Peter Franklin

Peter Franklin is Associate Editor of UnHerd. He was previously a policy advisor and speechwriter on environmental and social issues.

@peterfranklin_

Westminster conformism is worse than Dominic Cummings thinks SW1 is littered with brain-dead 'non-player characters'

21 Oct 2023

Australia’s anti-democratic Voice campaign deserved to lose It undermined the core principles of representative democracy

16 Oct 2023

Sam Bankman-Fried is wrong about Shakespeare The fallen crypto king has no understanding of literary greatness

10 Oct 2023

Is the EU about to turn on Ireland? The Republic's status as a tax haven for multinationals is coming under scrutiny

06 Oct 2023

The Conservatives should ignore Liz Truss’s latest theory The former PM claimed that people never vote on the past

02 Oct 2023

Drone technology is reinventing warfare What happens in Ukraine could shape the way we fight across the world

29 Sep 2023

Cutting HS2 is a decade too late White elephant projects need to be stopped before they waste time and money

25 Sep 2023

Does France want a king? King Charles's warm reception in Paris suggests it might

22 Sep 2023

The EU is set to ban paying for sperm Difficult ethical questions should be answered at a national level

20 Sep 2023

Dechurched America: 40 million worshippers no longer attend A record number of US citizens now go less than once per year

14 Sep 2023

China’s economy isn’t slowing — it’s collapsing Britain should pull out before it's too late

11 Sep 2023

Forget San Francisco — Britain has a shoplifting epidemic too

07 Sep 2023

Forget San Francisco — Britain has a shoplifting epidemic too Theft from stores across 10 UK cities is up by a quarter

07 Sep 2023

Strong economic growth absolves Brexit but not Truss A new boost to British GDP shows how needless the mini-budget was

04 Sep 2023

Why is the green movement targeting energy security? Stopping domestic fossil fuel production won't solve climate change

31 Aug 2023

Both Left and Right get Oliver Anthony wrong A misinterpretation of his lyrics has turned the singer into a political football

28 Aug 2023

Fat-positive activists miss Ozempic’s real risk Drugs tackling obesity could threaten bodily autonomy

25 Aug 2023

China’s shocking demographic decline just got worse Total fertility rate has fallen to a record low

21 Aug 2023

Why rich men fear Oliver Anthony The country singer's viral hit represents an authentic form of populism

17 Aug 2023

Britain is not a poor country Comparisons to Germany don't tell the whole story

14 Aug 2023

Europe’s populist Right is far from united Despite a polling surge, the group has major ideological differences

10 Aug 2023

Foreign investment plummets as the West snubs China The post-Covid economic order has exposed Beijing's vulnerability

07 Aug 2023

Is Ursula von der Leyen’s job under threat? Challengers are already circling around the EU leader

04 Aug 2023

Keir Starmer knows exactly what he’s doing Several recent U-turns have raised questions about the Labour leader's vision

31 Jul 2023

The Farage-Coutts affair is a lesson for liberals The Left was all too ready to amplify false narratives

26 Jul 2023

Is Elon Musk about to turn Twitter into the god app? There is a logic to the social network's controversial rebrand as X

24 Jul 2023

The surprising answer to Nigel Farage’s Coutts problem National digital currencies could bypass activist banks

20 Jul 2023

RFK Jr and the slur of ‘red-brown’ politics If Left and Right agree, it doesn't mean they are fascists

17 Jul 2023

For Europe’s future defence, look to the ‘quad’ France, Britain, Poland and Ukraine are serious about security

13 Jul 2023

Rishi Sunak will survive the ‘mini-general election’ But three by-elections later this month will be brutal for the Tories

07 Jul 2023

Was Just Stop Oil right to disrupt Pride? The Left shouldn't restrict its protest to enemy territory

03 Jul 2023

Is the Airbnb bubble bursting? The Big Tech business model no longer reigns supreme

