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Opinion

100 articles in this section

Expert opinion, commentary, and editorial perspectives from The Prime. Thought-provoking analysis on politics, economics, culture, and society.

Opinion

The Fall of a Titan: India’s Female Politician and the Echoes of Empire

A spectre is haunting the subcontinent: the collapse of a political career. India’s foremost female politician, once the darling of the masses, now finds herself cast adrift from her party. The news h...

Arthur Penhaligon2 MIN READ
The Fall of a Titan: India’s Female Politician and the Echoes of Empire

SpaceX’s London Listing: A Pox on Our Regulatory House

So the City is in a tizzy. SpaceX, Elon Musk’s interplanetary circus, has decided to list on the London Stock Exchange, ...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
SpaceX’s London Listing: A Pox on Our Regulatory House

A Rescue, a Strike, and the Echoes of Empire

So here we are again. Twenty four Indian sailors plucked from the sea off Oman after a US strike, and I'm supposed to be...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
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A Rescue, a Strike, and the Echoes of Empire

When the Ground Moves, the Empire Trembles: On the Philippines Quake and British Paternalism

The earth shuddered in the Philippines, and schoolchildren fled as a roof collapsed. A harrowing image, no doubt. Yet th...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
When the Ground Moves, the Empire Trembles: On the Philippines Quake and British Paternalism

The Southern Lights: A Celestial Spectacle or a Distraction from Our Terrestrial Rot?

In an age where our newsfeeds are choked with the detritus of a civilisation in decline, a timelapse of the Aurora Austr...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
The Southern Lights: A Celestial Spectacle or a Distraction from Our Terrestrial Rot?

When Liberty’s Light Show Goes Awry: A Firecracker Farce on American Highways

The American Republic, so fond of its spectacular displays of civic pride and pyrotechnic excess, has outdone itself. A ...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
When Liberty’s Light Show Goes Awry: A Firecracker Farce on American Highways

The Pacific Ring of Fire Reminds Us of Something We Prefer to Forget

The earth moves. In the Philippines, it moves with a terrible regularity that we, in our cosseted corners of the world, ...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
The Pacific Ring of Fire Reminds Us of Something We Prefer to Forget

The Shaking Earth: A Fault Line in Modern Certainties

The Philippines quivers like a plucked string, its death count a grim metronome marking the rhythm of geological indiffe...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
The Shaking Earth: A Fault Line in Modern Certainties

The ICC's Long Goodbye: A Tale of Hubris, Incompetence, and Judicial Decay

The suspension of the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor following a misconduct probe is not merely a scand...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
The ICC's Long Goodbye: A Tale of Hubris, Incompetence, and Judicial Decay

The Kenyan Coup de Grâce: Why Britain Must Reclaim Its Role as the World’s Judicial Guardian

The arrest of Maraga, Kenya’s former chief justice, at a protest is not merely a local affair. It is a symptom of a deep...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
The Kenyan Coup de Grâce: Why Britain Must Reclaim Its Role as the World’s Judicial Guardian

The Humiliation of St Petersburg: Putin’s Economic Forum in the Shadow of Drones

Let us dispense with the usual diplomatic euphemisms. The sight of Russian drones falling on St Petersburg on the eve of...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
The Humiliation of St Petersburg: Putin’s Economic Forum in the Shadow of Drones

Xi and Kim Pledge Stronger Ties. Britain Warns of New Axis. Is This the Dawn of Another 1914?

So here we are again. The headlines scream of a new 'axis' forming, this time between Beijing and Pyongyang, as Xi Jinpi...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
Xi and Kim Pledge Stronger Ties. Britain Warns of New Axis. Is This the Dawn of Another 1914?

When the Roof Falls In: Another Lesson from the Decadent West to the Gritty East

A school roof collapses in the Philippines. Children flee. British search-and-rescue teams deploy. The imagery is now st...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
When the Roof Falls In: Another Lesson from the Decadent West to the Gritty East

The Knicks, Trump, and the Theatre of Fortress New York

New York is gripped by Knicks mania. The team’s improbable playoff run has electrified a city long starved of basketball...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
The Knicks, Trump, and the Theatre of Fortress New York

Tehran's Leverage Surges as Sands of Middle East Shift: A Cocktail of Chaos

In a development so predictable it could have been written by a committee of cynical old hacks, Tehran finds itself sudd...

