Whoever designed this summer’s cricket programme must have had a sly sense of humour. Immediately after the newest, brashest form of the game, the World Twenty20, comes the oldest, most traditional contest of all: an Ashes series between England and Australia comprising five five-day Test matches, starting in Cardiff on Wednesday. White clothes, red balls and ancient rituals of lunch and tea replace the coloured costumes, white balls and dancing [...]

Daniel Finkelstein, a Times columnist and a former director of the Conservative Research Department, writes: “I am a neocon . . . It declares my belief in two things – that in every country . . . whatever its traditions, the people yearn for liberty, for free expression and for democracy; and that the spread of liberty and democracy . . . is the only real way to bring peace [...]

I do not care whether the Iraq inquiry is held in public or private. It is a waste of time and money. Like, I would guess, most NS readers, I think Tony Blair and his aides decided to follow US instructions, distorted the intelligence, and prepared inadequately for the consequences of overthrowing Saddam Hussein. Blair should have been forced from office, and possibly indicted as a war criminal, once it [...]

Less than a year ago, we all speculated about whether capitalism would survive. Now, after the elections to the European Parliament, social democracy seems in more danger. Bankers, hedge-fund managers and the like have already picked themselves up and started to behave as if nothing had happened. The lavish bonuses are undisturbed, bank share prices are surging and, soon, the champagne will be flowing again.

Yes, there is a price [...]

In the 1620s, Charles I warned that the nation faced being “assailed and swallowed up by a vigilant and powerful enemy”. To defend “the common safety of us and our people”, he imposed a compulsory loan on his subjects, and men who refused to pay were arrested and held without charge, reason or evidence. And if they brought a writ of habeas corpus, the attorney general argued, and the court [...]

I suppose, when you think about it, government by celebrity is sooner or later inevitable. All parties seek celebrity endorsements at elections, and the other day Gordon Brown attached his name to a letter signed by the likes of Ross Kemp, Eddie Izzard and Phil Neville, imploring people not to vote BNP. It has also become impossible for anybody to consider action on world poverty and disease without assistance from [...]

Those who quote Cromwell’s “In the name of God, go!” miss an important point: Cromwell replaced the Rump Parliament with an assembly of nominated placemen, setting himself on the road to dictatorship. Is that what we want now?

In fact, both Houses of Parliament are already composed very largely of nominees, with democracy providing just a veneer of legitimacy. Membership of the House of Commons is heavily determined by the [...]

Whenever it is suggested that MPs’ expenses be cut, someone – usually a sitting MP – insists there must be a compensating rise in salary. Otherwise, it is said in grave, hushed tones, accompanied by those facial expressions of concern that politicians do so badly, people of modest means would be barred from the Commons. This is the opposite of the truth. By paying what to most people is [...]

My answer to those who say that, because of the Iraq War or the widening gap between rich and poor or whatever, they cannot bring themselves to vote for another Labour government is always as follows. Don’t just think of the government; ask yourself what kind of people you want on the majority benches of the House of Commons. Surely it is better to have MPs whose instincts are to [...]

I am sorry to rain on Joanna Lumley’s parade, but I have rarely heard such piffle as she and others offered in support of the Gurkhas.

As no MP dared mention, the Gurkhas are mercenaries. They don’t fight “for love of Britain and Her Majesty” (to use a soundbite favoured by their supporters), any more than South African cricket mercenaries play for, say, Leicestershire for love of the county’s [...]