South Africa’s stagnant election

Shortly before Britain’s skelm (furtive) and short-lived annexation of the Transvaal Boer republic, the Victorian travel writer Anthony Trollope said this of the unfortunate country:

“These people in the Transvaal would not pay a stiver of tax, there was in …

The dawn of America’s monarchy

When James II was deposed in 1688, and replaced by William of Orange, it was a bloodless affair. That so-called “Glorious Revolution” gave England a constitutional monarchy — as well as a remarkably nonviolent political order.

In the centuries that …

When Gaza came to Rochdale

“From the river to the sea,” the familiar-hatted figure roars. “Palestine will be free,” his supporters chant in unison. George Galloway is conducting his followers like a religious cleric. “In our thousands, in our millions,” the high-priest cries. “We are …

The peasants won’t go quietly

Farmers hurl eggs at the European Parliament. They dump manure wherever they go. In Spain, they burn tyres. In Occitania, office buildings. Their tractors have cursed the capital of Germany with terrible traffic. As in the Holy Roman Empire circa …