Society

Saturday

Joe Wallen

India’s war on Christians

Christmas is usually Nayomi Gracy’s favourite time of year. But this year, Gracy is feeling more fearful than cheerful. Right-wing Hindu groups have recently led a succession of violent attacks against her Christian community in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. When she attends church in her home city of Bangalore on Christmas Day, the congregation will be guarded by armed police. ‘It is a mental torture. They say we cannot go to church or they will kill us but the police have promised to protect us and to help us,’ said Gracy. India’s historic Christian community dates back to 52AD. It is believed the Apostle Thomas, better known as Doubting

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Most-read 2022: Crypto is dead

We’re finishing the year by republishing our ten most popular articles from 2022. Here’s number eight: Ross Clark’s piece from May on the crypto crash. When Britain voted for Brexit, Macron boasted that Paris would eat the City of London’s lunch. It didn’t quite work out that way, with most league tables continuing to put London as the number one or two financial centre, with not a single EU city in the top ten. Emmanuel Macron’s government has now announced that it has invited Binance, a crypto exchange site, to set up a European HQ in Paris. You have to ask: has Macron leapt on a bandwagon which has already started to lose

Friday

Julie Burchill Julie Burchill

Joe Lycett and the trouble with wokescreening

The word ‘wokescreen’ is (like its naughty older sibling, the carelessly carbon-producing smokescreen), an alibi which hides the truth about a nefarious action. But what marks it out from old-fashioned hypocrisy is that – rather than being a mere rogue – the wokescreener poses as a social justice hero, looking down from a great height at the great unwoked. From the Sussexes’ private planes to Justin Trudeau’s blackface antics, the wokescreen is a fine example of modern Magical Thinking – if you identify as good, you can then be bad to your sanctimonious little heart’s content. A prime example is the comedian Joe Lycett who – having condemned David Beckham

Frank Furedi

Qatargate and the dubious moral authority of NGOs 

The Qatargate scandal haunting the European Union is not merely about corrupt politicians and officials. The deplorable role of a non-governmental organisation is at the heart of the scandal, which highlights the interlocking of NGOs and EU parliamentarians and decision makers. The most interesting feature of the corruption scandal surrounding the detention of the EU parliament’s vice-president Eva Kaili and politicians and EU apparatchiks is their connection to a supposedly squeaky-clean NGO called Fight Impunity. The current president of the organisation is Pier Antonio Panzeri, 67, a former Italian leftist MEP. He was arrested after €600,000 in bank notes was found in his house in Brussels. He and his wife and daughter are alleged to have received bribes from a Moroccan diplomat. Even more interesting is the revelation that

Francis Young

Is Christmas really a pagan festival?

It’s as much a part of the season now as baubles, tinsel and the Christmas Number One: those articles, blogs and memes that pop up during the festive season claiming that Christmas, in spite of the name, is actually a pagan festival. Certainly, the visitor to contemporary Britain would be forgiven for thinking that Christmas has little or nothing to do with the birth of Jesus Christ; and indeed there are many things we do at Christmas, and have done for centuries, that seem to have scant connection to any sort of religious celebration. What does decking the halls with boughs of holly have to do with Jesus? Or Christmas

Nigel Jones

Is King Charles safe?

The news that his security experts are conducting an urgent review of the King’s safety during his expected traditional Christmas Day walkabout near his Norfolk home, Sandringham – where he will be accompanied by his wife – is sad but scarcely surprising. Already in his short reign there have been two disturbing incidents: eggs were thrown at Charles during royal visits to York and Lincoln. Fortunately, the perpetrators missed both times. But, given the tendency for copycat behaviour among the more moronic of the monarch’s subjects, the danger that an egg thrower may score a hit next time is obviously high. Compared to their European cousins and counterparts, and considering

Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

Life is hard for Bethlehem’s Christians

O Little Town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie: except the place is, in fact, buzzing in the run-up to Christmas. I had to squeeze between groups of American tourists to get into the little Church of the Nativity, built on the site where Christ was born. When I made it in, I created an impediment to the flow of pilgrims by kissing the ground near the star marking the place of his birth. Everyone who followed me did the same, with some effort on the part of the chunkier pilgrims.   It’s good news that Bethlehem is getting back to business. The shops selling nativity figures, Christmas decorations,

Robin Ashenden

My year of running from Putin

What a difference 12 months makes. Last year, at the Ikea in Rostov-on-Don, South Russia, I splashed out on some especially good Christmas decorations. I had an eight-year-old, half-Russian daughter growing up in that city, and wanted a tree and lights that were made to last and could be brought out each December as a kind of ritual.   Just over two months later, as Ikea closed its doors following Putin’s war, I took the decorations out and chucked them in a skip. My daughter had fled for Italy with her mother, my ex-partner, and my four years in Rostov – the cosy-melancholy city in which I’d planned to make a

Gareth Roberts Gareth Roberts

What Christianity teaches us about the transgender wars

It’s Christmas – again. For old timers like me, the familiarity of this time of year can blunt the strangeness of what we celebrate: the birth of Christ. The basic moral Christian precepts that Jesus embodied are also easy to take for granted. Do as you would be done by, love your neighbour, think of the poor; we accept these Christian attitudes, mistake them for innate human qualities, and rarely stop to think about them. The concepts go unexamined, embedded in our culture after centuries, though now minus any superhuman authority.  What we’ve forgotten is that these are peculiar, counterintuitive ideas that literally set the world on fire. They established

Deborah Ross

Most-read 2022: Everyone involved should be in prison: Netflix’s Persuasion reviewed

We’re finishing the year by republishing our ten most popular articles from 2022. Here’s number nine: Deborah Ross’s piece from July on the pitfalls of adapting Austen. You may already have read early reviews of Netflix’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion saying it’s ‘the worst adaptation ever’ as well as ‘mortifying’ and ‘a travesty’, but I know you won’t believe it unless you hear it from me, so here you are: it is truly horrible. I would also add that everyone involved should probably be sent to prison. Not for life, but until we could be confident they’d learned the error of their ways and there was minimal risk of

Thursday

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

Why children need proper Christmas carols, not hideous agitprop

27 min listen

It’s time for the Holy Smoke Christmas episode! The studio is decorated like a Dolly Parton festive special c. 1977, and my guest is the fearless and feisty Anglican church organist Lois Letts. Our theme is the urgent need to save children from the agitprop ‘worship songs’ that crop up in nativity and carol services even in Church of England primary schools, all of which make even Miss Parton’s cheesiest numbers sound like Handel’s Messiah. But be warned: Lois illustrates her point by singing one of them…

Margaret McCartney

Have MSPs considered the harm the gender reform bill could cause?

I am a doctor who has been acutely aware throughout my career of the possibility of doing harm with good intentions. The world-famous Dr Spock sold millions of books from the 1950s which recommended putting babies to sleep on their front. It seemed sensible at the time – surely they would be less likely to choke on vomit? But while the advice might have been well intended it was wrong. We now know, through research, that it is safer if babies sleep on their backs. Thousands of babies died from sudden infant death syndrome because of this wrong advice. We did not test Dr Spock’s assumption for years – and

Mark Galeotti Mark Galeotti

Putin’s hollow dream of a mightier army

Who needs Santa when you have Vladimir Putin? Just in time for Christmas, the Russian president has promised his military ‘everything it needs’ and an extra half a million men. On one level, this represents a further militarisation of the state – but at the same time, it is unattainable, and probably a misreading of the lessons of the Ukraine war. While Volodymyr Zelensky was receiving an ovation in the US Congress, Putin was hunkered down with his military leaders. He was in no mood to be stingy, saying that there were no ‘funding restrictions’ for the military and that ‘the country and the government will give everything that the

Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

Should it be a crime to pray outside an abortion clinic?

