The latest salvo in the ongoing battle between between Elon Musk and the EU came courtesy of the X owner. He revealed that in the run-up to the European elections, X was offered “an illegal secret deal”: if the platform …
The new Donald Trump didn’t last long
“I’m not supposed to be here.” “Yes you are!” the crowd chanted back.
Six days before last night’s speech, Republican National Convention volunteers were in the middle of receiving training when news landed of the assassination attempt and they hit …
Does Rory Stewart want you to be ignorant?
Are you the sort of person that likes interesting facts and quirky conclusions? If so, Rory Stewart has made a BBC radio series just for you. It’s called The Long History Of Ignorance, From Confucius To Q-Anon, and its …
Letby Truthers want a good story
“It was like staring at a Magic Eye picture,” Ravi Jayaram, one of the medics who first raised concerns about Lucy Letby, told the New Yorker. “At first, it’s just a load of dots… But you stare at them, and …
Why liberals envy JD Vance
If you want to know the secret of J.D. Vance’s meteoric rise, at the age of 39, to Donald Trump’s choice for vice president should he win, just glance at some of the more overheated liberal analyses of Vance’s success. …
Keir Starmer’s favourite radical socialist
Modern politics is a business that obliterates the self. It turns its winning practitioners into one-dimensional media-facing personalities schooled for the soundbite and the photo-op. Yet plenty of voters, and news outlets with gnat-sized attention spans, still hanker for glimpses …
What America can learn from 1924
In the summer of 1924, the Democratic Party gathered in New York City for what turned out to be one of the ugliest conventions in US history. It not only revealed the fractures within the party, but also those in …
What Roger Scruton can teach Starmer
Not long into David Cameron’s first term as Prime Minister, the conservative philosopher Roger Scruton refounded an old Tory dining club that had, for a short time in the Seventies, exerted an outsized influence on British politics. The Conservative Philosophy …
The 2024 political war is just beginning
In a moment of raw personal courage at local fair-grounds in Butler, Pennsylvania, Donald Trump upended America’s presidential race by surviving an assassin’s bullet and then leaping to his feet and punching the air while proclaiming “USA!” and “Fight! Fight! …
The 2024 political war is just beginning
In a moment of raw personal courage at local fair-grounds in Butler, Pennsylvania, Donald Trump upended America’s presidential race by surviving an assassin’s bullet and then leaping to his feet and punching the air while proclaiming “USA!” and “Fight! Fight! …
In defence of Brits Abroad
Shagaluf. Ayia Napa. Marbella. Beefa.
Scouring maps of southern Europe like a Napoleonic general, the Brit Abroad plots his summer holidays. He seeks abandon, hot sun, cold beer and cheap 20-packs of Camel Blue. Territory selected, he readies his armoury: …
Why Trump needs the swarm
Regardless of the motivation behind the attempt to assassinate Donald Trump, it’s striking to consider that this is effectively the second recent attempt to eliminate a nominated candidate for Leader of the Free World. While there was no AR-15 trained …
How ravers harmonised Yugoslavia
“Splavs”, ramshackle floating nightclubs, line the Danube as it winds through Serbian capital Belgrade. Many churn out bland, indistinguishable house remixes of chart hits. Some still purvey souped-up nationalist hits known as “turbofolk”, popularised during the wars which engulfed the …
The shot that created a martyr
In roisterous social discourse, I’ve repeatedly expressed my amazement that no one has ever taken a shot at Trump. I’ve even tossed off callously, “Where’s American gun nuttery when you need it?” (Sorry.) But until Saturday evening, the former president …
The terrible echo of 1968
“I was 10 years old when my uncle was assassinated and I remember it like it was yesterday,” said Robert F. Kennedy Jr on Fox News, hours after a bullet skimmed the side of Donald Trump’s head. Kennedy recalled the …