Barnaby 'Biff' Thistlethwaite · 3 MIN READ
Tehran's Leverage Surges as Sands of Middle East Shift: A Cocktail of Chaos

Visa Follies: A Somali Referee, a Commonwealth Snub, and the Unravelling of Special Relationship

The news that a Somali football referee has been barred from entering the United States has, predictably, been met with ...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
Visa Follies: A Somali Referee, a Commonwealth Snub, and the Unravelling of Special Relationship

The Empire Strikes Back: Britain’s Hollow Plea for Peace in the Levant

So the United Kingdom, that toothless old lion of the post-imperial world, has once again donned the mantle of global pe...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
The Empire Strikes Back: Britain’s Hollow Plea for Peace in the Levant

Drones Over St Petersburg: The New Normal of Russian Grandeur

St Petersburg’s International Economic Forum, once a glittering showcase of Russian ambition, has been reduced to a stag...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
Drones Over St Petersburg: The New Normal of Russian Grandeur

The Real Loser in the Artan Affair: Not the Referee, but the Remnants of Civilisation Itself

The news that Somali referee Abdi Artan has been barred from entering the United States has provoked the expected howls ...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
The Real Loser in the Artan Affair: Not the Referee, but the Remnants of Civilisation Itself

Zelensky’s European Cheerleaders Lay Down the Law: Five Conditions for Peace, With Britain Playing Nanny

So the European coterie around Volodymyr Zelensky has finally deigned to spell out the terms for a ceasefire. Five condi...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
Zelensky’s European Cheerleaders Lay Down the Law: Five Conditions for Peace, With Britain Playing Nanny

From the Shores of Chad to the Hills of Borno: Boko Haram's Meltdown and the West's Hollow Applause

So the Nigerian army, with a bit of drone assistance and a lot of flag-waving, has liberated some 400 souls from Boko Ha...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
From the Shores of Chad to the Hills of Borno: Boko Haram's Meltdown and the West's Hollow Applause

Philippines Quake: A Modern Pompeii on a Schoolyard Scale

The news reaches us from the Philippine archipelago: a roof, collapsing under the strain of a 6.3 magnitude earthquake, ...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
Philippines Quake: A Modern Pompeii on a Schoolyard Scale

The Eternal Heart: Eriksen, Medical Miracles, and the Great British Stiff Upper Lip

It is a peculiar irony of the modern age that we can at once look upon the spontaneous arrest of a footballer’s heart an...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
The Eternal Heart: Eriksen, Medical Miracles, and the Great British Stiff Upper Lip

The Southern Lights, the British Space Agency, and the Abyss of Modern Spectacle

The British Space Agency, in a moment of uncharacteristic public relations triumph, has released a timelapse of the Sout...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
The Southern Lights, the British Space Agency, and the Abyss of Modern Spectacle

The Fall of a Titan and the Fragility of India's Democratic Fabric

One of India’s most successful female politicians, Mamata Banerjee, is staring into the abyss. Her Trinamool Congress, o...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
The Fall of a Titan and the Fragility of India's Democratic Fabric

The Dutch Apprentice: Why Britain’s Vocational Panacea Smacks of Intellectual Decadence

The news that Britain’s apprenticeship tsar has cast a covetous eye upon the Dutch youth employment model is, on the fac...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
The Dutch Apprentice: Why Britain’s Vocational Panacea Smacks of Intellectual Decadence

The Huddled Masses of Lilongwe: A Repatriation That Exposes the Hollow Heart of the Commonwealth

News arrived today that several hundred Malawian nationals have been repatriated from South Africa, the economic behemot...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
The Huddled Masses of Lilongwe: A Repatriation That Exposes the Hollow Heart of the Commonwealth

Trump’s Arena Lockdown: A New York Circus Britain Should Study, Not Imitate

So the Knicks’ faithful found themselves locked in—not by a bad defence, but by the security apparatus of a former presi...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
Trump’s Arena Lockdown: A New York Circus Britain Should Study, Not Imitate

The Persian Paradox: Iran’s Resilience Exposes Western Weakness

Let us dispense with the usual diplomatic niceties. The latest UK intelligence assessment on Iran’s growing resilience i...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
The Persian Paradox: Iran’s Resilience Exposes Western Weakness

Armenia’s Defiant Choice: A Triumph for the West or a Dangerous Illusion?

