When I last wrote about the BBC, back in May, I pointed out one of the big advantages enjoyed by the Corporation in its battle with the rather ragged forces of the ‘Defund the BBC’ brigade. This is the sheer breadth of its coverage. Full-spectrum attacks...
Iain Dale: How many Cabinet members would make your fantasy Cabinet? I count five. And it gets worse…
Iain Dale presents the evening show on LBC Radio and the For the Many podcast with Jacqui Smith. I don’t think it’s possible for anyone to defend what’s happened over the last week or ten days with exam results. Clustershambles doesn’t really cover it. And the trouble...
Cardi-B and Another Tiresome Conservative Meltdown
It’s become the most boring kind of cliché at this point; but 2020 has been a hell of a strange year, right? We’ve had Australia going up in flames, civil society tearing itself apart, and there’s the small matter of a global pandemic still in the works… And...
No Silence in Music Letter Misses the Point
An open letter signed by 700 UK music industry professionals has become yet another instance of the cultural elite telling regular people that they know the solution to all our problems. Again, this time it is racism. That the open letter even exists shows the...
Covid Causes UK Cinema to Miss a Trick
According to the UK government, face masks are a legal necessity to ensure Britons feel safe going to the shops and indulging in what used to be real life. Confidence, so far, is absent. For independent British cinema, this is now a very real problem; a major...
Face masks: What’s all the fuss about?
Many questions have arisen during the Covid-19 pandemic, but none more so than the questions surrounding face masks. On Friday 24 July, face masks became mandatory in England in all enclosed public spaces including supermarkets, banks, trains and airports. Failure to...
Free speech for Wiley?
Our older readers will be familiar with Wiley – the rapper who last week posted a series of anti-semitic remarks on social media. We linger on one tweet only, in which he undertook a whirlwind tour of the Israel-Palestine dispute, claiming that “I cannot be...
Why Britain Needs to Ditch the Bulldog
Saunter through the Departures area of any British airport (if you’re lucky enough not to have your flight cancelled) and you’ll find the same familiar icons of Britishness. Red telephone boxes filled with Cadbury’s chocolate, black taxis with fudge or tablet...
Freedom of Speech: The Case of J.K. Rowling
Radical feminist J.K. Rowling has come under fire recently when she dared to make statements about what it means to be a woman, seen by some as her criticising the transgender community. In her tweets, Rowling made statements such as ‘erasing the concept of sex...
James Frayne: Churchill – and why the conservative movement would win a culture war. But it would be unpleasant and divisive.
James Frayne is Director of Public First and author of Meet the People, a guide to moving public opinion. The battle over the legacy of Winston Churchill shows in miniature what a big chunk of a future British culture war will look like. It will be one which the...
