The UK is a country which, despite being one of the least racist countries in the world, obsesses about whether it’s racist or not. Camille Long: How racist are we, as a country? It is a question we ask ourselves again and again. We ask it of footballers, of politicians, of actors; we ask it…

Hadley Freeman drops a serious point into her “how to be better in 2026” Sunday Times column – Feel free to talk about antisemitism when there is antisemitism: Two days after the Bondi Beach massacre last month, in which 15 Jews were murdered during a Chanukkah celebration because they were Jewish, a guest on the Today programme made this…

Tom Harris in the Telegraph on Bridget Phillipson’s reluctance to enforce the Supreme Court ruling: “Trans people must not be used as a political punchbag,” she said recently. What is obvious from her few public comments on the subject is that the minister has fallen into the trap so neatly set for her by trans…

Well yes – what happens next is the big question. No tears lost over Maduro, but…. Freddy Gray in the Spectator: Few will mourn the departure of Maduro – a left-wing tyrant whose regime has grown ever more corrupt and oppressive as the years have gone by. Venezuela is a gangsterish system in which citizens…

Jeremy Bowen makes the news again. The BBC has apologised and compensated an Israeli family who survived the 7 October attack after a film crew entered their destroyed home without consent. Days after the attack, a BBC crew led by senior correspondent Jeremy Bowen, arrived in Netiv HaAsara, a small village on the Gaza border…

The thorny old question: are we just being polite when we talk about Islamism – violent, supremacist, antisemitic to its core – as opposed to Islam? I do it myself, using “Islamism” or “Islamist” to refer to the latest atrocity. But is there really a nice tolerant Islam that can be distinguished from nasty Islamism…

Khaled Hassan, in the Telegraph – As an Egyptian, I know this truth: deranged anti-Semitism is normal in the Arab world. For the past 14 years, my professional life has been dedicated to a single discipline: mitigating risk. In this field, one anticipates the usual obstacles – a scarcity of resources, a failure to grasp…

Paul Ovenden, former director of strategy for Keir Starmer, on how the El-Fattah affair is just the latest in a long string of fringe campaigns that have captured Whitehall. In the Times: What I knew of his plight during my time in government was largely down to his status as a cause célèbre beloved of…

Once again legal bureaucracy triumphs over plain morality and common sense. From the Telegraph: An Islamist killer who took a prison officer hostage and demanded the release of hate preacher Abu Qatada has won a £240,000 battle over taxpayer-funded compensation and legal costs. David Lammy, the Justice Secretary, has agreed to pay £7,500 in compensation…