The Right Dishonourable

There is always a great deal of squabbling over who the true heir is. Pretenders to a successful leader will always want to inherit legitimacy, while critics will draw unflattering comparisons with less fondly remembered predecessors.

Selectively reading history is thus an inevitable part of politics. But while readers will be familiar with debates over whether Donald Trump is a literally Hitler, a more obscure quarrel has begun in the British press about whether leavers or remainers are the real Whigs.

Continue reading →

Among the key disputes of the Brexit years has been whether the European Union fancies itself as a full sovereign state or merely an international club. Leavers tended to believe that statehood is the ultimate destination, with mainstream remainers arguing such a view is paranoid.

The distinction has been seen in a squabble over whether the EU ambassador to Britain deserves full diplomatic treatment. The Foreign Office has said that the ambassador will only be given the same privileges as representatives of other international organisations, which are more limited than those granted to diplomats from proper countries.

Given this debate, it is interesting to see a recent video tweeted out by Frontex, the bloc’s border agency.

Continue reading →

I’m old enough to recall when the establishment was opposed to video gaming. Derided as the hobby of nerdy teenage boys, the links to anti-social behaviour only increased as graphics became more realistic and games more violent. Some titles, for example Manhunt, were even linked to real life murders.

Such real life violence was played up by the likes of activist lawyer Jack Thompson, who sought to ban the latest filth. It was also common to view the hobby as unproductive, rotting the brains of the yoot. But lately this has changed, and one game that exemplifies it is the ‘social deduction’ hit Among Us.

Continue reading →

Our politics have an unhappy habit of falling into language debates during crises. You’ll recall – and I won’t tire of repeating – the kerfuffle about whether ‘China virus’ was a racist term for what became better known as Covid-19 or the coronavirus last March.

I blame the surfeit of humanities grads who fill our media organisations, which were previously more likely to be staffed by those who had come from school via the local newspaper. The trade has an interest in hiring wordsmiths, but often wordsmiths’ interests hurt the trade.

Continue reading →