Tuesday

15 Nov 2022
Will Trump run?

‘I don’t think anyone knows,’ someone close to Donald Trump told me at the end of last week. ‘My guess is he does but that’s just a guess.’ My question, of course, was ‘Is Donald Trump still going to announce?’ — despite the mid-term disappointments for his movement and the increasing certainty among Republican analysts that the party cannot win with him as its public face? He's expected to declare at 9 pm Eastern Standard Time – that’s 2 am tomorrow – especially after he declared yesterday on his Truth Social media platform that ‘Hopefully, tomorrow will turn out to be one of the most important days in the history of our country!’But that ‘hopefully’ suggests an unusual amount of doubt in Trump’s brain. And it is telling that key Trump people are now sounding more ambiguous about 2024 than they did just a week ago.

Will Trump run?

Sunday

13 Nov 2022
Is Nixon the most misunderstood president in history?

Has the reputation of any American statesman been more effectively trashed than that of Richard Milhous Nixon? Donald Trump’s, perhaps – certainly the forty-fifth president inspires loathing on a scale matched only by the thirty-seventh.Nixon and Trump have a few other points in common. Both men built coalitions through appeals to forgotten voters. They spoke to Americans who were frightened by rapid and destructive social and economic change. Both were denounced as fascists and standard bearers of the most reactionary forces in American life, yet in fact both governed with substantial moderation.Nixon and Trump prove the truth of Marx’s quip that history repeats itself first as tragedy, then as farce. Nixon is the tragedy; Trump the farce.

Is Nixon the most misunderstood president in history?

Friday

11 Nov 2022

Thursday

10 Nov 2022
Midterm madness: the only clear winner is paranoia

Election night, folks – Americadecides! Except, it doesn’t. On 8 November 2022, as on 3 November 2020, the polls closed, the votes came in and, er, nobody appeared to have won. Everybody now looks nervously again to the state of Georgia, which is probably too close to call and will be decided in a run-off in four weeks’ time. The people have spoken but once again nobody knows quite what they’ve said. Americans have spent decades arguing that Washington doesn’t work and their political system is broken. Well, they’re right. America is indeed polarised and terribly divided, as this week’s results show. It’s not just the politics, though: it’s the elections, stupid. The most powerful and sophisticated democracy in the world can’t get the basics right.

Midterm madness: the only clear winner is paranoia

Wednesday

9 Nov 2022
Mid-terms: no red wave, America is still very divided

Is it a red wave? A ripple? Or a trickle? Nobody quite knows. However, what looks certain is that the Republican blow out that many right wing pundits were anticipating has not happened. Crucially, the Democrats have won the crunch Senate race in Pennsylvania. John Fetterman, the man who had a stroke just a few months ago, defeated Mehmet Oz, who the late polls suggested would win. Elsewhere, it turns out the polls were right — the Senate races are incredibly tight. It looks as if a dramatic late surge for Adam Laxalt in Nevada means the Republicans should squeak another Senate victory for there. So … over to Georgia, again, where it looks as if neither the Republican Herschel Walker nor the Democrat Raphael Warnock will win by 0.

Mid-terms: no red wave, America is still very divided

Friday

4 Nov 2022

Tuesday

1 Nov 2022
The Tories are addicted to self-destruction

Well, that round of party unity was fun, wasn’t it? Rishi Sunak, the pragmatist, ushered in an unfamiliar sense of calmness and competence as he entered Downing Street. It has lasted less than a week. Yet again the newspapers are chock full of ‘senior Conservatives’ gunning for each other: the target this time is Suella Braverman, but it could be anyone. The Tory cycle of violence continues, which raises the question as to whether the Tories are not just ‘ungovernable’ — as many said during Liz Truss’s collapse — but actually addicted to self-destruction. So far this year 40,000 have entered Britain illegally: Braverman has said this amounts to ‘an invasion’.  David Cameron called it ‘a swarm’ in 2015 and he was also criticised, although of course in those days other Tories didn’t join in the outrage orgy with quite the same alacrity.

