United Kingdom
April 3, 2025 — Bill Glahn
The report from the BBC begins, A woman who was attacked on a Tube train in central London has said she was then left standing on a platform for a “harrowing” 30 minutes because no one answered the emergency calls she made from a help point. It doesn’t sound like she was seriously hurt. It’s not the biggest news story of the day. But it looms large in my mind
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March 31, 2025 — Bill Glahn
In a last-minute reprieve, the two-tiered prison sentence scheme set to be introduced tomorrow in Britain has been delayed. What was this all about? I’ll quote from the UK tabloid The Sun, as they mince fewer words on the matter, It could have seen ethnic minority, religious and transgender criminals handed softer punishments by prioritising them for pre-sentence reports. But the Sentencing Council leadership has backed down at the eleventh-hour and
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March 25, 2025 — John Hinderaker
Liberals love to talk about the slavery of 400 years ago, which the Republican Party successfully abolished in this country, but when it comes to slavery today, it is a different story. And there is quite a bit of slavery today–mostly in Islamic countries, which for many centuries have been the prime centers of slave owning and slave trading, and in China. Some years ago, I wrote about a report
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March 23, 2025 — John Hinderaker
This story is so dumb it makes my head hurt: “Cambridge causes bitter row by linking Stephen Hawking to slavery.” Cambridge University has become embroiled in a row over claims that scientists including the late Professor Stephen Hawking benefited from slavery. The university’s Fitzwilliam Museum is holding an exhibition titled Rise Up, which covers abolition movements, rebellions and modern-day “racist injustices”. *** A catalogue that accompanies the exhibition also states
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March 3, 2025 — John Hinderaker
The notoriously anti-Semitic BBC has stepped in it again. It produced a documentary titled “Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone” that was intended to stimulate sympathy for the Gazans who had the misfortune to start a war, and then lose it. The documentary featured, and was narrated by, a young boy supposedly named Abdullah. Reportedly, BBC employees at some point asked their Gazan contacts whether the production had anything
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March 2, 2025 — John Hinderaker
As an amateur student of history, I have often been struck by how many countries have lost wars, have even seemingly been ruined, and yet have bounced back. What ultimately destroys a country? Suicide. A loss of national will, national pride, national identity. Which brings us to the current depressed state of the United Kingdom. From the Telegraph: “Nelson makes way for Yvette Cooper portrait in Parliament’s diversity drive.” Nelson,
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February 27, 2025 — John Hinderaker
It is interesting to see how the foreign press covers President Trump and American foreign policy. With respect, I would say, and with trepidation. Thus, today’s London Times, on Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Oval Office meeting with President Trump: “Analysis: Special relationship looks back on track.” Trump and Starmer seem to have gotten along well: The president complimented the prime minister’s love of his country, and said Britain was a
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February 26, 2025 — John Hinderaker
This story from London illustrates the far-reaching effects of the Trump administration’s cutbacks at USAID: Stonewall could be forced to cut up to half of its staff after President Trump’s decision to freeze foreign aid, The Times understands. Workers at the LGBTQ+ charity were told on Thursday that restructuring would take place, and that only roles with dedicated funding would be safe. I guess “dedicated funding” means funding by someone
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February 15, 2025 — John Hinderaker
What is the purpose of a mug shot? I am not sure, but the practice of taking mug shots is universal, so there must be a reason for it. Whatever the purpose is, it no doubt requires that the person under arrest be visible in the photograph. Which brings us to the case of Farishta Jami, born in Afghanistan but now resident in the U.K., who was convicted of terrorism
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January 26, 2025 — John Hinderaker
The impact of Donald Trump’s resounding win at the polls, and his whirlwind first days in office, is not limited to the U.S. In the United Kingdom, politicians are trying to learn from his example. Thus, Suella Braverman, who represents the right wing of the Conservative Party, writes in the Telegraph, after attending Trump’s inauguration. Her piece is headlined: “Trump’s triumph offers a new blueprint for Britain”: Sitting mere feet
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January 13, 2025 — John Hinderaker
The lights are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime. Energy costs are de-industrializing one former economic power after another. This Telegraph article is mostly about the U.K.: Sir Jim Ratcliffe has warned that Britain’s multibillion-pound chemicals industry is facing “extinction” because of soaring energy costs and the shift to net zero. *** Sir Jim, the co-owner of Manchester United and one
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December 27, 2024 — John Hinderaker
In general, what passes for the arts in contemporary society tend to attract narrow-minded conformists. And, it seems, anti-Semites. The London Times published an investigative piece on anti-Semitism in the British arts world, but I wonder whether things would be much different in the U.S. or most Western countries: Britain’s cultural world has turned its back on Jewish creatives according to a series of allegations gathered by The Times. Artists,
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December 26, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Wind and solar energy are both unreliable and ridiculously expensive, a fatal combination. They exist only because of government subsidies and mandates, without which they couldn’t begin to compete with real–i.e., reliable and affordable–sources of energy. But no matter how hard governments try, they can never subsidize waste enough money on “green” energy. This is from the London Times: “Far more funding needed if UK is to decarbonise grid by
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December 20, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Well, I guess that is called socialism. But what about when most people in a modern society are on the dole? The Telegraph reports: “Majority of Britons receive more in benefits than they pay in taxes.” Once upon a time, everyone assumed that the vast majority would be taxpayers, and there would be a handful who are unable to care for themselves and would thus be the beneficiaries of state
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December 12, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Bari Weiss interviewed UK Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch at length in the hour-plus video below. The video is posted here at the Free Press with an introduction by Bari. I have also posted the video below. At about 12:00, Bari asks Badenoch if she read any books that influenced her intellectual evolution. Good question! If Thomas Sowell came to mind, as it did to mine, you are correct. Badenoch
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December 8, 2024 — John Hinderaker
World leaders continue to adjust to the reality that Donald Trump is again going to be President. In some cases, the adjustment is easy. Thus, the Telegraph notes the good relationship between JD Vance and Tory leader Kemi Badenoch: Kemi Badenoch has had dinner with JD Vance, the vice president-elect, as the pair “renewed their friendship” ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House. The Tory leader and Mr
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November 28, 2024 — John Hinderaker
In 2019, Britain’s Tories won a landslide victory. Just five years later, they were voted out of office. The Conservatives failed to deliver on immigration, and Boris Johnson went “green.” With more or less leftist positions on those two issues, what reason was there to vote Tory? None, most people concluded. Now the “green” train is engaged in a slow-motion wreck. Electric vehicle mandates are part of the problem. The
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