Europe
Iran and the crisis in the European mind
The politics of the Iranian war feature an observable gap between interest and action for nearly all parties. The Americans…
Americans are erasing European culture
Did Mariah Carey mime or not when she headlined the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Milan? That was…
British politics is turning French
An editorial in Friday’s Le Figaro (France’s equivalent to the New York Times) is headlined “Mélenchon or the moral suicide…
No, Zelensky: World War Three hasn’t started
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says that World War Three has already started. Speaking to the BBC on the eve of…
The world after New START
When the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) expires tomorrow, the United States and Russia will, for the first…
France has a nasty case of Trump Derangement Syndrome
The French IT giant Capgemini has put its US subsidiary on sale because of its association with the work of…
Jack Rankin: No to Reform
No to Reform Sir: Perhaps because I have been candid about the Conservative party’s failures in office, I am mooted…
Boris Johnson: will cowardly Europe betray Ukraine again?
Boris Johnson has urged European leaders to hand $247 billion of frozen Russian central bank assets to Ukraine – but…
Nick Thomas-Symonds: ‘The Brexit architects essentially ran away’
With his owlish expression and affable manner, Nick Thomas-Symonds looks more like the academic that he was, rather than the…
The concept of ‘the West’ seems to mean anything you like
First formulated by Auguste Comte in the 19th century, its later proponents would even embrace Japan while questioning the inclusion of belligerent Germany
Europe is giving up on free movement
Ten years ago on 31 August 2015, Angela Merkel told the German press what she was going to do about…
Putin orders new offensive
‘You want a ceasefire? I want your death,’ said Russia’s chief propagandist Vladimir Soloviev during prime time television, the camera…
How English are you really?
I’ve struggled to ascertain from afar the true nature of Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland. Progressive media love to quote its…
Is Poland’s revival a mirage?
In 1988, when I was six months old, my British father and Polish mother took me to meet my family…
Debunking the myths about the ECHR
This year the European Convention on Human Rights and its Strasbourg court are 75 years old – the age at…
What Europe gets wrong about the far right
The head of America’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ (Doge) has written to all federal workers in the US asking them…
Europe should listen to America’s uncomfortable truths
The response in Europe to J.D Vance’s speech at the Munich Security Conference last Friday was one of predictable outrage.…
Is Europe really faring better than Britain?
Five years ago this week, Boris Johnson was celebrating the achievement of leaving the European Union and wondering how he…
Europe’s blind spot over anti-Semitism
You would think that we Europeans might have learned a thing or two about anti-Semitism over the past century or…
The slippery business of catching a snake
Dante’s Beach, Ravenna It is strange how events elide and create a pattern whose significance remains elusive. I had just…
Stalemate over Taiwan is the best we can hope for
A good outcome is the tacit recognition on all sides that we currently lack the means to solve this intractable problem, says the former diplomat Kerry Brown
Albania has long lived in Italy’s shadow
Albanians are descended from the most ancient of European peoples, the Illyrians. The country came into existence only after 1912…
How the EU turned on Ireland’s low-tax project
First, the good news. The Irish government is about to receive a €13 billion windfall in the form of back…
My teenage Interrailing adventures
Dante’s Beach, Ravenna In my life I have nearly killed myself mainly with cigarettes and alcohol and dangerous journeys into…
The danger of a Labour supermajority
We are witnessing what could well be the last few weeks of a constrained Labour party. Sir Keir Starmer is…
