A conservative is actually despairing of finding himself having to call himself ‘conservative’ in the first place.
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To be clear, none of this has much to do with actual right-wing or conservative political thought. If you’re wearing tweed and reading Sir Roger Scruton, please carry on. The influencer ecosystem I once inhabited was the Chernobyl-ass Frankenstein of right-wing politics. A radioactive, reanimated corpse stitched together from clout, resentment, and cocaine, which desperately needs to be taken out back and shot for everyone’s good (it’s own included). Unfortunately, monsters are hard to kill February 21st, 2026 | 22 comments
 Under the Bank Secrecy Act, one of the most common reasons for filing a suspicious activity report (often abbreviated as SAR) is because someone deposited or withdrew nearly $10,000 in cash. That’s all it takes for you to get labeled as “suspicious” in an official report to the government. These reports rarely catch actual criminals. Yet, each report is like a red mark on your banking record, nonetheless. And getting too many of these reports filed on you can quickly spell trouble. If you rack up multiple reports (often as few as three), banks will close the account. The bank might know you are likely innocent, but the risk of regulators punishing them for inaction is too high. Fines for failing to report real criminal activity can reach into the millions. It’s much safer for the bank to close the account than risk fines later, especially if it is a smaller account. February 17th, 2026 | 5 comments
I find it splendidly sensible that ‘ordinary’ people are able to see through celebrity endorsements. It was F Scott Fitzgerald who famously said, ‘The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind, at the same time, and still retain the ability to function’. Regular people are able to admire, even idolise, a singer or an actor – and then totally do the opposite politically to what that performer calls for. February 7th, 2026 | 34 comments
“The First Amendment doesn’t stop at the water’s edge just because a foreign bureaucrat sends a threatening letter. If you’re in Wyoming, you speak freely. Period.” February 2nd, 2026 | 27 comments
When U.S. special forces captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro in a predawn raid on Saturday, it should have been a moment of triumph for Venezuela’s democratic opposition. But rather than endorsing the leadership of Edmundo González, whose victory in July’s 2024 election was stolen by Maduro, President Donald Trump announced he’d work with Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s vice president for the past six years. After Trump called her “gracious” and claimed she was “essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again,” the Maduro-controlled Supreme Court swiftly appointed her as acting president on Saturday, once again sidelining the elected opposition. Rodríguez is neither gracious nor a reformer. She’s a self-identified communist who has held key positions under both former dictator Hugo Chávez and Maduro, Venezuelan political writer Paola Bautista de Alemán tells Reason. In 2017, Maduro tapped Rodríguez to be president of the illegitimate constituent assembly that usurped the powers of the elected National Assembly to silence the opposition. Later that year, Maduro appointed her to the “Anti-Coup Command,” tasked with taking measures against alleged coup plotters and terrorists, labels routinely applied to peaceful opposition figures. January 7th, 2026 | 22 comments
The US Congress is to all intents and purposes dead. It cannot function with the filibuster rule and an evenly balanced country with the two sides highly belligerent. Now the question we want to ask is: is this a good thing or a bad thing? One the negative side it means that the government can’t get anything done, but on the positive side it means the government can’t get anything done. January 6th, 2026 | 24 comments
Whilst still agog at the snatch in Venezuela, let’s not forget that Iran remains on the brink. Might be a good time for the IDF or USAF to JDAM a few HQ buildings or mess with telecommunications 😀 January 5th, 2026 | 23 comments
And I hope when I next check the news, I discover that we’ve put a missile down Khamenei’s smokestack, and that Putin and his entourage have perished mysteriously in an accident involving an exploding tractor or something. Wouldn’t that make for a great news day. (Given how surprising the news has been so far in 2026, who would be such a fool as to blithely rule that out?) January 3rd, 2026 | 7 comments
Our speech laws are bad enough. But at least they can, in theory, be repealed and amended by members of parliament. NCHIs, by contrast, just bubbled up out of the policing quangocracy. No law was ever passed instructing the police to waste their time like this. But on and on they’ve gone, for more than a decade now. December 29th, 2025 | 12 comments
The Rycroft Review comes as the Head of MI6 has also warned about Russian propaganda and influence operations that “crack open and exploit fractures within societies.” But if the review only confines itself to elections, party finance and overt corruption, it will miss one of the most consequential forms of foreign influence in recent decades: sustained Russian attempts to shape UK energy markets and energy policymaking. It is now unarguable that decisions taken by ministers in the mid-2000s and 2010s left Britain dangerously exposed when gas prices surged in 2021–22. During this period, there were live debates on core questions of energy security: the future of strategic gas storage at Rough (closed down in 2017), nuclear policy, maximising recovery in the North Sea following the Wood Review (2013), the 2015 decision to end coal-fired generation, and the failure to develop UK shale gas. Through a combination of indecision and damaging policy choices, Britain’s exposure to international gas markets increased sharply. December 22nd, 2025 | 16 comments - (Comments are closed)
It almost sticks in the throat if I try to say it out loud but, as a progressive internationalist mugged by reality, I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that the key ordering principle of the success of Poland, and the way forward for the whole of the West, is a healthy dose of inclusive, positive-sum, moderate, calm and confident nationalism. Modern, first world, constructive patriotism. Not so much blood and soil as free-thinking European civilisation and open society, but, importantly, strict on those who refuse to contribute to its maintenance. Some call it muscular liberalism. I am at pains here to draw a sharp contrast between the Polish version of temperate (some call it conservative) nationalism, and Hungary’s pro-Russia and pro-China variant. I also hasten to confirm up high in the article that I am not a sycophant of Poland in any way, and I have not taken any payment or gift from Polish interests. On the contrary, the government officials and ex officials I approached for comment were slightly disturbed by my open admiration and suggestion that Poland should be a leader of Europe in a way that Great Britain and France once were. Indeed, they rushed to point out that Poland, despite doing everything right and getting the best results, is routinely excluded from strategic meetings deciding the future of the continent, usually held between the UK, Germany, France and Italy. They were, alas, too polite to speculate about the reasons for this exclusion. December 19th, 2025 | 17 comments - (Comments are closed)
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