To protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the United States organised a boycott, involving 65 nations, of the 1980 Summer Olympics due to be held in Moscow. Looking forward to the present day, the World Uyghur Congress has asked the…
A day before the Russian politician and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny collapsed – in what appears to be a case of poisoning – he was asked a dark, but common question, ‘Why aren’t you dead?’ The question is a serious…
To win in November, Joe Biden needs to distill both his agenda and critiques of Trump into a coherent and historically informed message. The institutional and rhetorical disorder in the Trump Campaign, specifically the firing of his campaign manager Brad…
‘The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated’. These words were written in a cable by the author Mark Twain after his obituary had been mistakenly published. The idea that the left-right binary no longer exists, like the above anecdote,…
After the Financial Crisis of 2008, Gordon Brown was frequently chided for the suggestion he made, while Chancellor, that the era of ‘boom and bust’ had come to an end under his stewardship. A similar, though less well known, comment…
The ever-cynical commentator Peter Hitchens, when attacking the idea that the Tories are a truly conservative Party, frequently states that they are merely a vehicle for ‘obtaining office for the sons of gentlemen’. To suggest that the Conservative Party is…