In 1984, the tiny Irish seaside town of Burtonport attracted a swarm of international press attention. The occasion was the opening of a new educational establishment: St Bride’s School for Girls, residing in a former hotel previously home to a …
Populism has become a gimmick
When populist candidates started to win national elections in the 2010s, panicked establishmentarians on both sides of the Atlantic warned that they could consolidate their power and destroy democracy. On both counts, these misgivings were misplaced. From Donald Trump to …
The fake history of Scottish tartan
Back in the early 2000s, when I was living in Moscow, I knew a Canadian who stomped around the city in a tartan kilt. When I asked him about his clan colours, he replied that he didn’t have any. His …
Did Labour rig its selection votes?
Sir Keir Starmer may lack warmth and charisma, and he may come across as dull and serious. But at least, his supporters maintain, he has a reputation for integrity. After all, this is a man who was once the country’s …
Israel is turning into Lebanon
Beirut, in the mid-20th century, was a synonym for Middle Eastern glamour, its Rue de la Phénicie a nocturnal haunt for Hollywood movie stars and Arab oil barons. In the early Fifties, when the city was in the Western press, …
How porn breeds paedophiles
“Mainstream, freely available porn gives men permission to go that step further,” says Michael Sheath. “It’s what normalises the sexual abuse of children.”
Sheath, an expert in child protection, can rattle off the titles of mainstream pornography as well as …
Putin sees Finland as the next Crimea
For the second time in as many years, the Kremlin is deliberately fomenting a refugee crisis. In late 2021, it helped embolden the threats of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to “flood” Europe with migrants, targeting Poland and the Baltic countries. …
Israel’s war is about to escalate
As I look out over Lebanon from high up on Israel’s northern border, I see undulating hills dappled with hedgerows and green brush that glows golden in the winter sun. But this is far from an idyll. Lebanese Hezbollah have …
The Bank of England is out of control
Quietly, quietly, a revolution is taking place in Britain. Its forum is neither the streets nor the barricades, but committee meetings chaired by economists and overseen by politicians. The Bank of England, now in its 25th year of independence from …
Kidulting is tragic
Kids like pretending to be adults. They give dolls haircuts and make plastic meals in little plastic kitchens. They gawp in wonderment at diggers and bulldozers, then use miniature versions for their own grand construction plans, building imaginary cities where …
The volunteer army that rescued Israel
It was hot and stifling in the corridors of Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital. Hundreds of people queued for hours, but no one complained. It was the afternoon of October 7 and they were waiting to give blood.
Volunteers were also …
The brutal truth about ‘Never Again’
“An innocent child who was lost has now been found and returned,” was how the Irish Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar, greeted the news of nine-year-old Emily Hand being released from her Hamas hellhole. He made it sound like the poor …
Does France have a Napoleon complex?
L’Année Napoléon in Emmanuel Macron’s commemoration-hungry France, was a bit of a damp squib. In 2021, two centuries after the death of l’Empereur on St Helena’s Island, there was enough noise from the anti-colonialist crowd on his reintroduction of slavery …
Rural America has lost its soul
Pity the poor American farmer. Since the 18th century, he has been freighted not simply with growing crops or raising animals, but with carrying the virtue of the American republic. Thomas Jefferson said so himself, writing that: “Those who labor …
Terry Venables: gambler of Euro 96
Perhaps it’s just the age I was, but in the summer of 1996, life in Britain seemed pretty good. I was just finishing my first year at university, a sclerotic government was evidently coming to an end, British art and …