Middle class #FBPE-ers of Britain unite! Talk to your Brexity, working class butchers, builders, plumbers, electricians and gardeners and educate them out of their superstitious dislike of the European Union There are few things more irritating than being called ignorant and closed-minded by a group of people who are themselves …
Read More »Review: The People vs Democracy
“The People vs Democracy” goes further than many other books which claim to “explain” Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, showing that it takes both sides – outraged establishment centrists as well as populist insurgents – to successfully undermine liberal democracy. Political renewal depends on the former group finally …
Read More »Political Tribalism And #Brexit
Political tribalism is usually discussed as a pathology afflicting low-information voters and preying upon the working class, but since the EU referendum we have seen many leading pro-EU figures from the political, journalistic and academic elites – people who often make a great show of their education and superior capacity …
Read More »We Need To Constrain Unchecked Government Power, For The Sake Of Brexit And Our Future Democracy
Does the UK government have the unilateral right to ignore instructions from the electorate if it finds them to be “harmful” based on narrowly subjective criteria? And if so, shouldn’t we do something to constrain that power? A couple of days ago I mused that the most fundamental question facing …
Read More »Don’t Expect Better Political Outcomes In Britain Until We Change The System
Upset by how Brexit is being prosecuted by the government, overseen by Parliament and reported on by the media? It’s time to stop lamenting the symptoms and fixing the underlying issues with our constitution and system of government Of the sum total of British political discourse at all levels, a …
Read More »Are Technocrats To Blame For The Rise Of The Know-Nothing Celebrity Politician?
When unelected technocrats increasingly set policy and carry out the day-to-day business of governance we should not be surprised that electoral politics, castrated and less consequential than ever before, is becoming a circus freak show Michael Brendan Dougherty has a new piece in the National Review which so succinctly captures the state …
Read More »The Two Brexits
Not everything of value can be measured or counted, and Remainers opposing Brexit purely on economic or materialistic terms are doomed to forever misunderstand half the country when they refuse to view Brexit through any other prism If we are to have any hope of knitting Britain back together after …
Read More »Does Oxbridge Discriminate?
Oxbridge has every incentive to admit more students from disadvantaged and minority backgrounds. If diversity has failed to improve then it is our fault as individuals, families, communities and voters for failing to provide elite universities with a bigger, better talent pool Another day, another tedious story about Oxbridge being …
Read More »The British Left’s Cunning Plan To Reach Working Class Voters: Insult Them
How can the British Left appeal to working class voters turned off by socialist paternalism and attracted by conservative messages of patriotism, freedom and self-sufficiency? Maybe a really sanctimonious internet meme will do the trick. This internet meme – currently being widely circulated on Facebook and other social media by …
Read More »What European Identity?
No, watching an arthouse movie twice a year doesn’t count Pete North puts into rather forceful words a sentiment which inchoately bubbles up within me every time I see a tearful Remainer painting the EU flag on their face and weeping into an eagerly waiting television camera about how the …
Read More »A Crisis Of Identity: When Global Elites Forget How To Be Patriotic
The global, liberal elite are increasingly transcending any lingering commitment to patriotism and national identity, setting them on a collision course with the small-c conservative majority Michael Lind has an unmissable essay in the National Review this week, entitled “The Open-Borders ‘Liberaltarianism’ of the New Urban Elite“, which manages to explain …
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