Stephen Daisley is a Spectator regular and a columnist for the Scottish Daily Mail
Zohran Mamdani’s election as mayor of New York City has prompted triumphalism in his supporters and despondency among his detractors. Depending on your political proclivities, the Big Apple is about to become one of two things: a revolutionary utopia where New Yorkers City-Bike from their socialised studio apartments to their worker-owned creativity pods, stopping off
One of the most fascinating cases of institutional self-harm in modern Britain is policing. Not just the oft-criticised Met (though it is spectacularly adept at inflicting needless wounds on itself) but police forces up and down the country. The two-tier policing of crimes against ethnic minorities is a particularly pungent example, but there is also the plainly
What’s the Gaelic for ‘Streisand effect’? I would guess buaidh Streisand but someone should ask Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch MSP Kate Forbes, who is experiencing first-hand what the ‘The Way We Were’ singer learnt the hard way two decades ago: attempts at censorship only bring attention to the material you wish to keep secret. The
If I didn’t tell you professor Michael Ben-Gad was an Israeli, you could probably figure it out from his response to a hate-filled campaign to drive him out of his job at City St George’s, University of London. On Wednesday, a masked, keffiyeh-wearing mob stormed his lecture hall and helpfully filmed themselves doing so. Asked
Amid the grim fluorescence of a police interview suite, a glimpse of where we are and where we are heading. The place is Hammersmith police station, the date August 30, and the time a little after 2 a.m. An unnamed lawyer in his 40s, whom we are told is Jewish, has been detained for allegedly
Whenever Donald Trump proposes a policy that runs counter to the progressive consensus, there are three stages of response: it’ll never work, it’s a disaster, it was our idea all along. We are at stage three on Trump’s truce in Gaza. Antony Blinken, Secretary of State in Joe Biden’s administration, says: ‘It’s good that President
In confirming the Israel-Hamas peace deal on Truth Social last night, Donald Trump referenced the seventh Beatitude from the Gospel of Matthew: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.’ Trump has been called a lot of things, many of them words you won’t find in the Bible, but could
The SNP government in Edinburgh has published another white paper on the constitution, ‘A Fresh Start with Independence’. It’s a bold title when your last white paper on this issue was published a whole 34 days ago. Indeed, between June 2022 and April 2024, the Scottish Government produced 13 white papers on independence. Putting out
The Manchester synagogue attack requires us to ask three questions: where are we, how did we get there, and where now? Where we are is British Jews attacked on Yom Kippur, two dead, more injured, countless more afraid. This requires an acknowledgement by the governing classes that multiculturalism and mass immigration are false doctrines which
Discussion of Donald Trump’s peace proposal for Gaza revolves around one question: who is for it and who is against it? Israel is for it, though mostly because it is backed into a corner and has no choice. The Arab states are for it, which is to be expected since they wrote it. The European
Tributes are pouring in for Menzies Campbell, former leader of the Liberal Democrats, and generally considered a decent chap for a politician. He hailed from the Scottish Liberal tradition, one which dominated politics north of the border in the 19th century, and made a modest return in the second half of the 20th. His instincts
King Cnut is misremembered as a deluded fool who tried to subdue the sea. In fact, he was a wise and pious man who wished to demonstrate to his subjects the limitations of regal power. ‘You and the land on which my throne is standing are subject to me,’ Cnut admonished the tide. ‘No one has ever defied
Matt Gutman has the hairstyle of Anderson Cooper and the literary style of Danielle Steel. In a special report on the Charlie Kirk assassination, ABC News’s chief national correspondent wistfully described text messages between the suspect, Tyler Robinson, and his roommate and alleged boyfriend. The exchanges were, Gutman gushed, ‘very touching in a way that I think many
Scottish daily the National is known for its inimitable approach to journalism. The mainstream media bombards SNP ministers with impertinent questions about missed NHS targets, widening attainment gaps, and delayed ferries. The National, on the other hand, does proper reporting, like its front page denouncing the inclusion of Reform on a Question Time panel, the
Well, if they’re arresting comedians, at least Nish Kumar is safe. Graham Linehan, not so much. The British like to sniff that Americans don’t get irony. Arresting a comedian fresh off the plane from the US after months of dismissing US concerns about freedom of speech is one way to teach them. Not only was
Belgium will become the latest western country to recognise a Palestinian state. Its foreign minister Maxime Prevot cited ‘the violence perpetrated by Israel in violation of international law’ and Belgium’s obligation to ‘prevent any risk of genocide’. He maintained his government was not ‘sanctioning the Israeli people’ but ‘ensuring that their government respects international and
The flag-raisings in towns and cities across the country are an inevitable consequence of elites’ seeming preference for every flag but England’s. High-status flags: Ukraine, Palestine, Pride. Low-status flags: Union Jack, St George’s Cross. It is possible, of course, to favour multiple flags. Although a Scot, I am quite partial to St George’s Cross, a
Ed Davey’s got this Middle East business figured out. The Liberal Democrat leader has tweeted — because, honestly, what else is there to do as Lib Dem leader other than tweet? — his latest insight into the Gaza war: ‘Now the Hamas terrorists behind the October 7 atrocities are trying to erode support for recognition
There is a certain worldly cynicism aroused by the announcement that a politician is stepping down to spend more time with their family. It was for a long time the refuge of MPs who had earned themselves an entry in the News of the World, the Who’s Who of romeos, rogues and reprobates, for their
Foreign relations are among the most political functions of a government. Ministers favour or disfavour other states based on calculations about which relationships might better serve the national interest. Human rights violations are condemned here, while a blind eye is turned there. Dictators are treated as democrats and democrats as dictators depending on the diplomatic
