It takes a lot of trauma to invoke a historic naval defeat such as Trafalgar as a metaphor for a diplomatic reversal.

When Pope Francis visited Hungary recently, he couldn’t leave fast enough. But the Hungarian Prime Minister used the occasion to remind the Pontiff that the defense of national borders is neither unprecedented nor “immature.”

Rats crawling under a Périphérique underpass at Porte de Bagnolet. Graffitied cement cubes serving as the bases for traffic lights

Unionism has long been a negative creed—it has defined itself by being opposed to things—while her opponents appear, by contrast, progressive and modern. To win hearts and minds, unionists need to make a positive case for the union of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. But today Ulster’s unionists appear more disunited and demoralized than at any time in the last century.

After years of chasing Islamic extremists, however, Western governments and their intelligence services, as well as the mainstream media, today seem to have broadened the scope of what they mean by “extremism” to encompass all ideologies, philosophies, and political movements that are somehow deemed “too dangerous” to exist. And these, according to them, are increasingly found on the Right. 

When the COVID-19 pandemic first broke out, the WHO amazed many by brazenly prioritizing the Chinese Communist Party’s political interests over the health of the world’s population.

The manipulations of the Left are easy to avoid if one does not try to prove one’s virtue using social media.

There is no indication that David French has ever visited Hungary, but the idea that leading figures of an American political movement in which he no longer possesses even a crumb of influence or credibility feels affinity for that country clearly angers and frightens him.

It seems obvious that Russia, as it is now, cannot be an ally of the West. Perhaps in the future the Ukrainian government will be able to rebuild proper relations with Russia while protecting its boundaries. But this currently seems doubtful.

Fear of nature will rule every meaningful decision regarding life and death. Viruses and climate change will justify continued social isolation and an increasingly totalitarian government.

Conservatives and hippies would do well to recognise and foster the relationship that already exists between them. Strength in numbers and all that.

No amount of flag-wagging by uncouth or brutish xenophobes will reverse, or even oppose, the wilful undoing of an entire culture.