On being asked what he thought of Western Civilisation, Gandhi replied “it sounds like a good idea”. I am starting to feel the same way about English Conservatism. I have never been a Conservative, but I have always felt that …
Mermaids is endangering children
Mermaids, the troublesome charity that advocates for the transing of children, is in the news again. Currently under investigation by the Charities Commission regarding concerns that it fails to safeguard young people, Mermaids’s reign as the charity that can do …
Cat Person wasn’t a MeToo fable
Imagine you hear the following story from a friend. You’re both in college, in a town full of boarded-up shops, where you refer to the “county residents” as if they are another species. Both of you think of yourselves as …
Hysteria has derailed Kwasi Kwarteng
No doubt Kwasi Kwarteng expected to spend yesterday morning putting the finishing touches to his Party Conference speech. Instead, 10 days after he announced his plan to scrap the top rate of income tax, Britain’s Chancellor found himself being schooled …
Why gay men ignored MeToo
An explicit tweet about social etiquette at a condomless gay orgy recently went viral as the mostly heterosexual public grappled with the sheer perversity of what they were reading:
Is it unethical to attend a “no loads refused” pimped-out cumdump …
Don’t fall for the Isis Matchmaker
I’ll never forget the moment I uncovered Umm Muthanna Al-Britannia’s real name. Back in early 2015, she was a brazen British propagandist and recruiter for the Islamic State. I’d been tracking her for months, almost marvelling at her shamelessness: she …
Feminism can’t kill the beauty pageant
Good-looking, groomed, docile. They were paraded around the arena, so that we could all see their body composition and their agility; so that we could see there were no signs of illness or infirmity. This is good stock, a fine …
Liz Truss has betrayed conservatism
The past few weeks have been a liminal period in British politics; one in which we have been presented with real political choices for the first time in a long time. The great spectacle of the Royal funeral achieved what …
Has Putin sacrificed Armenia?
Yerevan
On a hillside overlooking the capital is Armenia’s last line of defence in the event of war. Squeezed between a junkyard and a Soviet-era apartment block is a dusty assault course littered with rusting cars, discarded water bottles and …
What really divides America
Reading the mainstream media, one would be forgiven for believing that the upcoming midterms are part of a Manichaean struggle for the soul of democracy, pitting righteous progressives against the authoritarian “ultra-MAGA” hordes. The truth is nothing of the sort. …
MeToo lost me the love of my life
Dear Taylor,
Please, please don’t shove this in recycling and do hear me out. I apologise for disguising this letter in a NatWest envelope to make it look like one of your bank statements. I realise that appears duplicitous. But …
Is China about to turn on Russia?
After managing a strained smile and handshake for the cameras, President Xi Jinping walked away from Vladimir Putin with a face like stone. By most accounts, the recent meeting in Uzbekistan between the two leaders, who once spoke of each …
Don’t make me Prime Minister
The only person to have responded in a remotely sane way to being a contestant on The Apprentice was Rupert Everett. Bullied into taking part in a Comic Relief spin-off of the show, and then faced with the prospect of …
How far-Right are you?
A common form of classroom cruelty when I was at school involved a game we called “Contagion”. The instigator would touch the person next to them, having chosen a low-status scapegoat — usually “Holly”, who wore thick glasses and was …
Stop panicking about the pound
It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. It was meant to be the announcement that trumpeted Liz Truss’s vision for Britain, cemented her position in Downing Street, and heralded a new era of boom-time growth. Instead, her Chancellor’s “mini-budget” took …