Enjoying free speech since 1984. Your daily dose of anti-propaganda!
I submit: the traditional concept of “building character” is out the window.
Once upon a time, a fully realised person was something one became. Entailing education, observation, experimentation, and sometimes humiliation, “coming of age” was hard work. When the project …
When did pickup artistry become criminal? Relying on online sex gurus for advice on persuading women into bed used to be seen as a fallback for introverted, physically unprepossessing “beta males”. And for this reason, in the 2000s, the discipline …
As Chinese New Year approaches, there is apprehension in a part of China often overlooked by overseas news reports: the countryside. China’s now-abandoned Zero-Covid policy was always more focused on urban areas; locking down apartment blocks in Shanghai or smartphone …
Ochakiv, Ukraine
The sun rises on 2023. Its rays light up the trench, an unwelcoming black void into which we gratefully disappear to take cover from the artillery, rockets and Iranian Shahid drones that are launched daily from the Russian …
For many of us, early January is a difficult time. Credit card and tax bills are looming, waistlines are bulging, and it’s dark by 4pm. As I write, the cost-of-living crisis is hitting hard and strikes are paralysing public services. …
Every country needs its myths — stories it tells both to its own people about themselves and to the world, even though upon scrutiny they don’t always fully hold up. Sometimes, however, these myths can be destructive, creating false expectations …
“Kevs”, “Neds”, “townies” and “dobbers”. Do these labels mean anything to you? How about “pikeys”, “grungers”, “moshers” and “skate-punks”? If bells are starting to ring, then I’d wager my strongest Pokémon card that you went to a UK secondary school …
A little more than a year ago, I was sharing a boozy dinner with a prominent conservative pundit when the conversation turned to matters racial. Reflecting on the unrest that had roiled America in the summer of 2020, my companion …
My corner of England has long been regarded as a land apart: a sort of English ultima Thule, with a sociable and hedonistic outlook recognisably different from the rest of the nation. That culture is expressed in everything from the …
“The cost of living, too high! Waiting times in the NHS, too long! Illegal migration, far too much!” This could have been Keir Starmer thundering from the Opposition benches. Except it wasn’t. This was Rishi Sunak’s assessment of the government …
The human butt has long been the object of all manner of obsessions. We worry over it: its size, its shape, whether or not it has cellulite on it, how it looks in a pair of jeans. But now, a …
Just five days after the storming of the Bastille, the Rev. Thomas Malthus rose to the pulpit with the text from the Gospel of Matthew: “whatsoever you wish that others would do to you, do also for them”. He was, …
My bar for what constitutes “misogyny” is relatively high, by feminist standards. I don’t really care how men speak about women when we aren’t around, for example. But like most women, I know what it feels like when you meet …
The start of the new year has unshakeable feeling of Groundhog Day to it. We’re not even a week into January, and already epidemiologists are warning of new Covid variants, while passengers travelling from China to the UK will once …
If you are Conservative-curious, or simply have a taste for the absurd, there is a good chance that your Christmas stocking included the recent Liz Truss biography, Out of the Blue. Announced in late September, the book was meant to …