Richard D North.

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...

I can't stand BBC Radio 4's Food Programme. This is odd since it's about my beloved farming industry and food - to which my mind wanders constantly. It's the propaganda I can't stomach. Read more...

This marvellous show was like a minute Dickens novella. Of course it was unfair: the odds against the poor little rich girl coming out ahead were very small. And yet one's heart went out to her. Read more...

People flinch whenever one mentions "the right". It's true: right wing arguments are a hard sell. Here goes. 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...

A note following evidence to the  JC on Human Rights, 23 October 2008 Read more...

Second note following evidence to the JC on Human Rights, 21 October 2008 Read more...

Mr Obama has created or been created by a moment in history.  It is a mixed blessing, this triumph. Whilst it is good that the US has overcome years of racism to produce a black president, it is less obviously good that a man has been elected president because he is black. No way out of that conundrum, probably, but it sours things a little. Read more...