This is controversial and will remind some people why they hate blogs. But it’s been nagging at me for months, so I’m saying it anyway. For the past few months I’ve seen a lot of right-wing content circulating online about cousin marriage in the UK — specifically whether it should be banned. Leaving aside the … Read more
Asylum Hotels The Anger People are angry about asylum seekers in hotels. I spent a long time trying to contact people who had expressed concerns online, asking them why they were angry. The most common response was abuse. Many resented being asked to explain themselves and responded with more anger. They seemed genuinely stunned to … Read more
The United States has published its new National Security Strategy. It is a strange document: steeped in conspiratorial thinking, openly ideological, and almost unrecognisable as a traditional American foreign policy text. It is so odd, in fact, that the temptation is to dismiss it as unserious — roughly as plausible as Donald Trump’s repeated plans … Read more
The latest idea to send right-wing commentators into a frothing panic is “decolonisation”. Apparently, it represents an existential threat to Western civilisation — an effort to censor traditional Western ideas and replace them with pernicious liberalism and “woke”. This is, of course, nonsense. Empire Didn’t Need Explaining My grandparents were moderate supporters of the British … Read more
The usual suspects on-line and in the old media are getting themselves worked up that families with a Polygamous marriage are getting an increase in benefits. This is typical of the hysteria from the Daily Express The not so hidden subtext is that these are Muslim families, and as such should not be allowed to … Read more
Hysteria about immigration continues to dominate political debate in the UK — in the traditional media and across social platforms. The government is now under intense pressure to introduce tougher asylum rules to “appease public concern”. But that concern isn’t rooted in reality. Since Labour came into power last year, net migration to the UK … Read more
Does immigration increase crime? Every time I log onto Facebook, old school friends share horror stories about crime waves supposedly driven by immigrants. London, apparently, is now a crime-ridden hell hole plagued by gangs of foreign criminals. Other big cities, we’re told, are heading the same way. They’re so convinced this is true that it’s … Read more
A year after Donald Trump clawed his way back into the White House, America looks less like a republic and more like a family business — and not a very well-run one. The wealth and security of the United States no longer matter. What matters is the wealth and power of Donald Trump and the … Read more
At 4pm on the 17th of December 1992, Jonathan Zito was stabbed to death by a stranger at a London Underground station. This wasn’t an isolated tragedy. From the 1980s onwards, Conservative governments emptied Britain’s mental hospitals and moved thousands of patients into “the community” — but without providing the support or services they needed. … Read more
Small boat crossings fell again this month — down almost 65% in October. After a 20% drop in August and a slight bounce in September, the last three months are down 30% on 2023 and 60% on 2022, the peak year for crossings. This is, on the surface, great news. Crossing the Channel in small … Read more