The new scramble for Africa
In well-to-do circles in the West, it has become de rigueur to criticise China for its role in Africa. The Economist, the bible of the business class, has labelled the Chinese “new colonialists.”...
View ArticleBlaspheming against liberals
On July 8, Britain finally abolished its archaic blasphemy laws. It is no longer a criminal offence for we Brits to speak or publish any contemptuous, reviling, scurrilous or ludicrous words relating...
View ArticleAnti-imperialism reduced to an emotional spasm
Do you have to brown skin, a Muslim moniker, a beard, and a passing or preferably detailed knowledge of the Koran in order to be angry about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the denial of statehood...
View ArticleWhoring the Holocaust
The anti-war lobby’s use of Holocaust imagery to protest against Israel’s attack on Gaza is causing a commotion. At a protest I attended outside the Israeli Embassy in London on Sunday, activists waved...
View ArticleThis is about etiquette, not equality
There are persistent rumours that Prince Harry is not his father’s son. But he is certainly his grandfather’s grandson. Like Prince Philip, the undisputed king of making racially-tinged gaffes, Harry...
View ArticleOf course the House of Lords is corrupt
Britain’s political and media elites are still reeling from the revelation this weekend that the House of Lords might be corrupt, after four lords allegedly offered to amend legislation in return for...
View ArticleThe Orwellian rewriting of nursery rhymes
In George Orwell’s 1984, one of Winston Smith’s depressing jobs at the Ministry of Truth is to rewrite historical documents to make them fit with party orthodoxy. He destroys evidence of problematic...
View ArticleAn invitation to riot
This week, London will go into lockdown for the G20. On Wednesday April 1, or what protesters are referring to as “Financial Fools’ Day”, anti-banker anarchists and greens are expected to descend on...
View ArticleA tale of two protests
Over the past seven days there have been two major demonstrations in London: the anti-capitalist, banker-baiting protests outside the Bank of England that coincided with the G20 summit last week, and a...
View ArticleThe rise and fall of Saint Bob
For years Bob Geldof, former Boomtown Rat turned self-styled saviour of Africa, was celebrated as a secular saint. To the annoyance of some of us — including me — he was fawned over by the world media...
View ArticleThe new scramble for Africa
In well-to-do circles in the West, it has become de rigueur to criticise China for its role in Africa. The Economist, the bible of the business class, has labelled the Chinese “new colonialists.”...
View ArticleBlaspheming against liberals
On July 8, Britain finally abolished its archaic blasphemy laws. It is no longer a criminal offence for we Brits to speak or publish any contemptuous, reviling, scurrilous or ludicrous words relating...
View ArticleAnti-imperialism reduced to an emotional spasm
Do you have to brown skin, a Muslim moniker, a beard, and a passing or preferably detailed knowledge of the Koran in order to be angry about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the denial of statehood...
View ArticleWhoring the Holocaust
The anti-war lobby’s use of Holocaust imagery to protest against Israel’s attack on Gaza is causing a commotion. At a protest I attended outside the Israeli Embassy in London on Sunday, activists waved...
View ArticleThis is about etiquette, not equality
There are persistent rumours that Prince Harry is not his father’s son. But he is certainly his grandfather’s grandson. Like Prince Philip, the undisputed king of making racially-tinged gaffes, Harry...
View ArticleOf course the House of Lords is corrupt
Britain’s political and media elites are still reeling from the revelation this weekend that the House of Lords might be corrupt, after four lords allegedly offered to amend legislation in return for...
View ArticleThe Orwellian rewriting of nursery rhymes
In George Orwell’s 1984, one of Winston Smith’s depressing jobs at the Ministry of Truth is to rewrite historical documents to make them fit with party orthodoxy. He destroys evidence of problematic...
View ArticleAn invitation to riot
This week, London will go into lockdown for the G20. On Wednesday April 1, or what protesters are referring to as “Financial Fools’ Day”, anti-banker anarchists and greens are expected to descend on...
View ArticleA tale of two protests
Over the past seven days there have been two major demonstrations in London: the anti-capitalist, banker-baiting protests outside the Bank of England that coincided with the G20 summit last week, and a...
View ArticleThe rise and fall of Saint Bob
For years Bob Geldof, former Boomtown Rat turned self-styled saviour of Africa, was celebrated as a secular saint. To the annoyance of some of us — including me — he was fawned over by the world media...
View Article
