BY NIALL McCRAE My first car was a Morris Marina 1800 Super. There was nothing super about it; merely seven years old, it was fit for the scrapyard. Having replaced the Austin Cambridge / Morris Oxford in 1971, the top-selling Marina came to be regarded as the worst British car ever. Although the 60s cars appeared antiquated, they were much better built than the products … Continue reading ‘See you Soon’: The Showroom’s Polite Warning
BY NIALL McCRAE Glasgow, more than any other city in Europe, was Concretopolis. The Labour-dominated city chambers demolished swathes of neglected sandstone tenements, as damp and decaying slums made way for modern concrete towers. This was driven by political philosophy, as a solid expression of the Welfare State. I grew up in Gourock on the River Clyde, a pretty neighbour to the tough shipbuilding town … Continue reading Brutalist Architecture: Was it all Bad?
BY NIALL McCRAE During the recent World Cup, St George’s flags were conspicuous by their absence. There was little of the usual fervour when England reaches the later stages of the tournament. The reason for this is laid out, unwittingly, by Daily Telegraph chief sports writer Paul Hayward, whose book England Football: the Biography (2022) shows that there is no escape from woke ideology in … Continue reading Football Gives Way to Critical Race Theory
BY NIALL McCRAE The Davos set, those progressive politicians, corporate bosses, bankers and sanctimonious celebrities who meet in the Swiss Alps every spring, have plenty of power and privilege. They talk of ‘smart cities’, digital currencies, radical action against climate change, internet safety and social justice. These assorted concerns may not readily make a coherent and realistic prospectus, but Covid-19 showed that where there’s a … Continue reading Globalists As They See Themselves
BY KAREN HARRADINE & NIALL McCRAE From nomadic tribes to the modern metropolis, human beings have created structure, order and predictability. The metaphorical, social and geographical concepts of family, community and nations are all expressions of the primal human need for a sense of safety and security within a meaningful circle of life. Such traditional bonds and boundaries may be encapsulated as the triumvirate of … Continue reading Children Are Being Bred into Obedient Drones
BY NIALL McCRAE Dear Mr Gove, Although you are extremely busy, I feel that you should know of a scurrilous notion regarding your recent visit to Washington. It is doing the rounds in certain social media circles that you attended the annual Build-a-Bear convention, which as you know is an obsession of conspiracy theorists, who believe in a New World Order policed by microchip-implanted teddy … Continue reading An Open Letter to Michael Gove: What Did You Really Do in Washington?
BY NIALL McCRAE Cash is not king nowadays. Certainly not on the bustling King’s Road in Chelsea, where my efforts to buy a coffee were frustrated by a ‘card only’ regime. On principle, my bank card stayed in my pocket, as I offered the exact coinage (typically over three quid for a flat white in this posh part of town). Consequently I walked a long … Continue reading Cash Dethroned on the King’s Road
BY NIALL MCCRAE Kicked out of a pub in Brighton – what ignominy! This is not a tale of drunken misadventure, but a troubling encounter in the ‘new normal’ of Covid World. Although most restrictions have been relaxed, the government’s behavioural psychology campaign has had lasting impact, marginalising and demonising sceptics in a moral crusade. Five of us had attended a small freedom rally, protesting … Continue reading They Walk Among Us
BY NIALL McCRAE Rule by Fear: The Endless Cycle of Contrived Crises As public attention shifts from the covid-19 virus to military conflict in Ukraine, the notion of permanent crisis is being discussed in the mainstream media. Sunday Times columnist Josh Glancy (27 February 2022) opined that this morbid age began in 2016, with Brexit and the election of Donald Trump. Of course, these two … Continue reading Crisis Factory
BY NIALL MCCRAE AND ROGER WATSON Protests and protestors do not have a good reputation in the mind of the public, being characterised by self-righteous agitators pursuing marginal and possibly subversive causes, while causing disruption to others. This image suits the authorities, but it is not always sustainable. People attending massive demonstrations, like that against war in Iraq in 2002 and 2003, could not be … Continue reading Covid Rule Sceptics & the Countryside: Different Battles, Same War?