29 Jun 2023

How the EU destroyed the Greek Left After this weekend's election, the country's Right is on the march

26 Jun 2023

Could liberals become the new Brexiteers? A Right-wing surge in Europe may deter Remainers from seeking to rejoin

22 Jun 2023

Why we should welcome Joe Rogan’s RFK Jr debate It is vital to contest ideas in an open, transparent way

19 Jun 2023

Elon Musk is wrong: the US does not need a new Sulla Twitter's CEO called out for a modern-day version of the Roman general

15 Jun 2023

A Johnson-Farage party makes no sense Boris's lockdown and green stances put him at odds with the ex-Ukip leader

12 Jun 2023

Apple’s Vision Pro: a window into a dark future The tech giant's new gadget is an uncanny imitation of real life

08 Jun 2023

Germany’s AfD shows the populist tide is back The party is now tied with Olaf Scholz's SPD in second place

05 Jun 2023

For his own good, Boris should make a strategic retreat A temporary break from politics could set up a comeback

01 Jun 2023

Spain tilts to the Right in regional elections The country is following a populist trend across Europe

29 May 2023

Dune: Part Two doesn’t need to be sanitised Denis Villeneuve shouldn't play it safe

25 May 2023

How Right-wing is too Right-wing for Western leaders? Joe Biden has been criticised for holding hands with Giorgia Meloni

22 May 2023

Where is Rishi Sunak’s industrial strategy? Britain is tearing up its existing policies as its rivals steam ahead

18 May 2023

Does Ukraine have Brexit to thank for Western support? Jacob Rees-Mogg has more of a point than Remainers think

15 May 2023

Millennial Millie is no better than Mondeo Man Imagined voter archetypes are a media preoccupation

12 May 2023

The Green Party is the latest threat to the Tories Their gains in the local elections bode ill for Conservative MPs in the south

08 May 2023

Beware the military-AI complex Like it or not, arms technology will shape the future

04 May 2023

The Covid questions that just won’t go away New reporting shows the extent of China's cover-up

01 May 2023

Chinese cars pose an existential threat to Europe Electric vehicles are taking over from German diesel

27 Apr 2023

The towns that defied the global baby shortage Depopulation isn't uniform throughout wealthy countries

24 Apr 2023

Just Stop Oil should stop targeting normies The group's stunts are geared towards the wrong demographic

20 Apr 2023

Donald Trump Jr comes to Bud Light’s rescue The former president's son called on conservatives to stop the boycott

17 Apr 2023

Why won’t San Francisco save itself? America's most progressive city has overlooked its own degradation

14 Apr 2023

Why are Americans getting dumber? IQ scores are nosediving after a long increase

12 Apr 2023

President Le Pen? It’s never been more likely A new poll finds that she is the leading candidate to replace Macron

06 Apr 2023

Sanna Marin’s fall confirms that populism is back But it is not a rejection of Western support for Ukraine

03 Apr 2023

Why is Jeremy Hunt attacking Joe Biden? The Chancellor has taken aim at the Inflation Reduction Act

30 Mar 2023

We can’t stop AI — so let’s ride the tiger Elon Musk wants to temporarily halt the training of systems

29 Mar 2023

Why are Americans dying so young? US life expectancy is falling well behind Europe

28 Mar 2023

Are raccoon dogs really to blame for Covid? The latest origin theory for the virus doesn't hold much water

24 Mar 2023

The Dutch farmers’ party victory is a warning to the green movement People across Europe are fed up with unfair environmental policies

21 Mar 2023

Dr Fauci is still downplaying the lab-leak hypothesis The former chief medical advisor gave an evasive interview this weekend

13 Mar 2023

In defence of Russell Brand Free societies need mavericks, heretics and ranters

10 Mar 2023

National conservatism has a future in Britain The ideology can provide a principled case for lower immigration

09 Mar 2023

The danger in Keir Starmer appointing Sue Gray The civil service must be independent from party politics

