night…
The ancient tradition of burning a Yule Log
To most modern Britons the words ‘Yule Log’ probably bring to mind that masterstroke of marketing that has enabled supermarkets…
