“Every leader needs a John Prescott,” Tony Blair liked to say of his deputy. “I couldn’t have made all the changes I made, and needed to make, in the Labour Party without the support of John.”
He was right. One …
How Trump will transform Poland
Across much of Eastern Europe, being a Trump whisperer has become an overnight job requirement. Aside from Viktor Orbán and a few other examples of genuine giddiness, leaders right across the former Soviet bloc have rushed to show their value …
Is Josh Shapiro the American Disraeli?
Benjamin Disraeli observed of Victorian England the existence of “two nations; between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy”. In this perverse order, “Oligarchy has been called Liberty; an exclusive priesthood has been christened a National Church… while absolute …
The rise and fall of the political maverick
It isn’t unusual for the tail to wag the dog. Time and again in history, the powers that be have been deemed unfit for purpose. Hence the need for another locus for real power — the political aide. Kings have …
Jeremy Clarkson: populist tribune
Capturing a glimpse of Napoleon at the head of his Grande Armée in 1806, Hegel described him as the world soul on horseback. Today, such figures do not appear in small German towns leading revolutionary armies, but on YouTube, Spotify …
The progressive case against immigration
The battlelines on immigration have hardened predictably. Left-leaning voters proudly display “refugees welcome” yard signs, while Donald Trump supporters cheer his pledge to implement “largest deportation operation in the history of our country”. Amid such partisan attitudes, it has become …
Humiliation won’t heal hospitals
You learn to be tough as an NHS doctor. But starting my shift a few days ago, even I was shocked. I spotted a patient, clearly someone with severe mental health issues, stuck on the ward without proper care. I …
Will New York abandon the Democrats?
If the Trumpian message of decay and decline has any resonance, it’s in places like Hunts Point. Emerging from the subway here in the South Bronx, I see a man on a payphone pleading to speak with a psychotherapist. Another …
The farmers march on Westminster
I was a teenager when I began to ask my dad difficult questions about our small farm. Questions about whether we made a profit, and if so, what paid best. The sheep? The cattle? The barley or oats we grew?…
What happened to America First?
“No more wars, I’m going to stop wars” vowed Donald Trump in his first post-election speech to voters. And his campaign was marked by his critique of neocon-led military engagements in the Middle East, though with little detail as to …
The NHS is failing epilepsy patients
Megan Gardiner was 17 weeks pregnant when she died alone one June morning in 2022.
She had experienced her first epileptic seizure 12 years earlier, two days after her thirteenth birthday. “We heard a scream and then a loud bang,” …
The End of Private Ownership?
You may have heard the term “tax on unrealized gains”, followed by some passionate words about how “the rich” have to pay more taxes. And maybe you think this doesn’t affect you. […]
Source: BJØRN ANDREAS BULL-HANSEN Read the original …
America’s new caste system
I’ve been teaching Tocqueville’s Democracy in America for a very long time. But only recently have I come to appreciate some of his deepest assumptions and their implications about the whole democratic experiment. In particular I’ve been thinking about the …
Covid masked liberal weakness
Donald Trump is back in the White House — and among Democrats, the blame game has already begun. Nancy Pelosi, for instance, has claimed that Joe Biden should have held off supporting Kamala Harris, instead encouraging an open primary. Harris …
Democrats need a new Clinton
A shattered Democratic incumbent. A rambunctious Republican outsider. An election marred by economic turmoil and the usual destabilising violence in the Middle East. A campaign of contrasts, of relentlessly negative liberals, dismissing their rival as extremist, and conservatives pushing forward …