Madness this week: royals without honour, roadmaps and a lesson in chitchat

The insanity of the week commencing 15 February 2021.

Madness this week: vaccine Fascism, trouble in America and the victim princess

The insanity of the week commencing 9 November 2020.

Experts shouldn't be telling us how to run society – we need to use them more wisely

Let’s get one thing clear, I’m not an expert, thank God! That isn’t to say I’m particularly pleased not to be what traditionally passed for an expert – someone considered to be among the most knowledgeable on a subject.   I’m glad not to be a modern-day expert, namely someone who can apparently pronounce on new, evolving and unpredictable situations with such apparent precision that they can be deferred to as prophets of our times.

That’s exactly what the supposedly expert merchants of Covid doom do.

The elusory world of absolute safety is a bigger nightmare than the pandemic

    

Every day when you open your eyes first thing in the morning, no longer certain if it’s Saturday or Wednesday as every day under suffocating oppression feels much the same, take a moment to think about the Britain you are living in

Lockdown is poorly justified, unsustainable and an assault too far on civil liberties

A prime minister in intensive care, and 6,159 people dead! Coronavirus looks serious – and it is, no question.

People are afraid and a country is hurting. Every day we await with sad resignation the latest death figures, now read out and poured over like some macabre cricket score card: 786 all out yesterday.

There will be no new centrist alliance in British politics

Recent political chatter about a new, centrist force for so-called moderates grew louder yesterday with the revelation that, at some point, Lib Dem leader Sir Vince Cable plans to quit once Brexit is resolved – so no time soon then! There is also talk of the Lib Dems reforming to permit the choosing of a leader who does not sit in Westminster, a sure sign of their rather tragic fall and loss of place in British political discourse.

May's first appointments show she's a PM that means business

What a momentous day it must have been for Theresa May. Cool, calm and collected, she is said to have spent this very morning working on urgent papers at her Home Office desk, before the most significant event of her life – her appointment with the Queen, at which she replaced David Cameron as Prime Minister.
A somewhat mysterious figure, May’s comparatively low profile and close guarding of her privacy means that we don’t know much about this woman. What we do know, though, is that as Home Secretary, she has proved time and time again that she’s not to be messed with.

Labour must do better and Tories must think different

Local elections are a funny old business. The results, however the chips have fallen, tend to be viewed by almost everyone as proof that things aren’t that bad. Indeed, it always makes a nonsense of the journalistic proclivity to translate local results to general elections, even if said elections are 4 years away.