When MPs backed the enforcement of ‘buffer zones’ around abortion clinics, there were warnings that the measure might backfire. Two months on from that vote, those consequences are now clear for all to see. The director of an anti-abortion group is facing prosecution after praying in front of an abortion clinic in Birmingham. Isabel Vaughan-Spruce of UK March for Life is accused of breaching a public space protection order – but she insists she was only exercising her freedom of religion ‘inside the privacy of my own mind’.  Vaughan-Spruce is not accused of harassing anyone. The 45-year-old simply said a prayer inside an exclusion zone. It’s come to something, hasn’t

Charles Lipson

Zelensky’s Congress address was a triumph

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night was a political triumph. It was easily the most impressive speech given to Congress and the American public in years. And it was persuasive, if the audience’s repeated ovations are any indication. Zelensky’s goal was obvious. In thanking the Congress and the Biden administration, he hoped not only to show his nation’s gratitude but to ensure continued American support for Ukraine’s fight with Russia. The subtext was that, ideally, America and its Nato partners would do more than continue the current flow of weapons and ammunition. They would increase them and include more advanced weapons. But

Robert Ginzburg

Most-read 2022: Russian cities are returning to their Cold War state

We’re finishing the year by republishing our ten most popular articles from 2022. Here’s number ten: Robert Ginzburg’s piece from March on how Russia has changed since invading Ukraine. In Russia, the lights are going out one by one. Everything one expects from an up-to-date country – cashpoints that work, Apple products, Coca Cola – is vanishing. On Saturday night, at 3am, I ran down totally empty streets searching for the last cashpoint that would work with my British Mastercard. Bank machine after bank machine sent me away empty-handed, until I found one that obviously hadn’t got the memo. I stood there making withdrawal after withdrawal – snatching each 5,000

Wednesday

Nicholas Sheppard

Harry and Meghan have put Jacinda Ardern in an awkward position

A trailer was released this week for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s new Netflix documentary series, Live to Lead, which is inspired by Nelson Mandela. The seven-part series will discuss social and climate change, and feature interviews with world leaders. Harry and Meghan are billed as executive producers and are likely to make an appearance. Had Ardern been given greater clarity, she would likely have turned down any involvement in the Meghan and Harry project In the trailer, among the likes of US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Greta Thunberg, is New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern. In a brief clip she says: ‘As leaders, we have

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Hopeless and downbeat, Britain is the new France

‘Tis the season to be jolly, unless you live in Britain. An Ipsos poll last week suggested there is widespread pessimism in the UK about the year ahead. Six out of ten Brits expect food shortages in 2023, 57 per cent believe it unlikely their personal finances will improve, and two-thirds fear a general strike. British doom and gloom has been growing in recent years. According to data released last month by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the use of antidepressants in Britain has rocketed, with only Iceland and Portugal among 18 European nations having a higher consumption. In 2010, 54 people per 1,000 in Britain were

Theo Hobson Theo Hobson

Meghan Markle and the uncomfortable truth about Britain

I’m not defending Harry and Meghan. But I think they deserve some credit, for they have put the British character under the spotlight as never before in our times. Of course, it’s mainly Meghan who has done this. Through being boldly herself, she has raised the question of who we are. How are we different from the Californian culture she belongs to, which is the dominant form of western culture? In some ways it’s obvious – we have a monarchy for a start. But she has exposed a lot of the underlying stuff that makes us different. And she forces us to ask: can we affirm this stuff? Can we

Tuesday

Lucy Jackson

Why should my student paper report on an anti-trans documentary?

Journalists and editors make decisions every day about what stories to report and what to skip. That’s not just because there isn’t enough time, or enough staff, to report on everything. They also prioritise what they, or their publication, believe is most important, or interesting, to their readers. This is especially true for publications with a specific audience, like Edinburgh University’s Student newspaper, where I am editor. My decision not to report on Adult Human Female, a documentary due to be shown at my university by campaigners and academics who might call themselves ‘gender critical’, sparked something of a backlash. I was labelled a fascist, an enemy of free speech, ‘the