BLOGS
Prime Time for Nationalists: STV screens a 60 minute advert for the SNP
Until now, television coverage of Scotland’s independence referendum has largely been confined to news bulletins and specialist, late night, political programmes unwatched by most of the general public. In that… Continue reading
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Death of a tyrant
For a king very conscious of his own power, who gloried in his status and commissioned famous artists to depict that status, Henry VIII’s death, in January 1547, was tawdry… Continue reading
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Boris Johnson to write book about Sir Winston Churchill
Boris is to write a book about Winston Churchill. As Boris puts it in a cantering press release: ‘The point of the ‘‘Churchill Factor’’ is that one man can make all the… Continue reading
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The fake-sheik strikes again, with Tulisa in the clink
The ‘fake-sheik’ has pulled off another classic sting operation, worthy of his time at the News of the World. Mazher Mahmood can add Tulisa Contostavlos, the ‘musician’ turned X-Factor judge,… Continue reading
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Going, going gong: Part II
The Met’s finest have been left baffled by the discovery of an Ivor Novello statuette, found during a raid on the lair of some scrap metal thieves in Croydon. Officers have ‘carried out… Continue reading
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Countering Terrorism in Britain and France, by Frank Foley – review
Have you ever wondered why we’re stuck with the radical cleric Abu Qatada? It’s a question the last four Home Secretaries will have asked as they battled, and failed, to… Continue reading
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A register of lobbyists has nothing to do with “clean” politics; it’s about protecting stupid MPs
So, just so we’re clear about this: people pretending to be lobbyists appear to be able to persuade parliamentarians to do their bidding (for cash, natch) and this therefore justifies… Continue reading
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Islamophilia – a very metropolitan malady
Readers might like to know that I have a new book out today. It is called ‘Islamophilia: a very metropolitan malady’ and is available on kindle, e-readers and all that… Continue reading
84 Comments
Primaries and recall elections may be nice ideas, but they won’t transform British politics
Say at least this for those twin gadflies Douglas Carswell MP and Daniel Hannan MEP, they are optimists in a political scene often dominated by a certain brand of dreary… Continue reading
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Discovering poetry: John Donne, from deviant to Dean of St. Paul’s
Holy Sonnet 7, John Donne At the round earth’s imagined corners, blow Your trumpets, angels, and arise, arise From death, you numberless infinities Of souls, and to your scattered bodies… Continue reading
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Is it time to aid Turkey’s protestors?
Is it now time for William Hague to send money, and possibly arms, to the rebels now participating in what we might call a Turkish Spring? There have been violent… Continue reading
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Who is the Mail on Sunday talking about?
So, who is it then? Please speculate in the privacy of your own homes rather than within the comments section below, as our lawyers would – like the rest of… Continue reading
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The madness of culling badgers
Good luck to all the animal rights activists setting off this weekend to harass the members of the Game and Wildlife “Conservancy” Trust shooting blameless badgers. The cull, which could… Continue reading
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To end “Islamophobia”, we must tackle Islamism
I thought readers might be interested in this piece from me in the new issue of Standpoint which is just out. It is titled ‘Forget “Islamophobia”. Let’s tackle Islamism’. In… Continue reading
41 Comments
Does William Hague know what he is doing with Syria?
A week or so after the murder of a British soldier by two psychopathic savages in Woolwich, the Foreign Secretary William Hague is back pleading with our European partners to… Continue reading
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Sheila Heti: ‘I did worry putting sex in the book would eclipse everything else’
There is a question which writers (and readers) of literary fiction get tired of hearing: which bits really happened? The traditional and respectable answer is that this doesn’t matter. Everything… Continue reading
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A guide to understanding Islamist terror in the UK and US
Readers may like to know that I have a cover piece in this week’s magazine titled ‘The Enemy Within’. It is available here for subscribers. (Non-subscribers can subscribe here.) It… Continue reading
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What enemy within? Britain is not losing the battle against Jihadism.
To read Douglas Murray’s cover story from this week’s edition of the magazine (subscribe!) you might think the British government is not only losing the battle against Islamist extremism and… Continue reading
129 Comments
MI5 is wrong: subversion is still a threat
The website of the Security Service (MI5) says that since the end of the Cold War, the threat of subversion is ‘now considered to be negligible’. Isn’t this a mistake?… Continue reading
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Culture wars
Shadow arts minister Dan Jarvis set chins wagging today by suggesting that ‘well-placed sources in Whitehall’ had told him that the Department for Culture Media and Sport could be scrapped… Continue reading
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