02 Mar 2023

Is Mexico’s President right to think that elves exist? Andrés Manuel López Obrador claimed an elf was captured on camera

01 Mar 2023

Is the Ukraine war about to spread to Moldova? The tiny state is vulnerable to Putin's territorial ambitions

24 Feb 2023

Beware the promise of ‘peak woke’ Unfortunately, the war is far from over

22 Feb 2023

Is a religious revival breaking out in America? Worshippers are visiting Asbury University in their droves

16 Feb 2023

Is this the new golden era of UFOs? Several unidentified objects have been shot down by the US military since Friday

13 Feb 2023

The danger of Sweden’s Sami Day celebrations Recognising indigenous populations may leave them open to political attack

09 Feb 2023

If China is covering up its Covid death toll, what else is it hiding? Official statistics clearly cannot be trusted

06 Feb 2023

There will be no ‘graceful defeat’ for the Tories Conservative hopes for a narrow electoral loss are delusional

03 Feb 2023

Why young people leaving the cities is bad for the Tories They are moving to so-called 'Benjamin Button areas'

01 Feb 2023

The EU’s trade war hypocrisy America is only copying what the European single market has done for decades

26 Jan 2023

Why would South America want a single currency? The fragility of the Eurozone should be a warning for Brazil and Argentina

23 Jan 2023

What Bolshevism tells us about the future of wokeism After the revolution, the real terror may be yet to come

20 Jan 2023

The Davos 2023 agenda lies in ruins The mood at this year’s WEF meeting is rather downbeat

16 Jan 2023

Andrew Bridgen: the latest example of Right-wing self-sabotage Using the Holocaust to discuss vaccine side-effects is counter-productive

12 Jan 2023

The future belongs to competent populists Today's most popular leaders are largely anti-establishment

10 Jan 2023

Rishi Sunak needs a new speechwriter Over-written and over-edited, the PM's speeches keep falling flat

05 Jan 2023

Decolonisation isn’t just about the West Activists should acknowledge that non-Western powers are guilty too

03 Jan 2023

Five things that didn’t happen in 2022 The Omicron lockdown, the invasion of Taiwan and Donald Trump's revenge

30 Dec 2022

Bring back secular Christmas It is one of the great achievements of western popular culture

25 Dec 2022

Living in the pod should not be an option The housing market is driving young people into ever smaller living spaces

23 Dec 2022

European populism is going mainstream The insurgent Right ebbs and flows, but keeps coming back

19 Dec 2022

Zero Covid means no ‘Chinese century’ Xi Jinping's Covid restrictions have stunted his country's progress

15 Dec 2022

The danger of the eurozone’s hidden divide Imbalances between nations are growing year-by-year

14 Dec 2022

Welcome to the Dyson Zone: your isolated world The latest gadget from the British inventor is dystopian

09 Dec 2022

Keir Starmer can finish what the Tories started The Labour leader is finally unveiling some policy — he needn't look far

05 Dec 2022

Sorry Maria Ressa, censoring speech won’t save democracy The journalist suggested that we can only protect freedom by constraining it

01 Dec 2022

Even British liberals are exasperated with the New York Times An article about the Modern Slavery Act has angered both Left and Right

29 Nov 2022

The Tories must stop ‘quiet quitting’ It's unacceptable for the party in power to simply give up

25 Nov 2022

Jeremy Hunt has no vision for Britain The Chancellor isn't willing to take on entrenched interests

17 Nov 2022

The moral lesson from Sam Bankman-Fried’s downfall The crypto meltdown shows us that we must be wary of unbridled altruism

14 Nov 2022

Right-wing populists need a new strategy Behaving grotesquely isn't enough

10 Nov 2022

Twitter is proof that Big Tech is out of ideas Silicon Valley hasn't made any significant progress in a decade

07 Nov 2022

The fate of Wilhelm Reich is a warning to us today Persecuting intellectuals, however fringe, rarely ends well

03 Nov 2022