The New Conservative

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David Tennant

The Ugly Sin of Identity Politics

(Photograph: DavidDjJohnson at English Wikipedia, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons) As someone infamous once said (me, need you ask?), ‘The truth is not mediated by the identity of the speaker’. If it were, one could sidestep debate entirely by identifying the ultimate victim status and taking umbrage accordingly. Increasingly devoid of argument, the Critical […]

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Gareth Southgate

Southgate’s Softies 

(Photograph: UK Prime Minister, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons) As a Scot my interest in international football competitions, such as the ongoing Euros in Germany, is usually non-existent or short-lived. This proved to be the case this week after Scotland was thumped in their opening game against Germany, and then continued not to

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Downing St

A Foolish Consistency

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

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Cemetary

Man Down

“Hi, my name’s Ken, what’s yours?” Thus, I first met Captain Ken Kirk, a nursing officer in 212 Field Hospital RAMC (V). I was a lieutenant in 205 Scottish General Hospital on attachment to 212 for the summer camp. My work at the University of Edinburgh prevented me from joining my own unit for summer

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Hiking

To Speak or Not to Speak

In the summer of 1990, I graduated from academe’s cloisters and entered the mammonish world of sales. Frankly, it was a McJob as I had no idea what career to pursue. It meant I had to move to a market town quite a distance from my home town and which bordered some remote spaces where

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Equity

The Hidden Perils of Equity

The stark divide between genuine inequality and that which the grievance industry claims to be fighting, is now at comedic proportions. ‘I was the first Muslim leader of a western democracy, and I say Islamophobia has poisoned our politics’ Humza Yousaf told us earlier this week, without a trace of irony. That’s right Humza baby!

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Red triangles

Inverted Red Triangles

The late Anglo-American writer, Christopher Hitchens, once declared to journalist Alice Fordham the following: “My attitude to posters with swastikas on them has always been the same. They should be ripped down.” Hitchens was right: the swastika is viscerally provocative. Not for Hindus, of course, for whom it is an ancient symbol of good luck

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Keir Starmer

Peddling Poverty

An enduring truth of the horrors of war, is that those who survive them rarely speak thereof. It’s always those who managed to avoid combat that love to regale strangers with tall tales. The same, I believe, goes for the experience of genuine hardship. Those who escape abject poverty have scant reason to relive the

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