Subterms
With the COVID-19 outbreak unfolding worldwide, with around 35,000 cases confirmed outside China to date, it is possible to attempt a preliminary analysis of the politics of coronavirus and the efficiency of policies adopted by national governments and international bodies. Unfortunately, the measures seen so far have not always displayed the degree of leadership, responsiveness […] More
You’ll be surprised at how democratic American politics actually is, if you discount those cash-fuelled TV ads There’s nothing like a US presidential election cycle to prompt British pundits to think about Anglo-America as a “thing”. The UK is the 51st state in all but name, right? In reality, the similarities are more complex, and […] More
Jazz is a musical art form that cultivates complex and highly disciplined improvisational skills. In its brief history — hardly more than a century — jazz has always floated between being perceived as a style of popular, crowd-pleasing music or as a sophisticated art form produced by exceptionally creative artists and daring musical geniuses. There […] More
Boris Johnson, the British prime minister who fancies himself a reincarnation of Winston Churchill, who talks of wars and battle plans and war rooms, and who has been pictured wearing something akin to a boiler suit, presides over studied inaction when it comes to the country’s coronavirus outbreak. Johnson and his chief medical officer, a […] More
The New York Times once again puts on display its commitment to prolonging indefinitely the Cold War in pursuit of its own partisan purposes. Unlike Russiagate and Ukrainegate, which aimed at discrediting US President Donald Trump, The Times has now decided to deploy its Cold War alert system to help the Democratic Party in its […] More
From ill health to alcoholism to suicides, the links between deprivation and reduced life expectancy are becoming clear On the face of it, it is a familiar enough story. “By its end, much of the optimism of the 20th century had faded. Towns and cities … that used to produce steel, glass, furniture or shoes, […] More
“The trenchocracy is the aristocracy of the trenches,” declared Benito Mussolini on the pages of Il Popolo d’Italia in December 1917. Reflecting on the new type of man emerging from the war, he went on: “What an immense moral force is contained in the patriotic spirit of those who come back from the front … […] More
The public’s appetite for a less vicious politics is clear. The leaders of political movements must rise to the occasion Anger is exhausting. There is only so long most people can sustain a state of permanent fury, let alone put up with it in others. It takes a lot of energy to remain at boiling […] More
