Published on
6 April 2021
Western liberalism prides itself on having achieved very largely a ‘meritocracy’. Like – in a different way – the Greek conception of an aristocracy, a meritocracy allows for rule by the best and brightest. Today’s meritocracy came in partly in rejection of the corruption of Europe’s old aristocratic ruling élite seen operating in the ancien […]
Published on
25 November 2020
Posted in Christianity, Liberalism, Religion, Social Commentary, United States of America
Attacks on churches by Islamists in Europe are now commonplace. In 2018 there were 877 acts that damaged church property in France. There are no official statistics for 2019 church burnings, but there were 1,063 anti-Christian attacks. More alarming still are the attacks that have occurred during the course of the riots that have recently […]
Published on
17 October 2018
Posted in Culture, Liberalism, United States of America
The confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court seems to highlight the intense politicisation of every facet of American public and institutional life. The nation remains fiercely divided along strict party lines, with rare exceptions, over the nomination of a formerly well-regarded circuit judge. A UK perspective may provide some worthwhile insight. Here […]
Published on
9 February 2017
Our last blog post started by describing 2016 as an atypical year. That year is now over – and it truly was exceptional in various respects. It seems pertinent to reflect with a little hindsight on what happened in the twelve months to 31 December last. Politically, socially, culturally – and even locally here at […]
Published on
8 November 2016
2016 was in many respects an atypical year. In the political arena, two events confounded and unnerved the grandees of establishment media: Brexit, and, in the U.S.A., the Republican nomination for the US presidential election. Donald Trump made headlines with his brash style, irascible temperament and often controversial statements – among which his denouncing of […]
Published on
9 June 2016
The recent killing of a gorilla at a zoo in Cincinnati has provoked a wildly disproportionate social-media reaction. In some widely viewed footage of the occurrence, a four-year-old boy falls into the gorilla’s enclosure and is subsequently grabbed and dragged through water by the animal. Alarmed by understandably loud shouting from the boy’s mother and […]
Published on
25 May 2016
Posted in Europe, Social Commentary, United States of America, World Affairs
The outcome of the Austrian presidential election has produced a swift surge in outspoken expressions of relief among the West’s liberal media. Alexander van den Bellen, backed by the Greens and a supporter of further European integration, won by the narrowest of margins, just 31,000 votes in a nationwide poll. His opponent, Norbert Hofer, is […]
Published on
17 February 2012
At present it is hard to feel anything other than gloom about economic news. Unemployment fugures are high and firms struggle to access much-needed finance. The current global orthodoxy for governments is that of ‘necessary cuts’. Deepening ‘doom and gloom’ the credit rating agency Moody’s has this week noted a negative outlook for the UK […]