How likely is a global recession this year?
The best thing that can be said about global economic growth prospects for 2023 is that no-one is expecting very…
An ode to smoking
Studies show that fewer than half of Americans keep their New Year’s resolutions. The other half, I assume, are bald-faced liars.…
Coming soon: Meghan’s memoir?
And you thought we’d seen the last of them in 2022. The new year kicks off with some old score-settling:…
WEF Watch: carbon accounting
Given the risk posed by the closed-door lobbying group more commonly known as the World Economic Forum, this year The Spectator…
In search of common sense
I am sure that, like me, you have not only used the term ‘common sense’ yourselves, but have heard many…
Is Queensland’s Minister for Women selling out women and girls?
Under Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Women, and the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence Shannon Fentiman’s new bill, a…
Pope Benedict helped me know and love Christ
It was Benedict XVI’s election as Pope, his speeches and his writings that prompted my conversion, and it was his…
Will history judge Benedict XVI more kindly than his contemporaries?
This weekend I have been touring TV studios trying to set the late Pope Benedict’s life and work in perspective.…
Pouria Hadjibagheri and the UK’s abandoned open data revolution
With a new year comes the New Year’s Honours and I’m struck to see an MBE given to Pouria Hadjibagheri. He’s the…
Why yesterday’s men will loom large in 2023
New year, old politicians. Yesterday’s men will loom large in the politics of 2023. British politics has a nostalgia problem,…
The Home Office shouldn’t shy away from exposing Islamist extremism
Like many with an interest in national security, I’ve spent this week closely following the news that there has been…
Boxing is right to stop men fighting women
I hate the fact that I felt a major sense of relief when I saw the news that the World…
Liberate New Year’s Eve
We are nearly at the end of the first day in 2023. Presumably, most people have ruined their resolution diet…
How the Tories can defuse their demographic timebomb
Even in their most difficult moments, there’s an aura of invincibility about the Conservative party. It is, after all, one…
Australia’s New Year resolutions
As I consider the future and look forward to the year 2023, I have resolved to make the following solemn…
Pope Benedict XVI: towering intellect and deep piety
Sydney’s Cardinal Anthony Fisher is right to praise the late Pope Benedict XVI as ‘a man of towering intellect and…
Building babies in a brave new world
The term ‘dystopian’ gets thrown around a lot these days, but it’s fair to say that the idea of babies…
Pope Benedict: a theologian with a profound belief in reason
Pope Benedict is dead; now only Pope Francis remains in the Vatican. And the Catholic Church is diminished by his…
Lee Harvey Oswald killed JFK
I admire Tucker Carlson, Robert Kennedy Jr, and Miranda Devine, but they’ve all done a disservice recently in fuelling foolish…
Putin’s wish for 2023
Following an unusually quiet December for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin has emerged to deliver his traditional New Year’s Eve…
Venezuela’s anti-socialist opposition has faltered
2019 was a banner year for Juan Guaido, a relatively obscure Venezuelan lawmaker who announced to a crowd of thousands…
Might Michel Houellebecq become the next Salman Rushdie?
In August this year Salman Rushdie was stabbed multiple times. The novelist survived the attack, to the outward relief of…
My debt to Pope Benedict XVI
Back in early 2019, my wife discovered that she was pregnant with our fourth child. A few weeks later, we…
What unites Greta Thunberg and Andrew Tate
So, are you Team Tate or Team Thunberg? Do you side with the muscled misogynist who has convinced tragic TikTok…
Fusion energy and the coming fight for the Moon
It’s been hard to miss the excitement since the US Energy Department announced that its Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory had…
