United Kingdom
April 16, 2026 — John Hinderaker
It made news here in the U.S. when the United Kingdom fell behind America’s poorest state, Mississippi, in per capita GDP. But evidently not many Brits got the message: when free market think tank Institute of Economic Affairs polled the question, most Brits thought that their country would rank with America’s most prosperous states: 🇬🇧 We asked Brits where the UK ranks vs US states in income per person. Average
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April 8, 2026 — John Hinderaker
Frankly, I feel sorry for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who looks on impotently as his country slides downhill. I suspect that he knows that the policies he advocates can only speed that decline. The recent Iranian conflict exposed the uselessness of–appallingly!–the British Navy, which struggled to get a single ship to the eastern Mediterranean after Iran lobbed missiles at its base on Cyprus. That single ship is on its
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April 1, 2026 — John Hinderaker
The last player selected in the NFL draft is traditionally referred to as “Mr. Irrelevant,” although it isn’t always true. But the real Mr. Irrelevant is British Prime Minister Keir Starmer: The United Kingdom will not be dragged into war in the Middle East, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a press conference on Wednesday. “This is not our war. We will not be drawn into the conflict,” Starmer
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March 23, 2026 — John Hinderaker
About 24 hours ago, criminals presumed to be anti-Semites destroyed four ambulances in a Jewish area of North London, Golders Green. The destruction was intense: Now, authorities are investigating whether the attack may have been directed by Iran’s mullahs: Security services and police are investigating whether Iran could be behind an arson attack on four ambulances serving a Jewish community in north London, after a group linked to Tehran said
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March 16, 2026 — John Hinderaker
Military professionals always learn from wars and other armed conflicts. (In my view, Iran is an armed conflict but not, at least so far, a war.) Ukraine taught lessons about drones, both offensive and defensive. What can we learn from Iran? For one thing, we can evaluate the effectiveness of several nations’ armed forces. The U.S. and Israeli militaries have both performed brilliantly, and in close harmony. Some liberals question
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March 13, 2026 — John Hinderaker
Add the Bank of England to the list of institutions that have gone completely bonkers. It is planning to replace, on U.K. currency, the images of important figures from British history with animals: Plans to replace Winston Churchill with badgers on banknotes have been branded “loony and mad”. On Wednesday, the Bank of England announced plans to put native animals such as hedgehogs, puffins and badgers on banknotes. *** The
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March 10, 2026 — Bill Glahn
From Skynews, first the good news on that Royal Navy warship, HMS Dragon has finally left Portsmouth and is on its way to protect the UK’s airbase in Cyprus from attack. Now the bad news, HMS Dragon could now take anywhere between six and a half and 11 days to get to Cyprus depending on its speed and conditions in the Bay of Biscay. Will the war still be going
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March 9, 2026 — Bill Glahn
From The HIll newspaper, UK warship to set sail for Cyprus base in ‘next couple of days’ With just a little bit of luck, by the time it arrives, it will be too late to do any good. The Hill reports, via the U.K. Independent, about separate efforts to deploy an aircraft carrier, The Ministry of Defense first announced the ship’s deployment last week. But the aircraft carrier has been
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March 7, 2026 — Bill Glahn
Here we are, more than a week into the war against Iran, and the United Kingdom is still unable to deploy a single Naval ship into the Mediterranean Sea to protect its interests on the Island of Cyprus. Buried within this farce is the revelation that, today and for some time prior, the Royal Navy had zero ships in the Mediterranean. If I were Spain, I would just overrun Gibraltar
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March 4, 2026 — John Hinderaker
That is the headline in the Telegraph. Ayatollah Khomenei was one of the world’s most evil men, but we are living in an upside down world: Students at British universities have shared posts mourning the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the dictator of Iran. More than a dozen student-led societies have expressed their “sincere condolences” to the so-called “beloved” Iranian supreme leader, with one even advertising a “candlelight vigil” in
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March 2, 2026 — John Hinderaker
The United Kingdom’s reckless immigration policies, which we now know were intentionally designed to bring “diversity” to that country for ideological purposes, have brought both the Labour Party and the Conservative Party to their knees, and opened the door to what looks like a Reform victory in the next election. Perhaps too late, Labour is now reversing course, as Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announces a drastic change in refugee policy:
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February 27, 2026 — John Hinderaker
If you have been to London, you probably have seen the statue of Winston Churchill that stands in Parliament Square. It is one of the world’s most famous sculptures. At around 4:00 this morning, it was vandalized, apparently by a Muslim group: The bronze statue was defaced with red graffiti branding the former prime minister a “Zionist war criminal”. Other phrases including “Stop the Genocide” and “Free Palestine” were sprayed
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February 1, 2026 — Bill Glahn
I’m not kidding. From Fox News last week, Spain legalizes up to 500,000 undocumented migrants, sparking backlash. The socialist prime minister of Spain, Pedro Sanchez, heads a minority government propped up by the nation’s separatist parties. His party finished second in the 2023 election, behind the conservative People’s Party. The socialists lagged the conservatives in the popular vote by more than 340,000. Sanchez is not going to allow that to
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December 29, 2025 — John Hinderaker
In terms of the laws of physics and economics, hybrid vehicles make much more sense than pure battery-powered cars. And unlike EVs, they have found a viable market niche. But data from the U.K. suggest that hybrids are unusually dangerous. From the London Times: “Fatal crash risk ‘three times higher’ in hybrid cars than petrol.” Motorists in hybrid cars are substantially more likely to die in road collisions than those
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December 26, 2025 — John Hinderaker
Our extremely sensitive British cousins have struck a blow for humanity. Or, rather, for lobsterdom: “Boiling live lobsters to be banned under animal rights reforms.” In its animal welfare strategy, published on Monday, the government said that “live boiling is not an acceptable killing method”, while also setting out new farming standards and banning trail hunting. The strategy, which sets out a series of protections for pets, farmed animals and
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December 15, 2025 — Bill Glahn
From SkyNews, UK’s ‘sons and daughters’ need to be ready to fight, amid growing Russian threat, says head of armed forces. Why? They report, There is a growing risk that Russia could attack the UK, and the nation’s “sons and daughters” need to be ready to fight, the head of Britain’s armed forces has said. The whole thing brings to mind the classic Marx Brothers’ film Duck Soup (1933). Groucho
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December 6, 2025 — John Hinderaker
From London, another story about disgusting protesters: “‘Tax the rich’ activists vandalise Crown Jewels with crumble and custard.” Police arrested four people after officers rushed to the Tower following reports of an incident shortly before 10am. They found that food had been thrown onto a case containing the State Crown, which is used at coronations and state openings of Parliament. A group calling itself Take Back Power staged the attack,
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