“Britpop’s Back. But What Happened to Cool Britannia?” asks a recent headline in the New York Times. Quite a lot, it seems. Pessimistic about our prospects, and uninspired by our King’s agenda, Britain is in search of a new story. …
The moral panic over looting
Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the post-Bibby Stockholm seaside, Britain’s coastline has become assailed by a new moral panic: TikTok-inspired, flash-mob looting. Such behaviour is “appalling” and “unacceptable”, tutted Rishi Sunak this week, before …
Taylor Swift’s tragic appeal
The scene at the ship’s bow in Titanic is so iconic it has spawned innumerable homages and pastiches. But would the fictionalised love story between Jack and Rose carry the same iconic power, had their relationship not been doomed? Would …
It’s time to abolish the university
A judge in a libel case once warned the jury not to award “Mickey Mouse damages”, plunging them into confusion over whether he meant ridiculously large or ridiculously small. The Government, however, has no such doubts about what counts as …
Biden’s IRA hasn’t saved America
The Inflation Reduction Act was supposed to be “one of the most significant laws in our history”. When Joe Biden signed it into law last year, he heralded it as proof that “the American people [had] won and the special …
The lethal liberty of Singapore
It is there in bold, red letters on every foreign visitor’s entry card: “Death for drug traffickers under Singapore law.” Once they’ve made their way past the indoor waterfall, passengers leaving the nation’s only commercial airport might catch a glimpse, …
Hillary Clinton still doesn’t get it
Let’s indulge in some nostalgia for a moment. It’s Nineties America and “political apathy” is the complaint on every politician’s lips. The end of the Soviet Union is a recent memory and Western democracy has emerged triumphant, though the average …
The rise of pro-Western disinformation
When the US State Department launched its Iran Disinformation Project in the autumn of 2018, it was hailed as a new weapon in the war on hostile foreign propaganda. Staffed by diaspora Iranians and handed an initial $1.5 million of …
Will Britain ever build beautiful?
On the eve of the 2008 financial crisis, in the last days of a monied Britain, Gordon Brown had a rare vision for the country. Amid the burgeoning housing crisis, 10 new eco-towns, a model of future sustainable living, would …
Why looting has returned to London
Lockdown reportedly returned to Bexleyheath on Saturday. As rumours about an impending wave of “TikTok-fuelled looting” circulated on social media, shopkeepers debated whether it was safe to unlock their doors. Eventually they did, but only after a dispersal order was …
Stormtrooper Syndrome has seduced the West
Do you remember the Imperial Stormtroopers from the Star Wars movies, lurching around in their white plastic armour? When Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original movie said that no one else was as precise as Imperial Stormtroopers, he was clearly making …
The new snobbery towards feminist activism
In 2017, Gina Martin was the victim of a sexual offence that was not, at the time, a sexual offence. Martin was attending a festival when a stranger took a photograph up her skirt without her consent. For her, this …
How conservative is Net Zero?
In 2019, the Conservative manifesto promised to “lead the global fight against climate change, by delivering on our world-leading target of Net Zero”. In the wake of the Uxbridge by-election, that ambition looks much more precarious. As the Prime Minister …
Why you should read like a child
Back in the 18th century, Immanuel Kant grandly described the Enlightenment as “man’s emergence from his self-imposed childishness”. But we live, we’re told, in an age desperate to reverse it. Grown-ups, apparently, aren’t what they used to be. At a …
Hip-hop: the last bastion of American freedom
On 11 August 1973, there was a party at an apartment building at 1520 Sedgewick Avenue in the Bronx. The host, Cindy Campbell, was a black immigrant teenager from Jamaica who wanted to earn some extra cash to buy back-to-school …