Surprising Things
BY ALEX STORY Some things are surprising; others less so. Lord Peter Mandelson spending an inordinate amount of time with the late Jeffrey Epstein, his “best pal”, raises few eyebrows. African leaders asking for “reparations” leaves Britons cold. We have become inured to officialised insanity – dangerously so perhaps. Where once our politicians’ misdemeanours fuelled conversations in pubs across the country, now, in the few … Continue reading Surprising Things
Notes from the Actual Countryside
BY GARY BAXTER As I sit here watching another bloody red kite circle over what’s left of the local songbirds, I decide to have a look at what fresh hell the pen-pushers in their air-conditioned offices have dreamt up for us this week. And Christ on a bike, it doesn’t take long to find it. Everywhere you look, it’s another scheme conjured by some millennial … Continue reading Notes from the Actual Countryside
A Prayer for the Quiet Moments
VICAR We come before You in a moment of stillness, seeking refuge from the world’s incessant noise. Lord, You who spoke not in the wind or the earthquake, but in the still, small voice, we ask for the grace to find You in the quiet. Bless the silent dawns, the hushed evenings, and the peace of a sleeping house. In the spaces between our words, … Continue reading A Prayer for the Quiet Moments
Kiplin
BY ALLISON LEE Kiplin Hall is an absolute gem standing serenely close to the River Swale in the Vale of Mowbray in the beautiful North Yorkshire countryside. Situated between the historic market towns of Richmond and Northallerton, Kiplin Hall has been owned by four families, related by blood and marriage, and this year celebrates its 400th year of history. George Calvert built Kiplin Hall in … Continue reading Kiplin
Straw
BY ROGER WATSON Of all the films I have watched, Straw is one of the most painful—but it is meant to be. The title presumably refers to the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. Straw (2025) tells the story of a woman living in dire circumstances, whose situation escalates from terrible to tragic, ultimately breaking her. Janiyah Wiltkinson, portrayed powerfully by Taraji P. Henson, is a single mother … Continue reading Straw
Grooming Gang Survivors Need the Healing Power of the Countryside
BY DONNA RACHEL EDMUNDS I felt a flutter of nerves as I hopped off the mounting block and swung my leg over bright bay quarters. 16’2” is a long way up, especially above the cobbles of a country house stable yard, and it had been a good decade since I’d last gathered up reins, tightened a girth, and given a squeeze to set off. But … Continue reading Grooming Gang Survivors Need the Healing Power of the Countryside
The History of Islamic Slavery Should be Better Known
BY IAN MITCHELL Racism and religious status assertion is worthy of investigation The ultimate in status differentiation is the slave relationship. The slave has no agency, while the slave-owner has full agency for two. Leaving aside the special case of contract slavery, the general point about enslavement is that it reduces human freedom to the point where only death can exceed it in terms of … Continue reading The History of Islamic Slavery Should be Better Known
English and the Law
BY JOE NUTT It’s difficult to avoid the sensation as a commonplace citizen, that more and more equally commonplace citizens have become openly prepared to defy the law. Flags have nothing to do with this. Unless of course they’re ornamenting terrorism. Lawlessness began quietly booming some years ago. In world famous galleries, paint is thrown at great paintings, statues are defaced or toppled and at … Continue reading English and the Law
Did Sunak Throw the 2024 General Election?
BY PAUL T HORGAN Rishi Sunak. Remember him? It may be the relentless pace of news, replacing the legacy analogue cycle of four discrete opportunities for the average person to catch up on the news, that makes it seem that Mr Sunak was Prime Minister a eon ago. It was only 14 months ago that he lost the General Election. Sunak went into the polls … Continue reading Did Sunak Throw the 2024 General Election?
