The ongoing fracas over anti-Semitism in the Labour Party – currently swirling around its efforts to redefine the disease – continues to have a definite element of the surreal. While column inches and Twitter threads are devoted to ever-more sophisticated discussions about anti-Semitism’s Left-wing and…
This article was originally published on politcs.co.uk on February 14th, 2018. The main point of interest in the Telegraph‘s recent attack on philanthropist George Soros is not whether its authors are antisemitic, but what it tells us about the growth of the paranoid style in…
This article was originally published on politics.co.uk on November 20th, 2017. When Alex Salmond was interviewed about his new show on RT UK by Channel 4 News anchor Jon Snow last week, he accidentally flagged up a sinister reality about his latest venture. “It’s edited…
This article was originally published in Open Democracy on November 11th, 2017 (Remembrance Sunday). For the German painter Otto Dix, the First World War really was “all over by Christmas” – only it was Christmas 1918, after he had spent four years on the front…
Review of Kill All Normies by Angela Nagle, originally published in Medium on October 19th, 2017. Is there something about the internet which brings out the worst in people? It’s a question one has reason to consider every day. But a new book by Angela…
Review of The Rage by Julia Ebner, originally published in Progress magazine on October 5th, 2017. The Rage – out today from IB Tauris – is part dedicated to the memory of Jo Cox, the slain member of parliament who suffered the kind of death…
This essay was originally published in Little Atoms on January 20th, 2017. As the nation’s political leaders jostled for position after the Brexit vote in the EU referendum, a popular hot take among lazy journalists was to say how it was all “just like Game…
Interview with author Thomas Frank, originally published in Open Democracy on July 27th, 2016. Now that the Republican Party has chosen a coiffured gargoyle as its nominee for president, the panicked eyes of the world turn to the Democrats, who have just selected Hillary Clinton…
Review of Salafi-Jihadism: The History of an Idea by Shiraz Maher, originally published in Progress magazine on June 9th, 2016. A master terrorist is debating with a subordinate over some point of strategy in their bunker. The sheikh narrows his eyes, and after careful consideration remarks:…
This article was originally published in the New Statesman on May 6th, 2016. One major achievement of the Bernie Sanders campaign in the US has been to build support for left-wing policies that only months ago would have seemed beyond the pale. In a relatively…