This is not a party political site and not very partisan in any way. My emphasis has tended to be on the quality of debate and campaigning, and especially on the need to appreciate represtentative democracy (government through elected representatives whose own views matter), and to be sceptical of the claims of vox pop, "the people", social media, Crowd Wisdom, and "direct action".
Conservatives believe that we ought to preserve many of the values of the past. So how come they like capitalism which keeps changing the world? Read more...
Charles Moore is wise and clever. But he's wrong to suggest there should be a licence fee strike until Jonathan Ross is fired. That's no way to rid ourselves of smut and smugness on the rates. Read more...
John Sergeant has sparked the most interesting argument about democracy since - oh, I don't know, since George W Bush did or didn't win the popular vote and was rescued (or not) by the Electoral College in 2004. Read more...
There are obvious reasons not to be on the right of the cultural and political debate. You won't be liked, for start, and people will think you are selfish or even fascist. Here are some reasons in favour. Read more...
Intellectual and practical life is a series of paradoxes and conundrums. I would never follow a purist, though purism can be wonderfully clarifying. Read more...
We should be tougher in the way we think about protest. That was the burden of my written evidence to a Parliamentary committee on Human Rights. Sometimes we seem to get heavy about very little. But more often we think disruptive or vicious protest is really sort of OK. It isn't. Read more...