The immigration wars engulfing politics in Britain are roaring on. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s pledge to “stop the boats” carrying asylum seekers across the English Channel is facing stiff opposition within his own party. Last week, former Prime Minister Theresa…
Augustus Welby Pugin (1812–1852) is in the news these days in the United Kingdom because he designed the iconic London Clock Tower, popularly known as “Big Ben,” whose scaffolding has now come down after five years to reopen this spring….
As a practicing Anglophile, heavy TV news consumer, and borderline insomniac, there was no chance that I would miss the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. The 4 a.m. ET start of coverage was less a deterrent than a lure. I…
Washington — The enormous outpouring of affection for Queen Elizabeth II has recently demonstrated to the world that monarchy is not dead. Now attention will turn to King Charles III, and we shall see how he will do. As I…
Three months ago, colorful crowds caroused in the streets of London as the queen stepped onto the Buckingham Palace balcony to celebrate her 70th year on the throne. Today, the streets are quiet, grey, and bleak. A cloud of melancholy…
Shortly after taking over as the new U.K. prime minister, Liz Truss announced plans to fight inflation by capping household energy prices over the next two years. Blimey! Billed as the most free-market prime minister since Margaret Thatcher, Truss’s first…
The Turning Point: 1851 — A Year That Changed Charles Dickens and the World By Robert Douglas-Fairhurst (Knopf, 368 pages, $30) 1851 was not only a pivotal year in the professional and personal life of the legendary writer Charles Dickens,…
For the second weekend in a row, I observed a phenomenon that signaled a major rightward shift in the political-cultural axis. The previous weekend brought the enormous box-office success of Top Gun: Maverick, which came as a shock to everyone…
An 18-year-old British man who identifies as non-binary claims he was kicked out of a luxury dress shop last week while trying on prom dresses in the fitting room. The man, Charlie Moore, said he visited the retailer alongside his…
