Rhetoric
The sad ubiquity of political dishonesty
Is it too much to expect politicians to be straight with us sometimes?
Hurty words
Robust debate is to be celebrated, not condemned
Once more unto the speeches
There was a great deal of talking today, but how much of it meant anything?
Harsh rhetoric is not “incitement to violence”
We need less name-calling, but we also need to toughen up
It’s not 1933
Nazi comparisons are misrepresenting the past and the present alike
Jargon in excelsis
On “cisheteropatriarchy” and the ugliness and obscurity of cultural discourse
The thoughtlessness of guilt by association
We cannot judge ideas on the basis of the people who happen to hold them
In defence of the stiff upper lip
Emotional reserve in public does not mean neglecting our interior lives, it means being serious about them
Trump’s first gambit fails
The Republican candidate was not as effective on the debate stage as he anticipated
In defence of the incredulous stare
To argue is to indulge in a practice, with all that this entails
Most Read
Amnesty irrational
Gender identity ideologues cannot get away with baseless smears any more
How Bridget Phillipson earned an F
Phillipson’s big ambitions were reduced to performative stunts
Who pays for Manchesterism?
Burnham spent nine years extracting money from Westminster, now he’ll be reaching directly into taxpayers’ pockets
The goading life
How the transgressive media of the 1990s influenced, and was eaten by, online culture
The migrant crime cover up
Why is Labour fighting to keep migrant crime statistics secret?
The hollow men
T. S. Eliot understood contemporary politicians better than they understand themselves
The problem with price freezes
Freezing prices is not half as simple (or cheap) as politicians often think
Kemi at the crossroads
Kemi Badenoch cannot tell everybody what they want to hear
Piano pair strike just the right note
Serendipity has delivered a double bill for the ages this month
The pro-nature case for regulatory reform
England’s environmental regime hasn’t delivered a restoration of nature — only decline, delay, and bureaucracy
The lonely death of Henry Nowak
We must draw lessons from a horrendous and disgraceful case
Critical briefing: EU-Taliban talks
As European governments harden their approach to migration, Brussels has taken the extraordinary step of negotiating directly with Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers
French lessons for Farage
Following the Makerfield defeat, Reform should look across the channel to Rassemblement National for strategies
Sometimes look on the bright side of life
We should welcome the more culturally affirmative moments of pessimistic and condemnatory commentators
Britain will be worse without hereditary peers
The expulsion of the hereditaries is neither fair nor pragmatic
Keir’s logorrhoea
The prime minister has a lot to say — but does any of it actually matter?