Articles by James Monteith

The BBC reports with great excitement that the award for best British independent film at the British Independent Film Awards has been won by ‘Rocks’, a film that cast unknown East London schoolgirls with no acting experience in its main roles and featured improvised dialogue – perhaps the players were unable to learn any of their lines. Producer Ameenah Ayub … [Read on]

The University of Leicester’s proposal to replace the medieval literature component of its BA English courses by ‘excitingly innovative’ modules on race, ethnicity, sexuality, and diversity, and thereby further the aim of ‘decolonising the curriculum’, has attracted anger among academics in the English department. But if the public letter of resignation penned by its prospective external examiner for the MA … [Read on]

According to critical race theory, whites are historic oppressors, and ‘people of colour’ are historic victims. British imperial history – white history – must therefore be thoroughly deconstructed. Yet when we look back through world history, we see people of colour engaged in positive orgies of oppression, brutality, colonial exploitation, enslavement, violence, and barbarity. ‘People of colour’, given the chance, … [Read on]

I was amused to come down this morning and find my ten-year-old son sat glued to the wrestling on cable TV. My wife was less amused, and my argument that it was the natural occupation of healthy young boys to be interested in wrestling did not appeal to her French sensibilities. Yet this evening, she called him down (as part … [Read on]

In a recent article in the Spectator, Douglas Murray argues that since the Chinese Communist Party, by accident or by design, has destroyed all the world’s economies except its own through its virus exports, the countries of the world ought to get together and demand reparations. Naturally, this is pie in the sky, but the more serious point, which Murray … [Read on]

John Taylor, Baron Kilclooney, former deputy leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, has caused shockwaves in the political world by describing vice president-elect Kamala Harris as ‘the Indian.’ Angela Smith, Labour leader in the Lords, described Kilclooney’s remarks as ‘despicable and beneath contempt’, and is to make an official complaint. Well, Kilclooney’s reference to ‘Biden’ and then to ‘the Indian’ … [Read on]

All too predictably, the Islamists have struck back in France in the only way they know how: by cutting the throats of infidels, this time in a church in Nice. Throughout the Islamic world, massed crowds will be cheering this act committed in the name of the Prophet, giving the lie to the liberal pretence that Islamism has nothing to … [Read on]

The mainstream conservative press here is busy writing off Trump and preparing us for a Biden presidency. They argue a Biden presidency would be better, both for America and Britain. Trump is too dangerous, too unreliable, too divisive. Biden would work better on the international stage, repair alliances – especially with Europe. Trump’s response to Covid has been a disaster, … [Read on]