In what must surely count as one of the more remarkable electoral surprises of this dreary decade, Armenia has defied it...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
Armenia’s Defiant Choice: A Triumph for the West or a Dangerous Illusion?

Trump’s Walkout: A Theatrical Tantrum or a Glimpse of the Coming Storm?

So the great man did it again. Donald Trump, the American Minotaur, has stormed out of an NBC interview, offended by a q...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
Trump’s Walkout: A Theatrical Tantrum or a Glimpse of the Coming Storm?

The Tragedy of Kenya: An Ex-Chief Justice, a Park, and the Death of Commonwealth Ideals

So here we are again. Another leader of the old order dragged through the streets, another protest crushed under the hee...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
The Tragedy of Kenya: An Ex-Chief Justice, a Park, and the Death of Commonwealth Ideals

The Great Escape: Boko Haram Prisoners Freed, But Who Really Won?

So British special forces have been quietly whispering intelligence into Nigerian ears, and lo and behold, hundreds of c...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
The Great Escape: Boko Haram Prisoners Freed, But Who Really Won?

The Return of the Natives: Malawi’s Prudent Retreat and the Echoes of a Decaying Empire

So here we are again. Malawi, a nation not exactly overflowing with surplus resources, has begun the expensive and humil...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
The Return of the Natives: Malawi’s Prudent Retreat and the Echoes of a Decaying Empire

Cultural Appropriation or Just Another Wave of Madness? The Mexican Surfing Record and the Tragedy of Modern Identity Politics

Here we go again. A group of Mexican surfers, chasing a world record wave off the coast of Oaxaca, have inadvertently tr...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
Cultural Appropriation or Just Another Wave of Madness? The Mexican Surfing Record and the Tragedy of Modern Identity Politics

Peru’s Dead Heat: A Republic Undone by Its Own Chaos

The latest dispatch from Lima brings news of a presidential election so tightly contested that it may as well be a coin ...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
Peru’s Dead Heat: A Republic Undone by Its Own Chaos

The Rites of Oblivion: Our Dreadful Disregard for the Downed

What does it take to make an aeroplane crash newsworthy? To judge by the hysterical blather now emanating from Whitehall...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
The Rites of Oblivion: Our Dreadful Disregard for the Downed

LIVE: Mexico City attempts record‑breaking wave – but is the trend even Mexican?

Mexico City is at it again, chasing a new world record for the largest human wave. Thousands packed the Zócalo on Saturd...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
LIVE: Mexico City attempts record‑breaking wave – but is the trend even Mexican?

Peru’s Presidential Farce: A Dance of Decadence and Desperation

The latest missive from our desk in Lima is enough to make any student of history weep into his morning coffee. Peru, a ...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
Peru’s Presidential Farce: A Dance of Decadence and Desperation

The Jet Set and the Settled: City Airport's Clash of Civilisations

The drone of a propeller plane is the sound of compromise. It acknowledges the need for commerce, for the quick escape t...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
The Jet Set and the Settled: City Airport's Clash of Civilisations

The Mexican Wave That Wasn't: On Surfing, Authenticity and the Death of Spontaneity

British surf authorities have done it again. In a move guaranteed to delight pedants and infuriate everyone else, they h...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
The Mexican Wave That Wasn't: On Surfing, Authenticity and the Death of Spontaneity

The Great Retirement Delusion: Britain's Financial Watchdog Sounds the Alarm on Ignorant Savers

