There’s a poignant epigraph in Hilary Mantel’s final book, The Mirror & the Light. “Brother men,” it reads, “you who live after us, do not harden your hearts against us.”
Right now, it feels particularly difficult not to harden our …
Will AI drones fill the DOGE void?
Elon Musk’s DOGE has introduced some novel mental states into various parts of the American polity. Among its supporters, one finds both triumphalism and confusion. Among its opponents, one finds outrage, or sadness, or alarm, or all of these things …
Netflix is degrading our politics
In the 1850s, Gustave Flaubert began an experiment that would impact culture to this very day. What would happen, he wondered, if someone lived their life in the manner of the books they read? The resulting novel, Madame Bovary, was …
23andMe was always junk science
About a decade ago, everyone was very excited about commercial genetic testing.
For a few quid you could get a website with some name like MyGeneHistory dot com to send you a little swab stick, which you would swizz around …
Rolls-Royce is an engine of prosperity
If you’d bought £10,000 of Rolls-Royce stock at the end of January 2021 you’d now be staring at £87,610: a 776% return, outpacing even Nvidia. It’s no wonder that the stock has inspired cult-like devotion from the most online of …
Why Trump can’t beat the Houthis
Donald Trump took to Truth Social last week to give Iran a violent warning: “Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of IRAN. …
The lost innocence of Grey’s Anatomy
I first heard about Grey’s Anatomy on the school bus. I’m turning 32 this week, and Grey’s is turning 20. It was the spring of 2005, when ABC launched this two-decade medical drama about the life and times of Dr. …
Can Spain forgive Juan Carlos?
If you ever struggle to adapt to the modern world, spare a thought for Juan Carlos, the disgraced Emeritus King of Spain. On a rare return to Spain from the United Arab Emirates — where he currently resides in semi-exile …
Fortunes are changing in the culture war
Wheels of justice grind slow but grind big fine, as Sun Tzu once almost said. The Office for Students has now completed its three-and-a-half year investigation into free speech violations at Sussex University, hitting my former employer with a record …
How Saudi bought Britain’s architects
Could Saudi Arabia be the holiday destination of your dreams? Perhaps so, if you’re a member of the Westminster jet set. Yesterday, British journalist Emily Maitlis raved about her mini-break in “conservative but chic” Jeddah, where a friend assured her …
Is Poland’s far-Right unstoppable?
In February 2022, I witnessed something remarkable. As Ukraine fell into war, and millions of refugees fled the fighting, Poland banded together to come to their aid. Warsaw’s Central Station became a refugee shelter overnight, with throngs of aid workers …
The lost New York of Henry James
It begins with a house. It is as though there cannot easily be a book unless there is first a house. It was the house that seemed to come before the word. And if the house is lost or gone, …
Why I’m boycotting AI
I went cheerfully through college listening to music on old file-sharing programmes while everybody around me had switched to iTunes. While the rest of the student body scrolled the web on WiFi, I dorkily plugged in an ethernet cable anytime …
Britain’s defence delusions
As anyone who has renovated a run-down house will attest, the very first, unglamorous tasks are to ensure that the structure is stable and weatherproof, and above all that the work ahead is affordable in the first place. Many are …
What Callaghan can teach Labour
James Callaghan is one of those prime ministers — like Gordon Brown or Rishi Sunak — who seems like a political footnote. That’s a bit unfair, though. True, his premiership only lasted three years, and ended when he led Labour …