François Valentin
François Valentin is a political analyst and co-hosts the Uncommon Decency podcast. He tweets at @Valen10Francois
Form your battalions!
France, for all its flaws, still converts military spending into power — Britain does not
The taming of Emmanuel Macron
The French president was once a bold reformer. What went wrong?
Most Read
American strategy in Iran is wiser than it seems
President Trump’s intervention will leave the world safer than it was
Saint Nicola
Nicola Sturgeon wants sympathy for her husband’s crimes—but after years spent avoiding awkward questions, her latest reinvention may be the hardest sell yet.
The lonely death of Henry Nowak
We must draw lessons from a horrendous and disgraceful case
Rewatching the English
English identity has become too surreal and discomfiting to define
The establishment is still living in an immigration fantasy land
It is influential left-wingers, not the broader public, who have deluded themselves on mass migration
It’s all so difficult
Keir Starmer is struggling to rationalise the obviously stupid
The real problem with rigmarole
A journalistic focus on proceduralism distracts us from deeper political questions
Fell for it again
Britain’s pro-development enthusiasts mistook fantasy politics for the real thing — and are now paying the price.
Our oriental roots
Marian Boswall salutes the early plant
hunters who revolutionised gardening
The limits of choice
Sometimes, we do know better than people who are harming themselves
Soft competition
There are participation prizes to everyone at the Venice Biennale
Britain should have voted against reparations
The moral and historical arguments for “reparatory justice” are bogus
Britain’s AI gamble reeks of desperation
The government is betting it all on AI — it could lose our trousers
The right does not need religion
We should not mourn the end of the Quiet Revival
Today Havering, tomorrow Westminster
The local elections exposed a political class united mainly by its inability to feel embarrassment
