The case for idleness

Oblomov, I imagine, looks like that stonily stoned chap in František Kupka’s The Yellow Scale. It’s a striking painting, a riot of yellows, with Kupka — for this is a self-portrait — staring defiantly at you, propped up in …

Labour’s war on free speech

An unspoken maxim looms over the free speech crisis in our universities: it is only ever denied by those whose views fall in line with the current orthodoxy. For all its faults, and there were many, Britain’s previous government recognised …

Rishi Sunak, defeated millennial

Rishi Sunak is a borderline millennial and the salient characteristic of Britain’s millennials has been defeat. Few generations have been so ceaselessly battered by events; by 2020, their time on the stage of history had ended in total rout: financial, …

Trump and Biden shouldn’t fear death

Until a couple of weeks ago, the American electorate faced a choice between a presidential candidate probably suffering from early dementia and one afflicted by advanced narcissism. Should the finger hovering over the nuclear button belong to a senile Commander-in-Chief …

Will the police ever protect women?

“The police are still struggling to get the basics right.” So stated Andy Cooke, His Majesty’s Chief Inspectorate of Constabulary, in his annual assessment of the state of policing in England and Wales, published last week, highlighting particular failures relating …

Who is behind Kamala Harris?

The centre of gravity in Democratic politics quaked on Sunday — and in a flash, everything changed. Barring an act of divine intervention, Kamala Harris will become the party’s standard bearer in Chicago in less than a month’s time.

Her …