This week’s Spectator features that rare event in the mainstream conservative press, an article that suggests conservatism is not all about global markets, small government, open borders, and general laissez-faire – but that it values traditions, attachments, and communities, even classes and hierarchies, and is protectionist, even green. In short, conservatives are not laissez-faire liberals, neither socially nor economically.  Tim … [Read on]

A lot can happen in a century and a half. In 1871 Parliament broke the hold of the established church on university education with the Universities Tests Act. This forbade Oxford, Cambridge and Durham from requiring its members to hold or profess any religious belief. The preamble is well worth a read: Whereas it is expedient that the benefits of … [Read on]

The commentaries on the Duke of York’s case mostly reflect the stance he seems to have taken, in relation to the allegations of sexual abuse made against him. They and he are misguided. The simple fact is that his position confers no special status on him, whatsoever, as far as either the American, or English courts are concerned. This means, … [Read on]

Are trains interesting? It’s a question I ask myself whenever browsing the magazines at WH Smith, where shelves are devoted to a plethora of publications on railways now and then. Steam engines remain a prominent theme, although memories of the billowing smoke must be fading. The trainspotter, with anorak and notebook on a windswept platform, is a rather sad stereotype, … [Read on]

I made my first public protest for years last week. A neighbour told me the old copper beech outside our shops on our main road had suddenly been hacked down, nothing remaining but a stump. It showed no sign of rot, but a clear, accusing line of rings spelling out over 120 years of growth. I placed two bunches of … [Read on]

Legal cases rarely make for very exciting reading. The Court of Appeal’s decision today, that the High Court should not have made a declaration about the limited powers of comparatively young teenagers to consent to potentially drastic gender reassignment at the Tavistock Clinic, is no exception. Unless you suffer from serious insomnia, it is not recommended entertainment (if you are … [Read on]

An eight-part drama about the Nuremberg Trials has started on Radio 4. Rhian Roberts, a BBC Commissioning Editor said it was, ‘Designed to present phenomenal moments of history in a compelling style so we can all continue to understand how our world was shaped by them.’ What we got was inexplicable; no Lord Shawcross, Britain’s lead prosecutor, whose opening speech, … [Read on]

Read these terrifying figures posted by Migration Watch today (link ) consequent on the government’s active encouragement of mass immigration. When will Priti Patel resign? ‘Around six in ten (62%) of the nine million or so foreign-born population were born outside the EU; nearly four in ten (38%) were born in the EU, according to recent estimates Since 2001/2 the Eastern … [Read on]