As Britain’s summer of crisis continues, the penitentiary industrial complex could soon be overwhelmed. Not because of a lack of resources: estimates put the prisons’ budget at £4 billion. And it’s not for a lack of bipartisan thinking: the Labour …
Tommy Robinson is copying the progressive playbook
A strange and dramatic metamorphosis has happened over the last few days. On the one hand, Tommy Robinson, the Right-wing activist and former leader of the English Defence League, has shapeshifted into a Left-leaning analyst of political protest. On the …
Starmer needs the strength of Thatcher
We are witnessing a breakdown of order with few obvious parallels in recent British history. There have been moments of resemblance, of course: the London riots of 2011 or the “skinhead terror” of the early Seventies. The clashes between Oswald …
Is Britain heading for civil war?
Unusual for the time of year, the radiant sun was setting over the picturesque city. It was the early evening of 5 April 1992, and while some Sarajevo’s residents were listening to the opera, lovers could be seen strolling along …
My day with the Belfast rioters
“This is my first protest, like,” says an affable man to no one in particular. The anti-immigrant protest assembles on Donegall Place, just where the main shopping street feeds into Belfast’s central square. There’s a line of armoured police land …
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, …
Why the Southport suspect’s identity matters
After an atrocity has been committed, a morbid curiosity often takes hold of online sleuths. As they search for clues of the suspect’s identity, what they really want is to look into the eyes of evil, perhaps believing that they’ll …
The rise of the posh roadman
Friday afternoon in Clapham Junction, and two well-to-do white boys are swaggering down Falcon Road to Al’s Place Cafe. “He’s got bars, no?” says one, talking about some musician or other. “Nah g, allow. Paigon. Nehgateeve XP.” Off they shuffle …
Joan Didion’s insufferable disciples
Joan Didion’s enduring popularity among today’s young readers is a somewhat mysterious phenomenon. So many visibly progressive, literary types seem to uncritically worship her. Really? I always think to myself, concerned that I’ve misheard them. Joan Didion, the National Review …
A&E is now a deathtrap
Last Friday night, a young man walked into my A&E department, mid-hallucination, and started to lash out at a crowd of patients. After being wrestled to the ground by my specialist clinical colleagues and security staff, it didn’t take long …
A&E is now a deathtrap
Last Friday night, a young man walked into my A&E department, mid-hallucination, and started to lash out at a crowd of patients. After being wrestled to the ground by my specialist clinical colleagues and security staff, it didn’t take long …
Broken Britain needs a tax hike
The recent British election was, by most accounts, a “service-delivery” vote. Appalled at the state of their public services, Britons opted for new management. And while they need no reminding of how bad things have become, the facts are still …
The case for idleness
Oblomov, I imagine, looks like that stonily stoned chap in František Kupka’s The Yellow Scale. It’s a striking painting, a riot of yellows, with Kupka — for this is a self-portrait — staring defiantly at you, propped up in …
Labour’s war on free speech
An unspoken maxim looms over the free speech crisis in our universities: it is only ever denied by those whose views fall in line with the current orthodoxy. For all its faults, and there were many, Britain’s previous government recognised …
Rishi Sunak, defeated millennial
Rishi Sunak is a borderline millennial and the salient characteristic of Britain’s millennials has been defeat. Few generations have been so ceaselessly battered by events; by 2020, their time on the stage of history had ended in total rout: financial, …