Hockney and the new philistines | Lola Salem
Articles defending the piece of ‘art’ by David Hockney are a bit more dangerous than mere lazy gestures. That is because the scale of this ‘art’ is actually much wider than people think it is. It does something- quite a pernicious thing, really- as it quietly attempts to remodel the human mind in accordance with the nihilistic precepts that it discloses.
The Ulsterisation of Scotland | Michael Fraser
The SNP has managed to dominate Scottish politics despite its poor record in government, and its embroilment in various scandals. When given a choice between a party committed to independence and numerous parties committed to retaining Scotland’s place in the United Kingdom, there can only be one winner.
Trump’s unlikely torchbearer | OC Comment
With regards to China, Biden has achieved “essential continuity” with the Trump administration’s policy... It is no surprise that Toshihiro Nakayama from Keio university describes this approach as adding “smartness to Trumpian toughness”. The wording is key; instead of reversing or replacing Trump’s policy direction, Biden is bringing his experience and tactfulness to bear on essential Trump-era objectives.
Britain goes to the Pacific | Dominic Lawson
In 2018, the UK became the second Western nation after the United States to train soldiers on Japanese soil. At present, Tokyo is forbidden from commanding a standing army with expeditionary potential as an US-sanctioned punishment for her previous empire building. This is coming to an end and is bound to change soon, especially as China continues her ascent.
Scotland’s drug-related crisis and the ongoing failure of progressive drug policy | Dr Gary F. Fisher
They showed that 1,264 Scots had died as a result of drug-related causes, representing a 6% increase from the previous year and more than double that of 2014. Over half of deaths were related to the misuse of heroin and morphine. Scotland has firmly entrenched itself as the drug-deaths capital of Europe.
The life and legacy of the Duke of Edinburgh | Adam James Pollock
At his golden wedding anniversary celebrations, the Queen Elizabeth celebrated the importance he had played in supporting her role as monarch, noting that “he has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years, and I, and his whole family, and this and many other countries, owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim, or we shall ever know.”
How Britain could hold the key to the Caucasian impasse | Dan Mikhaylov
The Nagorno-Karabakh crisis is a complex geopolitical impasse, solving which necessitates strong willpower from Azerbaijan and Armenia as well as productive, rather than destabilising, inputs of the world’s powerful states… Britain itself may contribute to these peace-brokering initiatives, extrapolating the takeaways from the Good Friday Agreement to tackling this dispute. Thus, we shall strike the optimal balance between acting morally and pragmatically.
The illegal immigration crisis on the Channel and the action it requires | Dan Mikhaylov
This year, an equivalent of the population of Lossiemouth will arrive on Britain’s shores illegally. No matter how one perceives Nigel Farage’s recent exposure of asylum seekers being consistently lodged in four-star hotels, it is unsettling that some of those prospective applicants arrive by illicit means and could pose not just an economic and national security threat, but also a sanitary one given the COVID-19 pandemic. Worse still, these individuals are more often than not accommodated in British communities without those communities’ assent to this practice.
China: time to start asking questions - religious persecution | Nathaniel Hayward
Despite this obvious slide into autocratic despotism and the evidence of simultaneous widespread repression within mainland China, the vast majority of the Western media and especially the Western political establishment appears to turn a blind eye. Indeed, many western journalists seem content to take Chinese narratives at face-value. And in the USA they spend a disproportionate amount of time attacking Donald Trump as the dictator he isn’t, rather than attacking Xi Jinping as the dictator he so very obviously is.