The Tories are addicted to self-destruction

Friday

28 Oct 2022

Thursday

20 Oct 2022
A bluffer’s guide to (yet another) Tory leadership race

Here we go again – another leadership contest, another round of intense Westminster blather. Lightweight would-be commentators may feel their energy flagging as they prepare to analyse this next phase of high-level political violence. But alpha bluffers do not fret. We know that there is no such thing as a ‘tired talking point’ – although that is a handy phrase in any serious conversation. Try these ten fresh, handy sentences to keep you sounding shrewd as the Tories commit hara-kiri once more and everything falls apart: 1. Whither the one-nation caucus? Oh yes, you know your ‘Tory tribes’. You understand the complexities of the ‘uncivil war’ within the party. Say ‘whither’ with a wisp of irony to show you know you are speaking fluent fogey.

A bluffer’s guide to (yet another) Tory leadership race

Wednesday

19 Oct 2022
How bad will the midterms be for the Democrats?

Towards the end of the summer, almost in a spirit of contrarianism, well-informed Americans started talking about President Joe Biden and the Democrats winning again. It had been a bad year, these pundits conceded, but Biden was suddenly on a ‘hot streak’ and, as the November midterms approached, the Democratic party finally had some political momentum. The President had passed the Inflation Reduction Act, they said, which addressed the most pressing issue facing voters. He’d also launched a bold initiative to forgive student debt for low- to middle-income earners. The Republicans, meanwhile, had frightened moderates with their pro-life extremism following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe vs Wade. And Donald Trump had reared his off-putting head by reminding the world that he almost certainly will be running for the White House in 2024.

How bad will the midterms be for the Democrats?

Friday

14 Oct 2022

Tuesday

11 Oct 2022
Meghan Markle’s podcast is about the word ‘crazy.’ And it’s barking mad

‘Calling someone crazy or hysterical completely dismisses their experience,’ says Meghan Markle in her strangely throaty professional podcast voice. ‘It minimises what they’re feeling. And you know it doesn’t stop there. It keeps going to the point where anyone who has been labelled it enough times can be gaslit into thinking that they’re actually unwell. Or sometimes worse to the point where real issues of all kinds get ignored. Well that’s not happening today.’ Cue the intro music – ‘I am woman, I am fearless, I am sexy’ etc. – to the latest episode of Archetypes, the Duchess of Sussex’s Spotify series. ‘I feel pretty strongly about this word crazy,’ says Meghan. She does. As usual there are about nine minutes of over-edited blather and loosely connected etymological observations – the word ‘hysteria’ comes from the Greek word ‘womb’, didn’t you know? – before Meghan starts a conversation with one of her guests.

Meghan Markle’s podcast is about the word ‘crazy.’ And it’s barking mad

Friday

7 Oct 2022

Wednesday

28 Sep 2022
Ten handy phrases for bluffing your way through the new financial crisis

Aggggghhh! Woooaaaah! Urrrggghhhh! Those screams you hear are ten thousand self-appointed financial experts howling into the existential abyss. The Bank of England this morning announced its ‘operation’ in the gilt market, and every pundit with a social media account is thrashing around in the ever greater ocean of economic jargon and incomprehensible data. It’s hard enough to remember what a gilt is: now we are all expected to comment knowingly on how gilt yields operate, how government interventions shape the bond market, and how markets will react. Seasoned bluffers need not be afraid, however. Crisis is opportunity, as every investor knows. Now is the time to be bold when others are fearful. Here, as a starter, are ten phrases to help you ride out the economic commentary storm with your reputational portfolio still thriving.

