Britain
Story Stream
The Hotel Martinez September 25, 2024
Today, the Hotel Martinez proudly stands as the premiere focal point for the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. Over the decades, many of the cinema’s greatest storytellers have passed through its illustrious doors. But within its walls lurks an untol...
The Slow Death of Free Speech in Britain September 25, 2024
Slowly, yet perceptibly, free speech is dying in Britain. On July 4, 2024, the people of Britain elected a new government. They did so decisively in terms of seats won, but rather less conclusively with the share of the vote. The new Labour governmen...
My James Bond September 19, 2024
August 12, 2024, marked the sixtieth anniversary of Ian Fleming’s death. His creation James Bond entered the world a little more than a decade before he died, with the 1953 publication of Fleming’s taut Casino Royale. The first Bond novel was well-re...
National Disservice June 04, 2024
During my late teens, we pleasure-seekers drained three-day weekends by flooding our not-yet-fully formed brains with serotonin. Thousands of like-minds, posh and poor, black and white, swarmed a secretly disclosed valley in rural Wales. On the agend...
On the Great British Smoking Ban April 19, 2024
I wonder, I wonder how the campaigners at Action on Smoking and Health feel this morning. Their mission to kill off the dreaded cigarette is all but accomplished.No doubt those righteous souls celebrated the passage of prime minister Sunak's petty sm...
Lady Stardust April 03, 2024
Earth was dying. We had five years left to live. Ziggy Stardust, the bisexual alien rock star, was sent from another planet to grey, binary 1970s Britain to give us a message of hope. I’m not sure about the hope part of the message, but he really tur...
That Fine-Sounding Language October 03, 2023
By the middle of the eighteenth century, it was possible to find introductory, digested accounts of more or less any area of intellectual life, including classical languages and literature—forms of knowledge once thought synonymous with being a forma...
Why Orwell Lives On October 02, 2023
Eric Blair, better known to us as George Orwell, is one of those writers who is experiencing a renaissance in light of the controversies of the twenty-first century. Our own political and journalistic language take from him and invoke him: “thought-p...
Battle Royale May 10, 2023
Two houses, each alike in indignity. For there can be no dignity when the world knows your business because your exiled brother and his American wife are complaining about you to the media. The Meghan and Harry saga is what Sigmund Freud and Elizabet...
