Great Britain
November 30, 2024 — Scott Johnson
In January 1933 the Oxford Union voted 275-153 to approve the motion: “That this House refuses in any circumstances to fight for King and Country.” The proposition became known as the Oxford oath. Winston Churchill was not amused. While others counseled that it be dismissed as youthful folly, he declined to ignore the proceedings at Oxford. Rather, he declared it “a very disquieting and disgusting symptom” and proceeded to explain
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October 20, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Western governments have been promoting, and sometimes, requiring, the purchase of electric vehicles. This is one of the most foolish policy initiatives ever. Electric vehicles are essentially an obsolete technology; they have been the alleged next big thing in transportation for over 120 years, but have lost out because internal combustion cars are better and cheaper. The extent to which consumers are refusing to swallow pro-EV hype is reflected in
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October 1, 2024 — Steven Hayward
As the Tory Party in Britain digs itself out from its much-deserved humiliation in the latest election, it ought to make MP Kemi Badenoch the next party leader. Badenoch, born in London to Nigerian parents, has recently upset the wokerati by saying that not all cultures are equal, and that she prefers Western culture, thank you very much. She’s being called a racist, despite the obvious. She has no use
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September 12, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Just a few years ago, there was no such thing as a transsexual movement. Gender dysphoria, in which a person believes that his or her body is not of the correct sex, has long been recognized as a severe, but thankfully extremely rare, mental health condition. But now, the “trans” movement is political, and there is a global effort to vastly overstate the number of people who suffer from this
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September 8, 2024 — John Hinderaker
A new report by British lawyer Trevor Asserson, now based in Jerusalem, alleges persistent anti-Israel bias on the part of the British Broadcasting Company. Asserson led a team of 20 lawyers and 20 data scientists who used artificial intelligence to analyze the BBC’s news coverage. The Telegraph reports: The BBC breached its own editorial guidelines more than 1,500 times during the height of the Israel-Hamas war, a damning report has
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August 24, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The contradictions that undermine civil society seem to have reached a perilous stage in Great Britain. Censorship follows in its wake. Britain’s Spiked observes the phenomenon in this note: “The UK has become a posterboy for the perils of censorship. In the wake of the recent race riots, the British state has set about arresting and jailing not just the rioters, but also those who posted hateful memes or spread
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August 4, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Last Monday, in Southport, England, children attending a Taylor Swift-themed dance class were attacked by a knife-wielding 17-year-old. He stabbed to death three girls, ages 6, 7 and 9, and wounded ten more children and adults, several critically. In the wake of the attack, rumors spread that the murderer was a Muslim immigrant. Rioting broke out in Southport. Because the attacker was nearly 18 at the time of his crimes,
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July 5, 2024 — Steven Hayward
As John discusses below, yesterday’s election in the UK is what is known as a “stonking” by the Labour Party, which gained its largest majority in decades. However, by raw vote totals, it is clear that the election result is hardly a mandate for Labour’s very left agenda that I predict will be very unpopular in a matter of months, and this will show up in the first by-elections that
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July 5, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Mark Steyn comments on yesterday’s U.K. election. His thoughts are consistent with Scott’s, but expressed in Mark’s unique voice: Across the United Kingdom almost every constituency voted for lefties of various stripes – not just victorious Labour lefties, but also Scots nationalist lefties, Irish republican lefties, eco-lefties, Islamo-lefties and, of course, duplicitous pseudo-conservative lefties: you can get it in any colour as long as it’s red. So, if you’re one
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June 19, 2024 — Steven Hayward
Time for a periodic reminder from P.J. O’Rourke that “At the core of liberalism is the spoiled child — miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied, demanding, ill-disciplined, despotic and useless. Liberalism is a philosophy of sniveling brats.” Today’s news brings fresh evidence of this, as a pair of climate cultists defaced the Stonehenge monument in England. (I admit to being a little confused by this gesture, since returning us all
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May 27, 2024 — Steven Hayward
The British Tory Party, facing the electorate on July 4, and according to the polls heading for a wipeout ofter several years of incompetence in office starting with Boris Johnson totally flubbing COVID, have announced a new gambit: Lagging in polls, UK Conservatives pitch national service at 18 Britain’s Conservative Party will introduce mandatory national service for 18-year-olds if it wins the national election on July 4, comprising military or
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March 30, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Some teachers are fine as individuals, but when you put them in a group, the result is disaster. In America, teachers’ unions are the most malign influence on our public life, and on our children. And they aren’t any better in Great Britain. The London Times headlines: “Teaching union is accused of hostility to Jews.” The UK’s largest teaching union has been accused of being hostile to Jewish teachers after
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March 19, 2024 — John Hinderaker
From the London Times: Margaret Thatcher has been listed as a “contemporary villain” alongside Adolf Hitler and Osama bin Laden in a display at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The former Conservative prime minister is named as one of several “unpopular public figures” in the exhibition on British humour through the ages. Thatcher served as Prime Minister for nearly 12 years, the longest such tenure in British history. A casual
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February 25, 2024 — John Hinderaker
People around the world are increasingly realizing that “green” energy is actually black–as in blackouts. Thus, in today’s Telegraph: “The UK is much closer to blackouts than anyone dares to admit.” We are heading for a big electricity crunch as it is. Whoever wins the general election, the next government will be committed to decarbonising the National Grid – by 2035 in the case of the Conservatives and by 2030
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February 23, 2024 — Steven Hayward
According to the polls, the Tory Party over in Britain s heading for a wipeout at the hands of the Labour Party later this year, thereby squandering Boris Johnson’s record Tory landslide of 2019. Has there ever been a greater example of political malpractice in recent decades? There are lots of reasons for this dreadful scene (starting with Johnson’s own terrible handling of COVID and other unforced errors) which can
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February 22, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Britain’s House of Commons was thrown into chaos last night, and its Speaker is under heavy attack for violating arcane procedural customs having to do with amendments on “Opposition Day.” I won’t try to untangle the procedural questions; what is relevant is what caused the House to be tied up in knots. Speaker Lindsay Hoyle was trying to save Labour members from potentially having to vote against a resolution by
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December 17, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Admiral Horatio Nelson is one of the greatest heroes of British history. With the possible exception of Wellington, no one contributed more to winning the Napoleonic Wars. Nelson’s death at Trafalgar, his greatest victory, holds a place in British history analogous to that of Lincoln at the end of the Civil War. But in recent years, Nelson has come under attack, and activists have urged that statues of him be
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