Sunday 21 January 2024 is the centenary anniversary of Vladimir Lenin’s death. It might come as a surprise to readers of The New Conservative that during my late teens and early twenties, I was an apologist for the Bolsheviks and their leader Lenin. At a university interview at Warwick, I remember declaring that I had […]
A Lesson about Lenin Read More »
Reluctant as I am to bash my bishop, especially in a public forum, I am afraid that I must. After all, this is not the first such bashing he has received. As I left Mass on Sunday I picked up our diocesan newspaper Voice (January 2024; issue 496). It is free and I am a
Catholic Mission Drift Read More »
I am a nurse, so I have some insight into what the job takes. I was a staff nurse, charge nurse and night superintendent (essentially a male matron). I have taught nurses at university level for nearly 40 years. I firmly believe in university-level education for nurses and have no time for arguments that everything
Something Rotten in the State of Nursing Read More »
(Photograph: Mark Steyn Show, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons) Defending Douglas Murray, the associate editor of The Spectator, is akin to defending a lion. He is one of the most effective critics of left-wing identity politics today. Yet in the culture war that this kind of politics has unleashed on the West, it
In Defence of Douglas Murray Read More »
So that loyal readers of The New Conservative do not have to, your intrepid correspondent test drove the UK National Health Service (NHS) this week. To set the scene, I faked a medical emergency at home by collapsing into an incoherent heap over the dining room table. Apparently my acting was so good that my
The Observer, the sister newspaper to The Guardian, has recently published an article that attacks Israel journalists for, of all things, promoting Israeli’s victory in its war on Hamas. In an article titled “‘Journalists see their role as helping to win’: how Israeli TV is covering Gaza war,” Emma Graham-Harrison and Quique Kierszenbaum complain how
The Double-Standards of Israel’s Critics Read More »
When I heard that Frederick Forsyth’s 1975 novella The Shepherd had been made into a Christmas film, I was uneasy and curious in equal measure. I was captivated by Forsyth’s 1971 The Day of the Jackal, both the book and the original film, but slightly less impressed by The Odessa File published in 1972. However,
Just as we were beginning to enjoy 2023, with all that it had to offer for the casual political observer and writer, 2024 is upon us. Heralded in by the Mullah of London proclaiming his magnificence to the world by letting off a few million quids’ worth of squibs, we’re off to a flying start
A Few Suggestions For 2024 Read More »
(Photograph: VisitCopenhagen, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons) According to opinion polls, most Australians wish to remove the British monarch as their head of state and become a republic. Thus, in anticipation of their glorious revolution, if and whenever that will be, King Charles does not appear on Australian banknotes. During their broadcast of
The Hypocrisy of Australian Republicans Read More »
Arsenal’s woeful display against West Ham at ‘not-so-fortress’ Emirates last week robbed me of my only source of optimism for 2024. Jesus’ two missed headers, Saka’s waning ability to terrify fullbacks, and Declan Rice’s revealed mortality, jolted me out of a blissful, fantastical dream in which the Gunners were unassailable shoo-ins for the Premier League
A Bleak Outlook For 2024 Read More »
