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 …
Keir Starmer’s war on mothers
As their swift suspensions indicated, Keir Starmer can probably cope with a rebellion of “pissed-off” Labour MPs over his failure to commit to scrapping the two-child benefit cap. But when even Suella Braverman, the Right-winger that right-thinkers love to hate, …
Why we need to conquer the sea
At their 19th-century peak, English seaside towns welcomed millions every summer. The middle classes flocked to the coastline, to “take the air” and spend their leisure looking out at the waves over which Britannia then ruled.
Seaside piers brought these …
Everything rests on the third-party vote
With Joe Biden replaced by Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee, what will happen come November? If history is a guide, the chances of the party holding on to the White House may have increased. Not, it must be said, …
The flaws in the Lucy Letby case
Appearing for the Crown in a murder trial he was hoping to lose, a senior colleague once quipped: “People want to know how we defend the guilty, but the really tricky thing is prosecuting the innocent.” I’ve only done it …
Searching for Britain’s JD Vance
A recurring theme in C.P. Cavafy’s poems is of the elites in some Hellenistic city in the Near East, long subsumed into the Roman empire, anxiously awaiting news from the imperial centre of the outcome of a great …
How Biden blindsided Netanyahu
There are lame duck administrations. And then there is Washington DC in July 2024. There isn’t even a term for it: what do you call an administration whose leader just exited stage left before his own party could lower the …
Can Silicon Valley raise the dead?
Towards the end of September 1915, the eminent physicist Oliver Lodge heard from his son Raymond, who had gone to fight in Flanders that spring. His situation was “difficult”, but “he has got so many kind friends helping him. He …
What Biden got right
It is fitting that the departure of Joseph Biden Jr. was defined by his trademark stubbornness. For weeks, he held out against those within his party who were calling for his immediate withdrawal. But then came the Republican convention in …
The case for an open convention
Joe Biden is out. For Democrats, that is welcome news. But the party will not rouse Americans by simply throwing the car keys to Vice President Kamala Harris. To stir the people, Democrats need an open convention. By grabbing the …
Kamala Harris is painfully out of her depth
Following Joe Biden’s belated withdrawal from the presidential race, the onslaught of felching flattery about his heroically sacrificial character and his administration’s astonishing, unprecedented, better-than-FDR-scale accomplishments began within minutes. From the Democratic party’s grand poohbahs and their lickspittles in the …
Can Iran resist collapse?
While Russia and China remain the biggest threats to America and its Western allies, there is a third unfriendly power that Western leaders should remain watchful of: the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Like Russia and China, Iran is directed by …
Why men should embrace testosterone
For decades, we’ve been living in a world of steroid smoke and mirrors. On one side, we have athletes and bodybuilders taking heroic doses of these substances in secret, often guided by “broscience” and internet forums rather than medical professionals. …
Democratic elites finally topple stubborn Biden
Joe Biden has always been defined by his stubbornness. So ending a 50-year career by bowing out only months before an election must have been humiliating. His decision to announce his resignation from the ticket in a social media post …
MAGA Republicans are nothing new
Just in case you haven’t spent the last week gripped by the question of who the Republicans would choose to nominate as their candidate for President of the United States, here’s the news: it was him. But it wasn’t exactly …