Jonathan Meades
Call of the mild
“Michael Gove’s Wild Animals in Circuses Bill appears at first glance to be nothing more than his latest essay in exhibitionistic compassion. But is it a misreading to ascribe this picayune law-making to opportunistic big-heartedness?”
Dog days
‘If every writer who disliked what other contributors wrote decided to withdraw their work, there would be no papers, no magazines, perhaps no telly’
The Elysée’s shadowy French lieutenants
Neo-barbouzes and bodyguard conspiracies
The dangers of dog in the manger democracy
It will be a dark day for parliament when there is nothing left to proscribe, nothing that nodding dullards can deem “totally unacceptable”.
Foie Gove
Michael Gove’s plan to ban foie gras is an essentially frivolous self-advertisement
Jolly Bad Taste vs. feeble Good Taste
Sir Les Patterson or Poundbury, Roy Wood or Richard Rogers, dodgy clubs or lusty yeomen?
China has a strategy and Britain doesn’t
A roadmap to better relations requires realism. Beijing’s interests and goals are openly stated—if you know where to look
The plague
Standpoint goes to press as the pandemic rages. So too does the search for blame and the political fall-out
Defeat begets defeat for Britain’s cloth-eared Left
The censorious culture of the liberal Left is hostile to freedom of expression. The fate of the trans-rights movement evinces this pointless politics