“Never again,” they said 75 years ago, after Germany attempted to erase the Jews of Europe from existence. If only they’d meant it. But the Holocaust didn’t erupt from nowhere: it was the culmination of a long process. Although anti-Semitism had long stalked Europe, the cosmopolitan fin
There’s an important tool every consumer of news needs to keep handy in their bullshit detection kit: “If you never knew things were this bad, they probably aren’t”. Any time you hear an alarming and startling claim (“The Amazon is burning!”), it’s almost certainly a half-lie
Tory MP Lee Rowley sparked laughter in the Chamber as he made a joke about Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Venezuela, during a Commons debate after the Queen’s speech. Lee Rowley took a dig at Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn over Venezuela. The MP for North East Derbyshire said: “I
When climate scold Greta Thunberg screeched at the UN that “people are dying!”, she was barely half-right. Yes, people are dying, and they are dying because of climate change. But they are not dying because of global warming, and they are not dying because governments are refusing to act.
By David Theobald Thanks to a six-hour stopover in the Cathay Lounge in Hong Kong at our request David has penned a few more words, as a follow up to his David Farraresque travel blog from the UK. Arrived in Hong Kong and was pleasantly surprised to see the
By David Theobald Right! Starting the long journey home and my trip to the UK is done and dusted. Currently in the Cathay Lounge at Heathrow from where I will post this. The main point of the trip was to visit friends, many of whom I have known for fifty
As I wrote, way back, “finding moderate Muslims often seems like hunting Snarks: the maps are blank, and harmless Snarks sometimes turn out to be deadly Boojums…Too often a telegenic Muslim turns out to be not so, well, moderate”. Well, it’s time to reset that clock, folks… A
In the previous post, the BFD covered Charles Day’s argument that the UK Supreme Court’s decision is “a constitutional outrage”. In this second instalment, James Kirkup offers an opposing view. Yes, this a political setback for Johnson, but, Kirkup argues, it is hardly a disaster for British democracy,
The UK Supreme Court’s decision to overrule PM Boris Johnson’s attempt to prorogue Parliament over Brexit is sending shockwaves through British politics. Some commentators are arguing that it’s an outrageous usurpation of power by an unelected judiciary; others that it, in fact, restores the central principle of
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Ireland will be “completely screwed” in the event of a no-deal Brexit which Professor Simon Heffer warns would bring with it financial instability.
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By The Sailor Quite a lot of Brits see nothing good about staying in the EU. A distinct majority in fact, and almost certainly more now than the 17.4 million who voted Leave in the referendum, due to large numbers of borderline Remainers having their eyes opened as to
“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” In other words, if you get tricked by someone once it means they’re an a**ehole. But if you get tricked twice it means you’re a sucker. This handy saying came back to me amid the