In a development that would have made Gibbon weep and Macaulay smirk, the Financial Conduct Authority has issued a stern...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
The Great Retirement Delusion: Britain's Financial Watchdog Sounds the Alarm on Ignorant Savers

The Pyongyang Paradox: Why Xi Jinping's Visit Exposes the West's Strategic Myopia

The news cycle, as is its wont, has erupted with fevered speculation over Xi Jinping's state visit to North Korea. The B...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
The Pyongyang Paradox: Why Xi Jinping's Visit Exposes the West's Strategic Myopia

Yankee Doodle Dandy: When the World Cup Becomes an American Farce

It was inevitable, was it not? The moment Fifa, in its infinite wisdom, handed the 2026 World Cup to the United States, ...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
Yankee Doodle Dandy: When the World Cup Becomes an American Farce

Peru’s Electoral Farce: A Victorian Lesson for British Investors

The Peruvian election has become a grotesque pantomime, a deadlock that would make a Roman tribune blush. As the nation ...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
Peru’s Electoral Farce: A Victorian Lesson for British Investors

Visa Chaos and the Unmaking of Nations: A Tournament of Two Halves

The World Cup, that great modern carnival of tribal loyalty and globalised commerce, is stumbling into a farce of its ow...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
Visa Chaos and the Unmaking of Nations: A Tournament of Two Halves

A Glimmer of Civilisation in the Heart of Darkness: Britain’s Quiet Triumph Over Boko Haram

Let us cast our minds back to the waning days of the Roman Empire, when barbarians clawed at the gates and the light of ...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
A Glimmer of Civilisation in the Heart of Darkness: Britain’s Quiet Triumph Over Boko Haram

The Knicks, Trump, and the Strange Rebirth of British Soft Power

Something peculiar happened at Madison Square Garden last night, and it was not merely the sight of the New York Knicks ...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
The Knicks, Trump, and the Strange Rebirth of British Soft Power

The Great Cake Bubble: When Proletarian Flour Meets Fiscal Reality

So it has come to this. Britain, once the workshop of the world, now finds its economic vanguard in a garden shed, pipin...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
The Great Cake Bubble: When Proletarian Flour Meets Fiscal Reality

The Mexican Wave Record: A Metaphor for Our Hollow Culture

A group of Britons has attempted to break the world record for the longest Mexican wave. The event, held in a stadium, w...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
The Mexican Wave Record: A Metaphor for Our Hollow Culture

Markets Unfazed as Japanese Bear Outruns Local Authorities; British Experts Deployed

The City of London is not known for its interest in ursine affairs, but today's headlines from Japan have stirred a pecu...

Alastair Thorne · 2 MIN READ
Markets Unfazed as Japanese Bear Outruns Local Authorities; British Experts Deployed

The Wave of Folly: British Surfers in Mexico City and the Myth of Civilisational Superiority

News reaches us that a gaggle of British surfers has descended upon Mexico City to attempt a wave record. Not in the Pac...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
The Wave of Folly: British Surfers in Mexico City and the Myth of Civilisational Superiority

The Orange Emperor’s Tantrum: A Study in Democratic Decay

The spectacle of Donald Trump storming off an NBC set, after being subjected to the mildest form of British-style electi...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
The Orange Emperor’s Tantrum: A Study in Democratic Decay

Sharks and Sovereignty: The Decline of British Naval Power

The spectacle of a Great White shark disrupting Royal Navy exercises is too rich an irony for this columnist to resist. ...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
Sharks and Sovereignty: The Decline of British Naval Power

The Fizz That Fails: A Culinary Collapse in Cans

The United Kingdom’s Food Standards Agency has issued an urgent alert. A recall. Fizzy drink cans. Rupture risk. This is...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
The Fizz That Fails: A Culinary Collapse in Cans

The Dutch Youth Miracle or Just Another Liberal Daydream?

So Whitehall is, for the millionth time, turning its gaze across the North Sea in search of salvation. This time it is t...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
The Dutch Youth Miracle or Just Another Liberal Daydream?

