Every country honours its iconic personages, those seen to have served the nation particularly well. And the choice of icons is telling. The English erect statues to Nelson. The French, to Louis XIV. The Italians, to Garibaldi. Acting in the same spirit, Putin’s government has just unveiled a statue toRead More

‘Look who’s talking’ is a colloquial way of saying that even an unimpeachable idea may be compromised by the speaker’s personality. For example, few would argue against the notion of the sanctity of human life – but even fewer would like to hear this argument put forth by a serialRead More

Oscar Wilde said that the best way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Unfortunately many Brits use this method for getting rid of the fascist temptation. When they find something wrong with Her Majesty’s government, they turn their thoughts not to restoring history’s greatest constitution butRead More

It is difficult for western Europeans to understand the nature of deception in Russia’s current regime. Not that there is anything new about it – decades of refinement in dissembling, disinformation and projection  – beyond the comprehension of most ordinary people – is entrenched in Russian political life. Using psychologicalRead More

In today’s upside down world, Russia, which for seventy years had aggressively exported atheist materialism, both overtly and covertly, is becoming the defender of the principles that used to be the badge of the Christian West, while a composite swathe of authorities in the West are now openly promoting theRead More

I, along no doubt with Peter Hitchens, have heaved a sigh of relief. For a while there I was genuinely concerned about Vlad’s continued good health, what with his having taken 10 days out of his public life. That disappearance act gave rise to all sorts of rumours, ranging fromRead More

How many crimes does Putin have to commit before our ‘conservatives’ and ‘libertarians’ realise he and his regime are indeed criminal? There is no limit, I’m afraid, as there is no limit to people’s idiocy – especially when it’s propped up by strident ideology. Putin is self-admittedly proud of beingRead More

Air Chief Marshal Sir Michael Graydon put it in a nutshell: “I very much doubt whether the UK could sustain a shooting war against Russia.” Air Commodore Andrew Lambert concurs: “If the Russians turned up the heat, we would struggle badly.” No wonder. Since 2010 HMG has cut £4.7 billionRead More

Putin poses a ‘real and present danger’ to the Baltic states and therefore to Nato, says the Defence Secretary. Nato, according to him, is getting ready to repel any aggression. The first part of the statement is easy to welcome. The second is hard to believe. The welcome part isRead More