A couple of weeks ago Donald Trump told the Washington Post that America’s contribution to Nato should be scaled back and other richer European nations should do more. 42% of First Verdict panel members agreed with that view when we tested the issue immediately afterwards but, very slightly more, 45% disagreed. Mr Trump added to […]
Donald Trump claims he will destroy ISIS, but his approach would be a major victory for ISIS’s efforts to encourage terrorism at home and abroad. Speaking to Face the Nation on Sunday, Trump clarified his earlier pro-torture comments, laying out his anti-ISIS strategy. Trump argued that the US has to “play the game the way […]
In his eye-opening BBC interview with Andrew Marr on Sunday, Jeremy Corbyn further underscored why he would be a disaster as British Prime Minister if he ever took the reins of Downing Street. In addition to his ludicrous argument that Britain’s Trident nuclear submarines should patrol the seas without actually being armed with nuclear weapons, […]
One possible explanation for the ongoing meltdown of Labour’s defence policy is that the Tory Chancellor George Osborne won the right to run in it the Westminster Christmas raffle. It certainly looks as though the opposition’s defence review is being conducted with a Conservative landslide at the next general election in mind. Labour leader Jeremy […]
On the night of 29th December 1940, seventy five years ago today, the newspaper photographer Herbert Mason was working in Fleet Street on what was to prove the heaviest night of the Blitz. In a few hours the Luftwaffe poured more than 24,000 high explosive bombs and 100,000 incendiaries onto the City of London and surrounding […]
It has become a catechism of the anti-war movement that bombing should always be opposed as it only creates more victims and makes any situation worse. The curious logic – which I first recall having explained to me by an activist leafleting ahead of Desert Storm, the liberation of Kuwait a quarter of a century ago […]
Ethnic minorities remain severely underrepresented among British military officers. New figures released by the Ministry of Defence have shown that just 20 black and 25 asian officers are serving in the Royal Navy out of a total of around 7,000. While the MoD publicly reports that 2.3 per cent of British military officers are BME, […]
The idea seems to have taken hold that pro-war MPs cheered in the Commons the other night when the result of the vote was announced. Partly it is down to MPs, such as the SNP’s Mhairi Black, who tweeted: “Will never forget the noise of some Labour and Tory cheering together at the idea of […]
The House of Commons does these debates well. The cases for and against intervention in Syria have been ably rehearsed, and I have learned things that I didn’t previously know. With a handful of exceptions, the speeches on both sides were measured, judicious and informative. I have wavered back and forth on Syrian intervention, envying […]
Following the horrific and tragic events in Paris the House of Commons is considering today whether it should commit to airstrikes in Syria, in order to combat the threat posed by ISIS. As the times’ current agent of evil, it is necessary that action be taken to eliminate this barbaric threat to civilization. That being […]
British bombers will likely strike ISIS targets in Syria before the end of this week if Parliament votes in favour on Wednesday. This is the right message to send in the wake of the barbaric Islamist terrorist attacks on Paris last month which claimed at least 130 lives. The House of Commons debate follows the […]
There is not much to praise in Labour’s handling of the Syria vote. I won’t recount the full extent of the shambles here because it falls into the life is too short category. But at least Labour is having an argument and allowing a free vote, which reflects the moral complexity of the situation. Labour […]
There can be no doubt as to the robustness of the response of the French government to the terrorist attacks of last month. A contact who works with François Hollande in the Elysée Palace says that the atmosphere there is one of “great calm” and that, for all the horror of what has happened, the […]
One of the least convincing aspects of the current discussion in the UK about whether or not British firepower should be deployed in the bombing of ISIS in Syria is the invoking of the 1930s analogy by armchair generals. Neville Chamberlain always gets a bad press in these situations, whenever conflict is mooted, as though […]
This is the weekly newsletter from Iain Martin, editor of CapX. To receive it by email every Friday, along with a short daily email of our top five stories, please subscribe here. Another day, another attack by Islamist fascists in their war on innocents who do nothing more provocative than check into a hotel, go […]
On the plus side – they’re a bunch of losers who are going to lose. On the negative side – it’ll take some time, and another version of IS will take their place unless the ideology which underpins their fanaticism is diluted. To do this, even while military action is ongoing, we must stop saying […]
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