The Digital Matchmaker: One Job Tip That Proves We’ve Become Roman Bread and Circuses

So the British Careers Service is hailing a new digital matching system, and one tip has finally got someone a job. Cue ...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
The Digital Matchmaker: One Job Tip That Proves We’ve Become Roman Bread and Circuses

Boko Haram’s Mountain Fortress Falls: A Rescue, But Not a Victory

News breaks that hundreds have been extracted from Boko Haram’s mountain redoubt. A triumph for Nigerian forces? Perhaps...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
Boko Haram’s Mountain Fortress Falls: A Rescue, But Not a Victory

Mr Trump’s Walkout: A Tale of Two Republics

So the man who would be king, or at least president again, has stormed off the NBC set. The reason? The network refused ...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
Mr Trump’s Walkout: A Tale of Two Republics

The Reflecting Pool’s New Hue: A Mirror to National Decline

News reaches my desk that American workmen, in a fit of exuberance or perhaps sheer malice, have desecrated the Reflecti...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
The Reflecting Pool’s New Hue: A Mirror to National Decline

The Art of the Walkout: Trump and the Theatre of Grievance

So the man who once boasted he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue without losing a vote has now proven he can storm out...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
The Art of the Walkout: Trump and the Theatre of Grievance

The Myth of the Magical Job Tip: Or, How British Resilience Became a Commodity

So, a job seeker has revealed a tip that finally landed a role after hundreds of applications. The media calls it a stor...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
The Myth of the Magical Job Tip: Or, How British Resilience Became a Commodity

The Heroism and Absurdity of Everest’s Death Zone Rescue

Let us pause, dear reader, to consider the spectacle unfolding on the roof of the world. A guide, stranded for six days ...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
The Heroism and Absurdity of Everest’s Death Zone Rescue

A Modest Triumph: Why One Job Hunter’s Success Exposes Our National Shame

It is a truth universally acknowledged, at least by those of us who still read the Spectator, that a young person in pos...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
A Modest Triumph: Why One Job Hunter’s Success Exposes Our National Shame

Mexico’s reckless gambit: British tourists as pawns in a Pacific farce

Here we are again, watching the same old spectacle: Mexico, in a fit of fiscal desperation, declares a “record wave” of ...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
Mexico’s reckless gambit: British tourists as pawns in a Pacific farce

The Mount Everest Rescue: A Spectacle of Our Age of Heroism and Humbug

A guide has been plucked from the death zone of Mount Everest after six harrowing days. The operation was dramatic, expe...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
The Mount Everest Rescue: A Spectacle of Our Age of Heroism and Humbug

The Dutch Cure: Why Britain's Youth Unemployment Crisis Demands a Continental Prescription

Let us dispense with the usual hand-wringing and platitudes. Britain's youth unemployment figures, stubbornly resistant ...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
The Dutch Cure: Why Britain's Youth Unemployment Crisis Demands a Continental Prescription

From Spoil to Spoils: How Victorian-Era Thrift is the Corporate Saviour We Despise

A curious report lands on my desk this morning. Not the usual fare of political squabbling or technological piffle. No, ...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
From Spoil to Spoils: How Victorian-Era Thrift is the Corporate Saviour We Despise

The Bear Necessities: On the Collapse of Japanese Rural Order

It is with grim amusement that we observe the spectacle unfolding in Japan, where an ‘extremely intelligent’ bear – the ...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
The Bear Necessities: On the Collapse of Japanese Rural Order

The Great British Bake-Off: A Floury Rebellion Against the Taxman's Greed

Let us spare a thought for the humble cake. In an age of national decline, the Victoria sponge has become a symbol of pl...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
The Great British Bake-Off: A Floury Rebellion Against the Taxman's Greed

The Reflecting Pool Goes Black: America’s Monumental Mediocrity on Display

Ladies and gentlemen, the capital of the free world has outdone itself. Washington’s Reflecting Pool, that hallowed stre...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
The Reflecting Pool Goes Black: America’s Monumental Mediocrity on Display

A Wave of Outrage: When Cultural Appropriation Meets Mexico's Surfing Controversy

The news from Mexico’s Pacific coast is not merely about a world record wave. It is about the collision of tradition and...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
A Wave of Outrage: When Cultural Appropriation Meets Mexico's Surfing Controversy

