Whether explicitly or implicitly, every MP believes that out of the roughly 70mn inhabitants of these islands, they are one of the 650 people most suited to ruling it. In this, most, if not all, are wrong. Before you ascribe this to cynicism or a certain disillusionment with the political process (neither entirely unfair), consider […]
Pleasuring Ourselves to Death Read More »
The part of Boris Johnson’s autobiography which most immediately captured the public imagination was his confession that, in the midst of the pandemic, with fears that the E.U. was hoarding vaccines belonging to Britain, he considered ordering the army to cross the Channel to seize them. Pearls were clutched and sage pundits argued that here
Britannia Rules The Waives Read More »
“I stand here also as a black man” the Foreign Secretary portentously informed the United Nations. While sitting down. “I am a woman” was the overwhelming message of the Chancellor’s glossy video celebrating her position as the nation’s first female Second Lord (Lady?) of the Treasury. Their answer to the late Col. John Boyd’s famous
My thoughts as we begin another month: One of the greatest feats of self-control any of us pull off is when the words “I told you so” cross our synapses but not our lips. This is Labour’s problem with “Clothesgate”. Look at any word cloud about the Prime Minister and after “Boring”, the next most
Principles are funny things. When they apply to others, we tend to regard them as hard and fast rules, never to be broken; when to ourselves, more as rules of thumb, to be followed up to the point at which they conflict with our other desires. Rare is he who always does what he says
The Slippery Slope of Euthanasia Read More »
It has not been an edifying experience. As the country’s carnival of democracy slouches towards its inevitable ending, it is hard to say that it is much better for it. We have learned nothing to make us think well of the political class; they appear, given the amount of obfuscation from both sides, not to
A Foolish Consistency Read More »
“A person often meets his fate on the road he took to avoid it” Jean de la Fontaine That people might, by trying to avoid something, make it more likely is an idea which has fascinated me since I was a child. Whichever comic (remember them?) I took (Hotspur?) featured a story one week
(Photograph: Allan warren, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons) Social media is a transport device. Scroll through your feed and you will be whisked away to join your friends on holiday or at dinner (why didn’t they invite me, you may wonder). It might take you to some far-flung land where news is being
A Voice From a Better Past Read More »
I am a member of an oppressed minority. Unlike other groups which claim that label, however, I have no legal protections to defend me from bigotry. No-one touts their “allyship” with me. Nor are there well-funded campaigns telling people to be nice to me. I just have to suck up my status as a second-class
In Defence of Classics Read More »
(Photograph: Chatham House, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons) Like the enemies of Cpl. Jones’ recollection in Dad’s Army, Keir Starmer really doesn’t like it up him. After two days of mole-like burrowing in the aftermath of the weekend’s revelations about his party’s candidate in Rochdale, he eventually surfaced on Tuesday to squirm his