Ten handy phrases for bluffing your way through the new financial crisis

Tuesday

27 Sep 2022

Thursday

22 Sep 2022

Monday

19 Sep 2022
Joe Biden’s Taiwan muddle has become untenable

Under Joe Biden, the longstanding American policy of ‘strategic ambiguity’ vis-à-vis Taiwan has taken on a curious post-modern quality. The official US position on arguably the biggest international question of the moment is now so ambiguous that even the president of the United States doesn’t appear to know what it is. In a long interview with CBS 60 minutes this weekend, president Biden was asked if US forces would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack. ‘Yes,’ he replied. ‘If in fact there was an unprecedented attack.’ The White House promptly clarified that, in fact, the US position has not changed, suggesting that America still might not commit to defending Taiwan with its own troops. The same thing happened in May.

Joe Biden’s Taiwan muddle has become untenable

Wednesday

14 Sep 2022
Biden is treating his political opponents like domestic terrorists

What is going on in America? A celebrity eccentric known as ‘the Pillow guy’, his real name is Mike Lindell, claimed yesterday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation seized his mobile telephone. Lindell, a former crack addict turned successful entrepreneur who is now a major supporter of the Trump movement, says he was returning from a hunting trip when ‘cars pulled up in front of us, to the side of us and behind us. I said, “those guys are either bad guys or the FBI.” It turns out they were the FBI.’ Lindell is a wacky guy, and his claims should be treated with scepticism. Yet there is growing evidence that the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are indeed now treating the Trump movement as a domestic terror threat.

Biden is treating his political opponents like domestic terrorists

Saturday

10 Sep 2022

Wednesday

7 Sep 2022
Why the ‘ThickLizzie’ slur is so stupid

There's a funny thing about humans: when we want to help people, we often end up hurting them — and vice-versa. Take the ‘ThickLizzie’ hashtag that has been trending on social media. The new Prime Minister is, according to large numbers of Tory-loathers, a moron. There is an undercurrent of sexism here, yes. There’s also an overcurrent of stupidity. It’s just clearly not true. Truss may not be the most dynamic public speaker. She can be awkward. She may have poor judgment. She may turn out to be a disaster as Prime Minister. But thick? How many of the people calling her stupid on Twitter today got into Oxford to read Philosophy, Politics and Economics? A lot of people turn their noses up at PPE as the breeziest Oxbridge subject for the political class.

Why the ‘ThickLizzie’ slur is so stupid

Tuesday

6 Sep 2022
Get ready for Liz mania

Here she is, then. Liz Truss is Britain’s third woman Prime Minister and she’s already suffering from the not-so-soft bigotry of low expectations. Almost everyone is looking at this woman the Tory membership has chosen to lead us all and feeling glum. She is someone widely seen in political and media circles as a lightweight and an embarrassment. The overly drawn-out and stale leadership battle between her and Rishi Sunak hasn’t helped either. Can Liz Truss ever hope to win a general election? But most new leaders enjoy a popularity bounce upon entering high office. Remember May mania? She experienced a five per cent surge in the polls in her first month in No. 10. Well, get ready for Liz mania. It’s undeniable that what wonks like to call ‘the political headwinds’ are blowing strongly against the new PM.

Get ready for Liz mania

Thursday

1 Sep 2022
Drama queens: the return of Meghan and Harry

We’ve all spent months bracing ourselves for what our leaders assure us will be a dreadful winter. As the weather turns, we can look forward to ruinous energy bills, runaway inflation, collapsing health services, strikes, blackouts, more strikes, violent crime, and perhaps even – why not? – a nuclear war with Russia. As if that weren’t bad enough, Meghan and Harry are back, wafting over all the way from Montecito, California on billowy clouds of bonkers publicity, self-pity and self-help mumbo-jumbo. On Monday, as Britain announces a new prime minister, Meghan and Harry will attend a ‘One Young World’ summit for youth leaders in Manchester, where Meghan will deliver the keynote address. They will also meet ‘a group of summit delegates doing outstanding work on gender equality’.

Drama queens: the return of Meghan and Harry