2015

Lord Harries, aka Richard Harries, former Bishop of Oxford, suggests that the Koran should be read at the next Coronation. He says this will make Muslims feel “embraced.” Well, you hug who you like, Richard, and I’ll hug who I like. This suggestion is a form of apostasy, a sin not unusual among the modern bishops – for the Coronation … [Read on]

We can always rely on the Labour party to come up with plenty of creative thinking. Here’s their  latest dollop… Britain’s private schools will lose £700m in tax breaks unless they agree to break down the “corrosive divide of privilege” and do more to help children from state schools, according to Tristram Hunt, shadow education secretary. His logic is impeccable. … [Read on]

The day before the Swedish coalition government of Social Democrats and Greens announced that it was reversing its refugee policy and closing its borders to all but the minimum numbers of refugees laid down by the European Union, the website of the Guardian newspaper ran a video about the Swedish Democrats, a far-right party growing in support because of its … [Read on]

A few days ago I saw a little item in the Guardian newspaper whose size belied its significance. It said that Indian students were increasingly abandoning Britain as a place to study for America: and no one could blame them for doing so. Indeed, in one case I was responsible for this. An Indian friend of mine, and anglophile, asked … [Read on]

On my last visit but one to Brussels, my hosts asked me what I would like to see. “Molenbeek,’ I replied, for I had heard that much of it was virtually a North African ghetto and I wanted to see it for myself. My hosts were game and took me there. They told me that it was de facto extraterritorial … [Read on]

On my last visit but one to Brussels, my hosts asked me what I would like to see. ‘Molenbeek,’ I replied, for I had heard that much of it was virtually a North African ghetto and I wanted to see it for myself. My hosts were game and took me there. They told me that it was de facto extraterritorial to Belgium and it … [Read on]

‘British Muslims report big rise in Islamophobia’ said the headlines of an article in the Guardian for 12 November. From the headline, I thought I would read that there had been an increase in the number of vicious attacks on Muslims qua Muslims, or at least of acts of physical desecration. Not a bit of it. What I read instead … [Read on]

We live in a golden age of unctuousness, at least if the covers of the Lancet, one of the most important medical journals in the world, are anything to go by. On those covers, the editor, or some employee of the journal, chooses a sentence from the current edition to be inscribed upon it in large letters, presumably on the … [Read on]