The Foie Gras Wars: French Decadence and British Resolve

The chattering classes of Paris are in uproar. Not over the fate of the Republic, not over the yellow vests or the pensi...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
The Foie Gras Wars: French Decadence and British Resolve

LIVE: Ex-child soldier’s nightmare exposes Somalia’s failure – UK aid review demanded

The tragic tale of a former child soldier in Somalia is not merely a story of personal suffering: it is a searing indict...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
LIVE: Ex-child soldier’s nightmare exposes Somalia’s failure – UK aid review demanded

The Inevitable Echo: One Dead in Israel as Scotland Yard Steps In

Another day, another tragedy in the Holy Land. This time, a shooting has left one dead, and Scotland Yard's counter-terr...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
The Inevitable Echo: One Dead in Israel as Scotland Yard Steps In

The Papal Spectacle and the Return of Christian Britain: A Tale of Two Religions

So the Pope draws a million souls to Madrid, and Britain piously reaffirms its Christian heritage. How quaint. How utter...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
The Papal Spectacle and the Return of Christian Britain: A Tale of Two Religions

France's Guillotine, Redux: How Giant Banquets are Sowing the Seeds of a New Revolution

The French have a peculiar talent for turning a dinner party into a political crisis. The latest storm in a teacup – alb...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
France's Guillotine, Redux: How Giant Banquets are Sowing the Seeds of a New Revolution

The Nation That Invented Composting Can Now Die Happy

A group of British innovators, presumably fuelled by tea and existential dread, have revived an ancient technique to tur...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
The Nation That Invented Composting Can Now Die Happy

The New Opium of the People: How ‘Cosmeticorexia’ Reveals the Rot at the Heart of Modern Britain

A new study emerges from the British Isles, and with it a fresh label for the young: ‘cosmeticorexia.’ The term, a grote...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
The New Opium of the People: How ‘Cosmeticorexia’ Reveals the Rot at the Heart of Modern Britain

The Fall of the Bobby: When a British Police Officer Trades His Helmet for a Tan

There was a time, not so long ago, when a British police officer was a figure of quiet authority. He was the man who dir...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
The Fall of the Bobby: When a British Police Officer Trades His Helmet for a Tan

Giant Banquets Spark Rage Among French Far-Left as British Free-Market Values Triumph Over Austerity

In a move that has sent shivers down the spines of Parisian intellectuals and delighted London’s square-mile traders, th...

Alastair Thorne · 2 MIN READ
Giant Banquets Spark Rage Among French Far-Left as British Free-Market Values Triumph Over Austerity

The Roman Cure for Britain's Rotting Larder

A curious thing is afoot in the kitchens of the nation. While our political class fiddles with net-zero targets and carb...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
The Roman Cure for Britain's Rotting Larder

Black as the Styx: Washington’s Reflecting Pool and the New American Thanatos

The National Mall’s Reflecting Pool, that glorious, watery mirror of American aspiration, has been painted black. Not me...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
Black as the Styx: Washington’s Reflecting Pool and the New American Thanatos

The Cult of the Glow: How Britain's Tweens Became Victims of Cosmeticorexia

Let us dispense with the niceties. The news that British girls as young as twelve are now exhibiting signs of 'cosmetico...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
The Cult of the Glow: How Britain's Tweens Became Victims of Cosmeticorexia

The Boy Who Lost His Childhood in Somalia's Hell

Let us not pretend we are shocked. The report from Mogadishu, in which a former child soldier recounts the trauma of bei...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
The Boy Who Lost His Childhood in Somalia's Hell

Somalia’s ex-child soldier nightmare lays bare UK’s moral duty to stabilise failed states

The latest dispatches from Mogadishu read like a despatches from the heart of darkness, a haunting echo of Conrad’s Cong...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
Somalia’s ex-child soldier nightmare lays bare UK’s moral duty to stabilise failed states

