40 years ago this week, a British military task force was steaming southwards to recapture the Falkland Islands. On the 2nd of April, Argentina’s fascist regime had invaded the distant and barren archipelago. Though almost 8,000 miles from London, the island’s inhabitants were British, and they had no desire to live under the junta ofContinue reading “The Falklands and Ukraine (12/04/2022)”
Category Archives: Articles
Brilliant Race, Corrupted Sport 30/12/2021
Formula One can make for a brilliant spectacle. Yet the franchise continues to provide credibility to oppressive regimes.
The Attempt to Toxify Debate – Kathleen Stock and the Oxford Uni Fresher’s Fair (15/11/2021)
A brief look at two recent incidents concerning intolerance of free thought at universities, and why it’s all so worrying.
Total Betrayal (1) – Terror of the Taliban
“What fear – the certainty of a dark and dread filled future – would compel you to grip the airframe of a jet as it roared skywards from the earth?”
Total Betrayal (2) – The Future We Chose
“Conflicts cannot be won on a timetable. Especially not an American schedule. Their firepower is awesome, but their patience is pitiful.”
Total Betrayal (3) – With Friends Like These
“The world does not become more stable when the US retreats. For all its faults, the founding code of the American Republic is the antithesis of tyranny. ‘Life, liberty and pursuit of happiness’; these values are dictatorship’s kryptonite.”
Total Betrayal (4) – A Bungled Evacuation
“So far from being safe and orderly, at least seven Afghans were killed in the suffocating crushes which swelled around the airport gates.”
SATIRE ALERT: The Student Union Presidency – A Parable of Wokeness – By Russel Alanbridger (08/04/2021)
Dear reader, welcome. I bring glad tidings. Do you remember that orange man across the sea? Yes, that one. Do you remember how he lost an election and then tried to overturn the result? You do? Oh good. He didn’t manage it in the end. His loss is our gain. Because it turns out thatContinue reading “SATIRE ALERT: The Student Union Presidency – A Parable of Wokeness – By Russel Alanbridger (08/04/2021)”
The Medium is the Massage; the effect of technology on communication, forgiveness and politics. (15/12/2020)
‘The major advances in civilisation are processes that all but wreck the societies in which they occur’. A.N. Whitehead, mathematician and philosopher, co-author of the Principia Mathematica (1913). The Medium is the Massage (1967) opens with the above quote. It is no throwaway line. The book’s authors: Marshal McLuhan (words) and Quentin Fiore (graphics) hadContinue reading “The Medium is the Massage; the effect of technology on communication, forgiveness and politics. (15/12/2020)”
What does ‘American Psycho’ tell us about Donald Trump? (17th of July 2020)
In Brett Easton Ellis’ 1991 novel, his protagonist, the Wall Street lawyer Patrick Bateman, cares about very few people. He certainly does not care about his girlfriend Evelyn, and definitely not his co-workers, one of whom he chops to death with an axe. But there is one person that literature’s nastiest serial killer looks upContinue reading “What does ‘American Psycho’ tell us about Donald Trump? (17th of July 2020)”