“Merkel-Nostalgie” has swept a Germany grappling with war, a tanking economy and a collapsed government. The former German chancellor’s autobiography sold 35,000 copies on the day of publication, and Berliners queued for hours to have her sign their copies. As …
What remains of Churchill’s England?
Twee tea towels; tubby Toby jugs; cigar-puffing cosplayers. Churchill’s apotheosis surely ranks among the most odd developments in British cultural life. He has grown so larger-than-life that one in five teens thinks he’s a fictional character. And for some, moist-eyed …
Trump stole tariffs from the Democrats
Recent speculation that Donald Trump’s billionaire cabinet would lead to a more orthodox consensus on global trade came to halt earlier this week, when Trump promised new tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China. Though eager to be in Trump’s good …
Ireland’s liberal fantasy
Ireland has a strange effect on the English. A fantasy land so near and yet so far; at once foreign and, in some intangible sense, never entirely so. “Lonely in Ireland, since it was not home,” reflected Philip Larkin in …
Who will bring down Michel Barnier?
During a recent visit to a Michelin factory, on the outskirts of Paris, the minister for industrial affairs Marc Ferracci was heckled and shouted at. The factory is one of many to be shut down as part of a wave …
The British scientists working for China
When Keir Starmer met his Chinese counterpart earlier this month, he gripped Xi Jinping’s hand and proclaimed the importance of a “strong” bilateral relationship. The meeting marked a warming of relations between the two nations, which have been decidedly frosty …
I’ve seen too many bad deaths
As an emergency physician, I make agonising life or death decisions every day. When caring for a terminally-ill patient whose organs are failing, and who can’t recognise her own children, I work with colleagues and family members to decide whether …
Ireland’s migration election
In many ways, Dundrum looks like the average Irish village. There’s a family butcher, a pub called Bertie’s, and rows of squatting slate-grey terraces. Yet walk down the R505, where Dundrum melts into the hedgerows of County Tipperary, and you’ll …
Trump’s plan to drain the swamp
You would be hard pressed to find a bar in Washington D.C. where you’d find a group of people as ideologically diverse as Donald Trump’s cabinet. He’s got Tea Party veterans mingling with a Kennedy, a Teamsters ally, George Soros’s …
Kemi must turn Britain’s vice into virtue
In her first month as leader of the Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch has got off to an opportune start. Ignore all the headline-grabbing chatter about her unpopularity, the latest YouGov survey reveals that she has opened a viable route to …
Winters of Discontent are coming
I was expecting Starmer to be awful. But less than six months into his premiership, his government’s prissy authoritarianism, student-union self-righteousness, and vindictive taxation has plunged Labour from a net favourability rating of +6 on taking power in July to …
Will black voters forgive the Democrats?
Oakland, California.
Marquise S. sat in the driver’s seat of an old black Honda on Oakland’s Foothill Boulevard with white powder spread out over his knees. A slender young black woman sat in the passenger seat; a young black man …
Assisted dying ignores what it means to be human
Of all people, you might expect humanists to have protecting human life at the core of their ideological DNA. Instead, they are queuing up to plunge in the needle of death. This week, as Parliament prepares to debate the assisted …
How mailmen saved rural America
“You have to be a neighbour to have a neighbour.” That’s Mark Jamison’s mantra — and he should know. Until he retired, after all, the 68-year-old was the postmaster in Webster, a small town enveloped by the mist and hollers …
John Prescott’s failed class war
“He’s top class and I’m bottom class,” recalled the late John Prescott of his time serving the drinks to Sir Anthony Eden as a steward on the MV Rangitata. On doctor’s orders, Eden and his wife had embarked on a …