At a news conference regarding agricultural policy on the 12th of August 1986, Ronald Reagan delivered one of his most recognisable quips satirising the organisation he had been elected to lead two years prior: “I think you all know that I've always felt the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help”. Given the enduring appeal of this line for so-called libertarians and free-marketeers, the words that followed Reagan

I first read Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis the year I turned fourteen. I’m sure, at that age, a lot of her prose had gone over my head; rich musings which described intricate political theory were as understandable to me as a foreign language. Her accompanying black and white illustrations of a childhood and early adulthood spent in post-Islamic Revolution Tehran had stood out to me the most – a powerful amalgamation of religious conflict, gender politics and punk music. I rev

Political change is sweeping Europe. Nigel is rising in Great Britain. Peter replaced Viktor in Hungary. Macron is on his way out in France. Populism – defined by “people” vs. “elites”, distrust of institutions, and moral absolutism – is the connecting theme. Yet that populism is present in Northern Ireland too, which is odd for two reasons. First, the power-sharing institutions require party-opposites on the constitutional question to cooperate on delivering significant cha

Scotland votes in the nationalists for a fifth straight time, but nobody seems too happy about it. A pro-independence majority, made up of the SNP and the Scottish Greens, looks increasingly like a majority of arithmetic over conviction. The SNP didn’t win this, the other parties simply failed to capture the imagination of the country. The Tories’ vote collapsed into Reform, Scottish Labour was weighed down by its incredibly unpopular Westminster government, and the Greens ho

The UK awoke this week to news stories of demonstrations and agitation in the capital alongside a review of the overrunning and overspending on the HS2 rail project. These seemingly disparate stories tell another story, however, when linked together. In part, the reason we have creaking sclerotic bureaucracy capable of blowing £100bn on – well, it is hard to say what exactly is being delivered in return – is the same reason extremist groups are able to galvanise large number