Secret Army
BY ANDREW MILNE Evyatar David, 24, has now been held over 700 days in a tunnel below Gaza, his cousin, Tamar Eshet, told a packed fringe meeting at Reform UK’s national conference. Eyatar was abducted by Hamas on 7 October 2023 whilst fleeing the Nova Festival. Deputy leader, Richard Tice MP, introduced Tamar Eshet and showed a video released by Hamas. In it a severely … Continue reading Secret Army
Net Tightens on UK Cadres
BY NICHOLAS ROSE How a Welsh Arrest Exposes the Lingering Threat of Single-Issue Terror In the quiet, misty Conwy valley, where the only disturbances are the bleating of sheep and the changing of the seasons, the arrest of a man known to locals as ‘Danny Webb’ sent ripples through the community. But the tremor was felt far beyond the hills of North Wales. It was … Continue reading Net Tightens on UK Cadres
A Prayer for the Farmers
VICAR We lift our hearts to You today, mindful of those whose labour is written upon the land. Lord, Creator of seedtime and harvest, we ask Your blessing upon our farmers, the steadfast stewards of our countryside. Grant them strength for the long days and patience for the seasons that unfold in Your time, not ours. Bless the work of their hands—the ploughing and the … Continue reading A Prayer for the Farmers
Did Nobody Think to Tell Starmer that the Sequel’s Always Worse?
BY SEAN WALSH If you’ve seen it, you’ll know that A Prayer for the Dying is the worst film ever made. If you haven’t then you’re just going to have to trust me. Its awfulness is incommunicable even by critics far more articulate than this one. You might get a sense of it if I tell you that Mickey Rourke is an IRA gunman with … Continue reading Did Nobody Think to Tell Starmer that the Sequel’s Always Worse?
My First Summer in North Yorkshire
BY ALLISON LEE How incredibly fortuitous that our first year in North Yorkshire has turned out to be one of the UK’s warmest and sunniest on record, with the first half of summer bringing no fewer than three heatwaves. Given that one of the reasons for our move from West to North Yorkshire was the brutal weather conditions, things are turning out well. Our previous … Continue reading My First Summer in North Yorkshire
The Amateur
BY ROGER WATSON Based on the 1981 novel of the same name by Robert Littell, The Amateur (2025) tells the improbable story of a geek turned gunman in pursuit of his wife’s killers. It is an action, suspense thriller and, as such, is diverting enough, but is probably scored accurately at 61% on Rotten Tomatoes. At times it is a bit lacking in action, and you must … Continue reading The Amateur
A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
BY ALEX STORY On one side, girls are arrested for waving Union Flags; men for admitting to liking bacon; and comedians for telling jokes. Indeed, playwright Graham Linehan had his collar felt by the armed Old Bill for writing that old-fashioned women, those without a penis, should “make a scene” when a trans woman enters a female changing room and punch “him in the balls” … Continue reading A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
A God-Shaped Hole
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN Part of the sickness of the modern British state is a constitutional one. It mistakes the ghost of a single, established faith for its national soul. We are governed by a contradiction: a democracy that grants automatic power to bishops, a plural society whose supreme authority is bound by oath to a specific sect. This is more than an antique absurdity; it … Continue reading A God-Shaped Hole
What’s To Be Done About The Lilliputian London Stock Exchange?
CITY GRUMP In the decline of this, that, and the other on our little island, can be found the increasingly desperate case of our London-based equity markets, collectively known as the London Stock Exchange. As a participant in the junior of these, AIM (Alternative Investment Market), right from the start thirty years ago, I and others have watched it come down from some 1,200 companies … Continue reading What’s To Be Done About The Lilliputian London Stock Exchange?
1472 Wild Boar? How?
BY BERT BURNETT A new report covered by the BBC projects Scotland’s wild boar population will rise by over 60% in fifty years, from a precise 1,472 to about 2,400. This startlingly specific number—1,472—raises an obvious question: how can anyone count these elusive, nocturnal animals so exactly? The answer is that it’s not a direct headcount. The figure is a scientific estimate derived from a population model. … Continue reading 1472 Wild Boar? How?
The Fake Formosan
BY DENE BEBBINGTON Fake news, it’s the bogeyman du jour that Donald Trump is accused of spreading or railing against depending on what suits him at the time. The media warns us about it while fact checkers debunk it, but fake news is as old as the proverbial hills. At one time it took on a more elaborate and, dare I say, more droll form, than we … Continue reading The Fake Formosan