On 6 August, at the height of the riots that swept Britain after the Southport murders, BBC Verify revealed “one of the most shocking” outbreaks of violence: a racist attack on Humberside. According to Verify, “an angry mob of white …
There’s no dignity in assisted dying
It was the childishness that pushed me over the edge. As news broke of the forthcoming parliamentary vote on assisted dying, a slew of statements from politicians emerged, each one more simplistically emotive and Manichean than the last.
Labour MP …
Today, we’d cancel Scrooge
The festive period owes Charles Dickens a monumental intellectual debt. A Christmas Carol largely invented the festivity as we continue to celebrate it today. But his tale also reminds us of the power of magic and restitution in the blizzards …
Beware A&E at Christmas
For most people, the festive period conjures up images of twinkling lights, family gatherings, and the warm fuzzy glow of over-indulgence. For the doctors and nurses on my A&E ward, it presents a rather different reality: one defined by constant …
How Britain shames its elders
Christmas is a chance to end a miserable year on a high. That means raucous office piss-ups, anarchic family get-togethers, and impish toddlers greedily unpacking their stockings. Not so for our elderly, though. A shocking number spend the festive season …
The flaws in the Lucy Letby case
Appearing for the Crown in a murder trial he was hoping to lose, a senior colleague once quipped: “People want to know how we defend the guilty, but the really tricky thing is prosecuting the innocent.” I’ve only done it …
A food apocalypse is coming
In the dystopian drama The Last of Us, a fungal virus has spread through foodstuffs turning infected humans into zombies. The survivors live in ghettos, among the ruins, armed to avoid a gruesome living death. They grow their own food …
Cousin marriage isn’t ‘unspeakable’
The vibes continue to shift. Five minutes ago, “cousin marriage” was the punchline to a highbrow joke about the Hapsburg Jaw, or perhaps a lowbrow one about what counted as Normal for Norfolk. Now all of a sudden, the relative …
Cousin marriage isn’t ‘unspeakable’
The vibes continue to shift. Five minutes ago, “cousin marriage” was the punchline to a highbrow joke about the Hapsburg Jaw, or perhaps a lowbrow one about what counted as Normal for Norfolk. Now all of a sudden, the relative …
How Britain ignored its ethnic conflict
Following the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017, the aftermath, like those of other recent terrorist atrocities, was marked by what later revealed to be a coordinated British government policy of “controlled spontaneity”. Pre-planned vigils and inter-faith events were rolled out, …
Could Elon Musk make Farage king?
Morgan McSweeney, Dominic Cummings and Tony Blair. They represent wildly different political traditions and instincts, but to spend any time with them is to be immediately struck by how closely their analyses can overlap. And right now, their Venn diagram …
Christmas won’t cheer Birmingham’s homeless
Christmas in central Birmingham, as in many other UK cities, is dominated by a German market and a nimbus of tacky festive lights. Frankfurters the length of limbs; steins of overpriced lager; shoals of inebriated revellers — all can be …
Why I’m leaving the UK
The United Kingdom is a totalitarian hellscape. Freedom of speech has been all but abolished. Our police forces are now indistinguishable from the Gestapo. Criticism of the government will soon be illegal under imminent laws against thought crime. It will …
Is Britain sleepwalking into war?
The collapse of Assad’s regime in Syria has not changed the balance of power in the war between Russia and Ukraine. There is no doubt that the Ukraine war, after the deaths of hundreds of thousands, will end through negotiations, …
The private police patrolling London
One golden autumn afternoon, in a quiet North London suburb, I stumbled across a portal to a possible English future. Hadley Wood sits on the fringes of the city, between Barnet and the M25, seemingly forgotten in its own little …