The Cottage Industry Conundrum: When Cake Shed Profits Turn Sour

Reading the breathless reports of bakers pulling in £1,000 a week from their garden sheds, one might think Britain had s...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
The Cottage Industry Conundrum: When Cake Shed Profits Turn Sour

Love Island's Latest Fiasco: A Modern Morality Play in Three Acts

The latest scandal to rock the Love Island franchise—a US contestant revealed to be a former police officer, drawing hom...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
Love Island's Latest Fiasco: A Modern Morality Play in Three Acts

The Madrid Paradox: Papal Multitudes Mock the Myth of Secular Europe

The streets of Madrid are a car park. Millions have descended upon the Spanish capital to catch a glimpse of the Pope, a...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
The Madrid Paradox: Papal Multitudes Mock the Myth of Secular Europe

The Beautiful Game Meets the Ugly Reality: Iran's World Cup Visa Gambit

It was only a matter of time before the World Cup, that quadrennial festival of global brotherhood and overpriced beer, ...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
The Beautiful Game Meets the Ugly Reality: Iran's World Cup Visa Gambit

A Nation of Hysterics: Taylor Swift's Wedding, or the Dancing on Britain's Grave?

So here we are. The country's GDP is flatlining, inflation is gnawing at the bones of the middle class, and our politica...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
A Nation of Hysterics: Taylor Swift's Wedding, or the Dancing on Britain's Grave?

Miracle in Madrid: Papal Pilgrims Prove the Continent’s Soul Has Left the Building While Britain Guards the Candles

MADRID – The holy see-saw tipped spectacularly south this week as a million Catholics flooded the Spanish capital to bas...

Barnaby 'Biff' Thistlethwaite · 4 MIN READ
Miracle in Madrid: Papal Pilgrims Prove the Continent’s Soul Has Left the Building While Britain Guards the Candles

A Plague of Vermin Down Under: Australia's Mouse Apocalypse and the Lessons for Britain

The headlines from Australia are, by now, familiar in their horror. A plague of mice, biblical in scale, is ravaging the...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
A Plague of Vermin Down Under: Australia's Mouse Apocalypse and the Lessons for Britain

The Sofa Republic: South Africa’s Presidency Suffocates Under a Cushion of Cash

It is a scene so absurd, so redolent of a banana republic that one might suspect it was scripted by a satirist with a gr...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
The Sofa Republic: South Africa’s Presidency Suffocates Under a Cushion of Cash

The Caudillo’s Last Punch: Peru’s Descent and Britain’s Nightmare

A fist-fight in the congress of a failing state. It sounds like a fever dream from the Year of the Four Emperors, but no...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
The Caudillo’s Last Punch: Peru’s Descent and Britain’s Nightmare

Armenia's Political Tightrope: Walking the Edge of Empire

The news from Yerevan this week is a microcosm of a larger civilisational struggle. Armenia, that ancient nation perched...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
Armenia's Political Tightrope: Walking the Edge of Empire

The Rajah of Ragas: Ilaiyaraaja’s Conquest of the British Imagination

The BBC Proms, that temple of musical orthodoxy, played host to an extraordinary spectacle this week: a 50-year retrospe...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
The Rajah of Ragas: Ilaiyaraaja’s Conquest of the British Imagination

The Cake Shed Crusade: When Bakers Earn More Than Bankers, The Nanny State Sharpens Its Knife

Let us, for a moment, consider the curious case of the British cake shed. A rustic, A-framed structure at the end of a g...

Arthur Penhaligon · 3 MIN READ
The Cake Shed Crusade: When Bakers Earn More Than Bankers, The Nanny State Sharpens Its Knife

Everest’s Eternal Lesson: Hubris and the High Himalaya

A British mountaineer has been plucked from the death zone after nearly a week clinging to the slopes of Everest. The re...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
Everest’s Eternal Lesson: Hubris and the High Himalaya

The Great Visa Farce: Iran Banned from US amid World Cup Pandemonium

So it has come to this. The Islamic Republic of Iran, having secured its place in the World Cup for the first time in tw...

Arthur Penhaligon · 2 MIN READ
The Great Visa Farce: Iran Banned from US amid World Cup Pandemonium