Melanie McDonagh
Buda baby boomers
Hungary’s natalist policies are both generous and effective
Citizens’ Assemblies let the elite skew public debate
To produce a particular outcome from a Citizens’ Assembly, choose with care how you recruit to it, who you get to chair it, and who you allow to present their case to the members
An island that has forgotten the art of the backroom deal
‘Since the referendum, the attitude of the Irish government to the result—contemptuous, disbelieving, disrespectful—has grated. Leo Varadkar, a conformist individual, was in office at just the time when a fixer was what was needed’
Unholy Mess
The Vatican misjudged the public mood over Richard Williamson, but secular commentators don’t understand the idea of excommunication
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