If you are a child of the Seventies or Eighties, chances are that your formative sexual education was considerably influenced by rifling furtively through a Nancy Friday book. Even today, thanks to well-thumbed titles like My Secret Garden and Forbidden …
The illusion of a pagan West
Inside the Colosseum, in central Rome, stands a giant cross. Erected in 2000 by Pope John Paul II to commemorate the thousands of Christians martyred there, it’s not what you might expect to see on visiting the building once known …
Pennsylvania is slipping out of Trump’s reach
David Urban is worried — and he should be. The native Pennsylvanian knows the Keystone State. As a senior advisor to Donald Trump in 2016, he helped deliver Pennsylvania and, thus, the White House to his boss. But the veteran …
Canada’s Enoch Powell moment
Brampton, Ontario, situated in the sprawling outer suburbs of the Greater Toronto Area, is in many ways your typical Canadian city: rows and rows of middle-class houses with verdant lawns line quiet streets, with strip-mall parking lots and big-box stores …
Nato is holding back Poland’s self-defence
When Poland joined Nato 25 years ago, it did so to solve an existential problem that it had been plagued by for centuries — the perennial threat of invasion by Germany from the west and Russia from the east. By …
Starmer has revealed his weakness over Israel
Power corrupts, famously — but it also reveals. With each decision a political leader takes, we catch a glimpse of the instincts which guide them. The same is true of Keir Starmer’s decision to revoke arms licences to Israel, the …
Meet the Wild Men of YouTube
“Sometimes you think you’re gettin’ food ‘cos there’s a coupla raisins in it, but it’s just a plate fulla horse apples.” Dewayne, or Dry Creek Wrangler School as he’s known to his 1.2 million YouTube subscribers, is dispensing life advice …
Will France impeach Macron?
After 50 days without a government, France is losing her head. What began as a historical curiosity has descended into a crisis. Not only is the current caretaker government unable to manage anything more than “ongoing affairs”, but the deadline …
How Modi weaponised yoga
One of the most arresting images from Narendra Modi’s first term in office as India’s Prime Minister dates from 21st June 2015. He is kneeling on a yoga mat laid out on Rajpath, New Delhi’s great ceremonial boulevard. Behind him, …
Labour’s war on pleasure
Was England ever merry? We’re stagnant, divided, increasingly heavily taxed, and even our Prime Minister promises it’s going to get worse. Barely two months into a premiership in which he promised to “tread more lightly” upon the lives of Britons, …
Will Trump make me Poet Laureate?
After President Biden’s farewell debate, I had a problem. It was evident that Donald Trump would win. I fantasised that he would offer me the post of Poet Laureate, and I wondered if I would accept. After all, Washington D.C. …
Kneecap are the future of Northern Ireland
If you were to judge a country by the grim piety of its journalistic depictions, you’d swear Northern Ireland were one big funeral, begetting nothing but more funerals and all of us professional keeners. It’s not that the region isn’t …
Britain needs its luxury class
It’s an idyllic Friday in Spring and I am standing on the factory floor of a silk factory in the heart of Suffolk. Guiding me through this labyrinth of looms is Julius Walters, the 11th-generation Managing Director of Sudbury Silk …
How the AfD revolution ends
Have the worst fears of the Berliner establishment finally come to pass? As soon as the curtain fell on Sunday’s elections in Thuringia and Saxony, the predictable reactions took centre stage. The Alternative für Deutschland’s (AfD) strong showing in the …
Kamala’s seductive amnesia
Human beings are conflicted animals. We are capable of great devotion to the people and things we cherish, and will strive tirelessly on their behalf. Yet we long to be done with worry and struggle, to close the open wounds …