September
- Opinion
- World politics
Why even good politicians are unpopular these days
It’s not just Keir Starmer – political leaders are on the nose around the world, and it’s not all their fault. Decades of peace and affluence have raised expectations.
- Opinion
- US election
A Trump loss could stabilise US politics for a generation
The lesson of 2024 so far is that American populists have no replacement for the former president’s star power. Donald Trump has political superpowers almost unique to him.
August
- Opinion
- World politics
Biden was good at managing America’s decline
Between the peak of something and its ultimate demise, a vast amount can be achieved. Perhaps it took a man who became president at 78 to see the point.
- Opinion
- US election
Harris should distance herself from Bidenomics
The US president’s high-spending protectionism is bad policy and worse politics. It has no answer to America’s brewing public debt crisis.
- Opinion
- Fertility
As a childless man, a new coffee machine is my priority
A Londoner admits his life mirrors the no-kids stereotype criticised by Republican JD Vance: an obsession with food, wine and coffee beans
- Opinion
- US election
How Kamala Harris might still lose
After almost a decade of chasing or holding the White House, Donald Trump’s oddities are priced in while Harris remains ill-defined and half-tested.
July
- Opinion
- US election
Feckless liberals are to blame for Biden’s downfall
The left worldwide ignores problems on its own side, and recent history has turned on that failure.
June
- Opinion
- US election
Why billionaires support Trump
Business people struggle to understand fanaticism. In commercial life, all actors are negotiable, even if their price is high. They also tend to overrate contrarianism.
- Opinion
- World elections
The last best hope against populism is to expose it to government
Emmanuel Macron has concluded that power often tames radical parties or demonstrates their incompetence. His election call might be the most prudent thing he could have done.
April
- Opinion
- Social media
Screen addiction is a disease. Blame wealth
Smartphone addiction, culture wars and low birth rates are all byproducts of modern success that are difficult to fix.
March
- Opinion
- US election
Biden must promise a more conservative second term
The US president has to do what he has always done, except recently: upset his party. The moderates who trusted him in 2020 have to know that he is theirs, not the left’s.
February
- Opinion
- US election
Why losing US elections is a lucrative business
Life is much cushier in opposition, especially in the United States, so there’s no reason to moderate to try and win power.
January
- Opinion
- Globalisation
The world is better seen from Dubai than Davos
When the world was American-led, market-based and ever more democratic, Davos was a useful distillation of it. Dubai is now a more faithful portrait.
- Opinion
- World politics
The welcome demise of big-government Toryism
When Rishi Sunak cut high-speed rail, commentators wrongly saw it as a betrayal of the red wall vision. But the nonsensical red-wall agenda was never needed.
- Updated
- Opinion
- World elections
Reports of the death of democracy are greatly exaggerated
The free world has shrunk, but only compared with its zenith 10 years ago. The West today is too willing to give autocrats too much credit, too soon.
December 2023
- Opinion
- Tax reform
Why Emmanuel Macron is bravest leader of the year
The French president is probably the only Western leader to stare down public dissent at much-needed austerity measures. The rest should study his shattering experience.
November 2023
- Opinion
- World elections
Biden can’t spin his way to re-election
To prevent a second term of Donald Trump, Democrats must accept that what is going wrong is their basic proposition, not the framing or messaging of it.
- Opinion
- Workplace
‘An education in real life’: Why the young must go to the office
Apart from dating, there is no better study of human behaviour than working in, and soaking up, the office.
October 2023
- Opinion
- Israeli-Palestinian conflict
West’s enemies may be evil, but there’s no ‘axis’
Democracies should tease out the contradictions between Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, instead of dangerously lumping them together as a bloc.
- Opinion
- Israeli-Palestinian conflict
America finds there is more to the world than China
The US is going through the most awkward phase in the life cycle of an empire. Its relative power in the world is down from its peak, but its burdens aren’t.