Notes on recent events

Fatherhood, jihadist attacks, the pros and cons of populism, why the term 'woke right' should be dropped, Israel/Palestine, Trump, and a smattering of other matters.

Hello!

This post is a roundup of my recent Substack ‘notes’ (if you’re unsure what they are, see the ‘What are notes?’ section at the bottom).

UPDATES

A couple of updates before we get down to business.

My second kid, a son, was born a month ago. He’s chilled out, healthy, and generally amazing. He spends his time gazing at the world around him, feeding, napping, and occasionally screaming: in other words, in much the same way that I do when I’m in the office. If you’re wondering why I’ve been posting very slightly less frequently, that’s your answer. Bear with me.

On the Substack front, this page now has nearly 7,000 followers. That’s nuts — thanks a lot.

ROUNDUP OF RECENT NOTES

Here’s a screenshot of a note I wrote last week. There are links to many more set out below it.

Notes on British politics

Here’s one containing a clip from perhaps the most South Park-esque interview of all time with Kemi Badenoch, the Leader of the Opposition. In it, the hosts grill her about Adolescence — a fictional show — and the need to tackle ‘misogyny’ and ‘radicalisation’, while ignoring her attempts to discuss real, brutal, and ongoing crimes against women and girls that undermine a ‘liberal’ ideological narrative. And here’s another one, also containing footage from that interview. If you’re interested in understanding why people are fed up with the BBC, give them a watch.

Here’s one on Labour quietly and predictably announcing they’ll be shelving even minimal local inquiries into the predominantly Muslim rape gangs that have plagued Britain. At the beginning of the year I wrote a detailed essay on that scandal, which is packed full of hard evidence. You can read it here. It’s worth watching the video included in this note to get a feel for the truly Maoist way in which discussion of these nightmarish events was shut down by so-called ‘progressives’ for many years. Unforgivable.

Here’s one on the spread of Islamic sectarianism and extremism within the British prison system. And here’s one on a brutal assault on three prison guards by Hashem Abedi, whose brother carried out the bombing of an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester that killed 22 people and injured over 1000. I come to the controversial conclusion that we should stop letting murderous jihadist inmates access blades and saucepans full of boiling butter.

Here’s one on a Muslim mufti who allegedly invited a Saudi cleric—known for calling Jews ‘pigs’ and praying for their ‘termination’—to speak at his school, and has now been made interim chair of Ofsted’s board. For context, Ofsted is the body that oversees the entire British school system. Something about his appointment makes me uncomfortable, I can’t quite put my finger on what…maybe I’m just being a far right Jewpig.

Here’s one on the horrific murder of Salwan Momika, an ex-Muslim and critic of Islam. And here’s one containing a staggering video of another ‘blasphemer’ getting attacked by a knife-wielding Muslim man in London shortly afterwards.

Here’s one on an investigation which found that massive ‘pro-Palestine’ marches were being organised while the October 7 pogrom was still in progress, and before Israel had even responded.

Notes on US, European, and world politics

Here’s one on why I think the phrase ‘woke right’ makes no sense and should be dropped. Here’s another one on the same topic.

Here’s one on the rise of the conspiratorial, antisemitic hard right, and what it might mean for the conservative movement more broadly (I’ve written quite a few notes on this - for more see here, here, here and here).

Here’s one on the failings of, and problems with, various populist and right wing movements, and how it feels to be torn between almost diametrically opposed political positions.

Here’s one on the Trump administration’s policies vis-à-vis free speech and the Civil Right Act at universities, and the hypocritical response to those policies in leftist academic and media circles.

Here’s one on Mahmoud Khalil being deported. And here’s another one.

Here’s one on how to avoid starting a war with Israel (hint: don’t break into the country and run around murdering everyone).

Here’s one on why you’re not crazy for suspecting that news outlets whose CEOs tweet things like ‘America is addicted to white supremacy’ are not absolutely neutral arbiters of objective truth.

Here’s one on Marine Le Pen being banned from running for office for five years, and ‘lawfare’ more broadly.

Here’s one that lists out all the jihadist atrocities that took place in Europe over a one week period.

Here’s one on the frauds trying to pretend they were always against woke excesses now that the groupthink has shifted, despite having literally built careers by being its most fanatical enforcers. I wrote a couple of twitter threads on this topic that went pretty viral (nearly 1 million views!), you can find them here and here. As a bonus, here’s a related twitter post on why it’s so uniquely unbearable when people fake their accents.

Here’s one on the situation in Syria.

One major subject that is conspicuously absent from my commentary is tariffs. The reason for this is that, put frankly, I’m not clear what I think about them, and am not confident that I can accurately evaluate their likely impact or provide any real insight at this stage.

ESSAYS

I have written three essays since my last roundup in November.

On ‘grooming’ (read: rape) gangs

Daniel Penny and moral inversion (this was syndicated in Spiked here)

Why Trump won

FUTURE PLANS

At the moment, not least because I get roughly five minutes of sleep a night and spend all my free time powerlifting bags of nappies, my main focus is ensuring I continue to put out regular notes and essays. But once I’m no longer in paternity leave mode I’m hoping to begin expanding the page by (among other things) restarting the podcast I used to host, setting up an interview series, and hosting exclusive chats for paid subscribers. Feel free to leave any other suggestions in the comments.

WHAT ARE NOTES?

(N.B. You can skip this section if you already know the answer)

I write articles and essays on here as and when I can. Like this one, these get sent straight to your email inbox.

Notes, however, do not get sent to your inbox — they only show up in your Substack ‘feed’. That means that unless you use the Substack app or website quite regularly, you probably don’t see them.

You can find them under the ‘notes’ tab at the top of the newsletter homepage - see image below.

If you do feel like supporting my work, why not consider upgrading to a paid subscription? They are a huge help. As a paid subscriber you’ll get full access to all of my essays, and comment rights on every note.