Introspection is what Labour does best, and so it should come as no surprise that Keir Starmer has started another round of it by invoking the legacy of Tony Blair. Vowing to “turn the party inside out”, he wants to take the radical step of “proudly reminding” the people how great the Blair era was.

Not only do these remarks showcase the dearth of imagination at the heart of the party, but also how self-obsessed it has become. Instead of “talking to the country” as Starmer suggests the Party should do, most of the interview centres on the re-litigation of Labour’s own legacy, which has become a central part of its dysfunction. ...  Continue reading

If there’s one thing media reporting over the last 18 months has taught us, it’s that when it comes to Covid, no headline is too sensational, and no prediction too dire. Glance over the Twitter feeds or websites of most newspapers, and it is hard not to sometimes wonder if the Armageddon is upon us.

This sort of medical alarmism is, of course, not new. Most remember the Daily Mail’s countless articles containing a seemingly endless list of things which may, possibly, cause cancer (some highlights:  flip flops, crisps, Facebook, being left- handed, shaving your armpits, soup, being a woman, being a man, grapefruit, and lipstick). Covid, however, has taken the fear-mongering to new heights, with a constant parade of terrifying new variants and “harrowing questions” about the effects of such mutations, intermingled with misplaced fears about vaccine resistance. ...  Continue reading

I was educated in what must have been the final days of a venerable British tradition — the teacher with overtly Right-wing political views, freely and entertainingly expressed from the front of the class on a regular basis.

OFSTED inspectors, the Bloomsbury Group, the Blair government, and indeed the entire Labour Party; all were frequent targets of Mr M’s hilarious barbs. I don’t think he could get away with it now, 20 years on. It would only take one malcontent with a phone camera to create a viral clip, or some humourless parents empowered by the modern vogue for snitching, and he’d be in serious trouble. ...  Continue reading

Back in 2017, when coronavirus was no more than a twinkle in a lab assistant’s eye, Louis C.K., among the most famous comedians in the world, was revealed to have exposed and pleasured himself in front of unsuspecting women on several occasions. His upcoming film, tours and specials were cancelled. He has only performed at a few gigs since.

Should Louis C.K. still be ‘cancelled’? No. It was sexual misconduct — and pretty appalling behaviour at that. But he was not a predator a la Harvey Weinstein. The hapless comedian made no physical contact with these women and appears, in his dense way, to have believed that these encounters were consensual. That does not acquit him from responsibility, of course, as being less bad than other people does not mean being good, but it is not something that should cost him his life’s work — especially as a comedian, where being a scumbag is almost to be expected. ...  Continue reading

A lot of media attention over the past month has focused on Laurel Hubbard, who has been lauded as the “First Transgender Olympian.” But this is not entirely true; there is at least one other trans Olympian in Tokyo. Quinn, who goes by only one name, came out last year and — with the acceptance and support of team mates — continues to play women’s football for Canada. The team has now progressed through to the final. If they beat Sweden in Yokohama tomorrow, Quinn will become the first openly transgender Olympic gold medallist.

This is transgender inclusion as it should be. According to CBC, Quinn prefers they/them pronouns and goes by one name. But — crucially — they are a biological female competing with other biological females. Quinn may identify differently, but sport is not segregated by feelings. Hence why they can still play for the women’s team. There are different competitions for men and women because of certain biological realities: male bodies go through male puberty, and that establishes a permanent and irreversible advantage over female bodies that do not go away.  ...  Continue reading

You know it’s officially la saison des marronniers (silly season) in France when a somnolent country suddenly gets up in arms for a Great National Cause nobody really paid attention to before. Win extra points if you can somehow accuse the government of dereliction toward a national symbol! Double those if it has to do with the English (language, fishermen, PM, food, football team, whatever)!

This time, it’s Emmanuel Macron who’s kick-started the summer’s most tantalising clickbait, right between stories on masks-only beaches and the best recipe for a true Salade Niçoise. His entry? Introducing a new national identity card. ...  Continue reading

There’s a new trend on TikTok, wedged in-between videos of teenagers dancing and singing: confessions of trauma. The app is rife with young people, particularly young women, engaging in the same behaviour. The #trauma hashtag has a staggering 3.9 billion views. Most surprising about these confessions is their generally light-hearted tone — one famous musician follows the popular format of claiming his humour comes from his ‘trauma’ — as well as their intentional vagueness. What is causing these thousands of young people to identify themselves as emotionally damaged?

@mtvmcribsdo YOU have a favorite traumatic memory?? #trauma♬ original sound – ben

I first started to notice the popularisation of ‘trauma theory’ — the idea that most of a person’s problems can be traced back to some unresolved, vague traumatic events in their life — after hearing learning about a book that was popular among young women. ...  Continue reading

At the beginning of the 21st century, David Brooks wrote a book called Bobos in Paradise — which was all about America’s changing class structure. Bobos are ‘bourgeois bohemians’, also known as the ‘creative class’ or, more broadly what we might call ‘knowledge workers’.

Urban, educated and progressive, they now dominate the commanding heights of the economy, and of culture too. For all their egalitarian pretensions, the rise of the bobos has left a lot of non-bobos feeling more excluded than ever before. That might be because of economic disadvantage or feelings of cultural alienation, but either way the bobos are resented.  ...  Continue reading