This was the week a German became the manager of England — or as the Daily Mail put it, a GERMAN. And it was a week of “debate” about the reaction to having a German in charge. “Anyone watching this …
The Armenian catastrophe
For the first time in over a millennium, there are no Armenians left in Nagorno-Karabakh. They survived the Mongol and Arab invasions and the age of empires, when tsars, shahs and sultans fought for this strategic intersection of trade routes …
English nationalism is built on a lie
Someone once called nationalism the most contradictory of all political ideas. If it can lead straight to the gas chambers, it can also free you from oppressive imperial powers. For every Franco or Modi there is a George Washington or …
How ravers harmonised Yugoslavia
“Splavs”, ramshackle floating nightclubs, line the Danube as it winds through Serbian capital Belgrade. Many churn out bland, indistinguishable house remixes of chart hits. Some still purvey souped-up nationalist hits known as “turbofolk”, popularised during the wars which engulfed the …
What nationalists could learn from Quebec
Weeks before the present election campaign began, Keir Starmer raised eyebrows when he called for Labour candidates to “fly the flag” on St George’s Day, in an attempt to displace the Tories as the party of patriotism. But in truth, …
How Britain abandoned Scotland
It’s half past midnight on the Isle of Benbecula — far, far away on the outer edges of Europe — and Angus Brendan MacNeil MP is getting into his stride. “If you want Scotland to stay, you should want Ireland …
How Eurovision became a carnival of nationalism
As the protests in Malmo over Israel’s inclusion in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, like the anguished defences of taking part by British and Irish contestants show, the kitschy spectacle is an inherently geopolitical format. In the interests of fairness …
Will the English ever revolt?
In The Return of the Native, Hardy observes of the mummers’ St George play that the proof it is a genuine folk tradition lies in the sullen joylessness with which it is carried out, “which sets one wondering why …
The repression of Soviet Ukraine
“Whichever way this war ends,” thought Volodymyr Ishchenko on 24 February 2022, “I will no longer have a homeland.” In the preface to his new book, Towards The Abyss, the iconoclastic sociologist outlines his Soviet-Ukrainian identity as distinct from Ukraine’s …
What is the point of Nato?
It was early September in 1971. My mother had taken me in a taxi to a boutique hotel in a leafy northern Athenian suburb to visit my favourite uncle, her beloved brother. Before we got out the car, she put …
In defence of Weebs
When I moved to Japan in the mid-2000s, a friend of mine generously suggested that I was a romantic underachiever doing the equivalent of what thwarted job-seekers in the finance industry referred to as FILTH: Failed In London, Try Hong …
Putin has enabled Ukrainian nationhood
In the early hours of 24 February 2022, Russian troops entered Ukraine. Later that day, the Russian navy captured Snake Island in Ukraine’s Black Sea waters. When the news broke, oil and European gas prices soared. The war that began, …
Israel is no longer Britain’s war
In the wake of Hamas’s bloody and murderous raid into Israel, as Israeli jets pulverise the Gaza Strip in advance of its looming punitive expedition, the Western discourse surrounding the century-old conflict feels both novel and wearily familiar. Familiar in …
Israel and the identity trap
Yascha Mounk is one of the foremost critics of the potent new ideology that has swept the globe — variously labelled the social justice movement, “woke” and identity politics. In his new book, The Identity Trap, he takes on this …
Immigration is religion’s only hope
When my father was going through the process of becoming an Elder in the United Methodist Church, he was required to take courses on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. One course involved a presentation on how white people needed to make …