France has the most to lose from Britain’s turn away from Europe
It was Napoleon who declared that ‘a state has the politics of its geography’. We do well to remember that…
Whatever you do, don’t mention ‘Court’ to Morrison
On 21 January 2019, Prime Minister Scott Morrison, along with then Sports Minister Senator Bridget McKenzie, announced a grant of…
Whirling ‘Triffids’ are now cluttering our coastlines
‘I saw them now with a disgust that they had never roused in me before. Horrible alien things which some…
Will Trump’s pro-vaccine stance prove his undoing?
Donald Trump famously boasted that he could ‘stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody’ and still not lose voters. That…
Abortion has poisoned American politics. Good
In the months before and after the 2020 presidential election, I was ready to take the blackpill. I had become…
Remember panic-buying? Here’s what will happen next time
It’s post-Christmas, and there are already murmurs about supermarkets with empty shelves. Just as with the petrol shortage in September and…
Boris’s lockdown gamble could spell big trouble for Labour
Has Boris Johnson just been thrown a lifeline by a devolution settlement that has caused nothing but trouble for UK…
Stonewall’s annus horribilis
The year 2021 has been an annus horribilis for Stonewall. For much of the last decade, the charity could do no…
Labour in limbo over Covid curbs
Wes Streeting has enjoyed something of a dream start since his promotion to shadow health secretary a month ago. Confident…
The Father I knew: A tribute to Desmond Tutu
The tributes being paid to Desmond Tutu this week often begin with words like ‘activist’, ‘campaigner’, ‘protester’, ‘fighter’ or ‘opponent’.…
Sweden puts vaccine passports under our skin
Swedish startup Epicenter has created a microchip to store Covid vaccine passports. The device is inserted under the skin on…
Senior Constable wins injunction against vaccine dismissal
On December 24, Senior Constable Ben Falconer was given an earnestly hoped-for Christmas present. Following a hearing the previous day,…
Diane Abbott’s Zero Covid crusade
With Christmas over, the turkey consumed and Maughamtide been and gone, the eyes of an anxious nation have turned once…
The modern economy is built on addiction
Two stories, side-by-side in theSunday paper I was looking at online. The first — ‘Strip Dame Dopesick ofher title’ —…
Scotland’s 2022 constitutional courtroom drama will be pure theatre
This is the time of year when economists and political scientists make their predictions for the upcoming 12 months. Will…
Afghanistan’s troubles can’t only be blamed on the Taliban
In 2001, I spent part of a hard winter in a remote village near Bamiyan in the Afghan central highlands.…
Australia must increase housing supply to improve affordability
The intent underpinning the federal government’s First Home Loan Deposit Scheme is well placed, but good intentions do not necessarily translate to…
Braverman’s brush with the law
Ah student politics: is there anything quite like it? The strange creatures it attracts, the passions it unleashes, the adolescent…
What Patrick Vallance doesn’t say about Sage
Does Sage have a pro-lockdown bias? Sir Patrick Valance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, wrote an article in the Times…
No, Putin isn’t trying to bring the Soviet Union back
On Christmas Day 1991, in his last act as president, Mikhail Gorbachev signed away the existence of the Union of…
The churches must stay open
Hooray for Cardinal Vincent Nichols, who used the one day of the year when his pronouncements are amplified by the…
What Putin’s Russia fears most of all
When Vladimir Putin called the collapse of the Soviet Union ‘a major geopolitical disaster of the century’ he wasn’t channelling…
A dangerous tone has crept into medical discourse
A dangerous tone has crept into the medical discourse. Over the last year, it has become increasingly common to encounter…
What’s it like spending Christmas behind bars?
It’s customary these days for people to complain that Covid restrictions mean everyday life ‘is like living in a prison.’…
In a world of dogma, is Christmas the ‘truth’ that matters?
Christmas is a dogmatic truth grounded in a historical fact – no wonder some people hate it. Our modern world…
