Peter Whittle
It Was A Very Good Year
“After the Brexit vote I was thrilled by the feeling of being on the right side of history”
London Pride
‘You cannot measure the success of a city by the number of coffee chains it can support’
The Queen And I
“In ways that were unforeseeable at her accession, the Queen’s symbolic unifying function is becoming more important as Britain faces social and economic division”
Something Rotten
‘Occasionally one reads of an incident in this great metropolis so awful, so disturbing, that just for a moment one’s mental moorings are shaken’
Bolstering Britishness
The monarchy, and its central function as a symbolic unifying force, have been given a new lease of life by citizenship ceremonies
The Dandy and the Crazy Gang
Michael Bloch’s deft biography turns Jeremy Thorpe’s life into a page-turning narrative
Boris’s Buddies
“The contemporary super-rich have little in the way of roots or connection, and therefore little sense of obligation”
Where is the Lee Rigby Memorial?
“Wasn’t the death of Lee Rigby—carried out by barbaric extremists who singled him out purely for what he objectively was, a soldier—the very definition of a hate crime?”
Londoners are Leaving
‘It is assumed that the capital is a standing rebuke to all those who voice concern about unfettered migration. But surely Londoners leaving London is a cause for concern’
Underrated: Simon Cowell
The impresario has a bracing honesty and has added to the gaiety of the nation
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