Universities
An open letter on academic free speech
Calls for more intellectual openness are not a defence of Islamists and Holocaust deniers. A response to Mark Ferguson MP
The public sector must reform or die
Too big to fail? It is too big to succeed
What’s the point of university during a freedom of speech crisis?
Students should be taught to do more than agree
Academia must not dissolve scholarship into politics
Scholarly rigour must be put above ideological virtue signalling
“Social justice” is damaging education
Teaching is in danger of degenerating into indoctrination
Badmissions procedures
Putting decisions in the hands of non-specialist administrators fails students and universities
Guardrails of civilisation
If politics is downstream from culture, culture is downstream from the campus
The rise of academentia
Mere transgression is being elevated above genuine insight and creativity
Death by red tape
“Soft cancellation” is the preferred tool of institutionalised censoriousness
The future of higher education
How can universities be more efficient and effective?
Reading humbly
Approaching texts with love, patience and humility can reveal more than scepticism
Israel off the leash
For Benjamin Netanyahu, continuing the war is a matter of political survival, and he goes to America to raise support, not to listen to calls for peace
The US is getting what it wants in the Middle East
Israeli escalations against Hezbollah are not defiance but an extension of U.S. strategy
Violence is a feature of porn, not a bug
Aggression towards women permeates the most popular pornography
British politics is Gething worse and worse
Identity is being prioritised over competence and ambition
Imaginary friends
The idea of a synthetic companion that knows everything about you goes well beyond friendship
Why personal insults fail
Getting personal might be mean, but it is also ineffective
Newspeak
Language, landscapes and level crossings — is there nothing we can’t diversify, if we only dare to try?
Eyes on a miserly prize
It’s not just owners who are being fleeced
You can’t legislate away hatred
Don’t just do something, stand there
Draining the swamp
Residents are hopeful that the mayor’s grip on Venice might at last be easing
