The Joy of Curmudgeonry

“All manly peoples today have a bad name; the Prussians are the prototype. In the interregnum, however, it is not mothers but hermaphrodites...

“We have fought wars, indulged in regicide and had a glorious revolution in order to rid us of the religio-political tyranny of divine right...

“The amazing thing, in a world where a single mis-tap on Google shows us how vast, complex and miscellaneous is the human sexual instinct, i...

“Most hold it for a metamorphosis when they shed a false beard.” [“Die meisten halten es für eine Metamorphose, wenn sie einen falschen Bar...

“All we’ve got to do is wait a few generations. At which point there won’t be any ‘races’ to have any problems about.” [1] It is no shock ...

The common man is never so clever as the politician says and never so stupid as the politician believes.

“They spoke much of tolerance , because they needed the very same for themselves, but already at that time there was no-one more intolerant ...

“The suicide bombers’ targeting was deliberately provocative — and the Russian authorities’ response is equally predictable”. [1] If predic...

Highlights . On BBC Radio Four this week: Did immigration transform Britain by accident? [1] Continuing a series of programmes raising imp...

“Don’t believe the worst that you hear about South Africa,” reads a tagline to an article at Comment is Free . [1] Truly, so as not to let ...

There has been raised a horde of men, if so honorific a title may still be retained for them, who cry out “sky-fairy!” whenever they hear th...

Some liberals say that, in order to defend the West, we must defend “western values”, by which they mean “liberal values”, by which I unders...

“[W]e are pitted against an enemy swathed in religious and political certitude and we have only the ghost of a notion to sustain us: the not...

“The political buffoons who want to rule us cannot even revolt properly.” [“Nicht einmal mehr richtig putschen können die politischen Hans...

It is funny when ministers and parliamentarians make a promise of treating the voting public like grown-ups and responsible adults; it is ju...

“I am very happy to affirm that I am not a giant expert on climate change: I know a bit, and I know that there’s not yet been a giant global...