Political commentator; Scotland on Sunday columnist.
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Articles by Gerald Warner
Looney Tunes Democrats in shock as The Donald wins bigly
“Joy cometh in the morning!” Er – if you say so, Madam Vice-President. It just seems a slightly elusive commodity in the Democratic party at this hour. To the casual observer, it might appear that America’s fantasy-enslaved Democratic party has finally been forced to confront reality, but that is not the case.
Budget Day: rolling applause as Rosa Klebb addresses the Supreme Soviet
If you want to view the House of Commons in its most quintessential incarnation, giving free expression to the characteristics that have made it the focus of intense emotions (which it would be indecent to define) on the part of the British public, you could not do better than watch the pantomime of Budget Day.
Georgia's politics are warped by a delusory view of the EU
A joint observer mission from the OSCE, Council of Europe, European Parliament and NATO described the situation on polling day as “marred by an uneven playing field, pressure, and tension”. It is only fair to add that, since the main issue in the election was the opposition parties’ desire to promote Georgia’s entry into the EU as opposed to the ruling party’s more cautious objective not to provoke Russia, EU observers cannot be regarded as totally objective.
Labour’s two-tier scandal could finally bury the special relationship
Political scandals come in two varieties. The first is the straightforward discovery of chicanery exercised in a particular context, with an evident nefarious purpose, by perpetrators exposed to public scrutiny. The second is a two-tier scandal which, at first, appears to belong to the category already described, but on closer scrutiny turns out to have a further dimension, with more serious ramifications than the initial revelations. The Profumo affair was an example of this second category.
Starmer may create a Jurassic Park and revive the SNP dinosaur
The Starmer government, even so early in its term, is showing every symptom of being an administration doomed to heavy punishment by the law of unintended consequences. Its purblind determination to rush through doctrinaire policies on issues such as energy, to adhere to unrealistic deadlines and to ignore warnings of the possible adverse consequences of tax hikes, all point to a government riding for a fall.
Starmer may create a Jurassic Park and revive the SNP dinosaur
The Starmer government, even so early in its term, is showing every symptom of being an administration doomed to heavy punishment by the law of unintended consequences. Its purblind determination to rush through doctrinaire policies on issues such as energy, to adhere to unrealistic deadlines and to ignore warnings of the possible adverse consequences of tax hikes, all point to a government riding for a fall.
Kamala Harris’s car-crash Fox interview shows she’s not fit to lead the free world
“Madam President, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army has opened its ICBM silos. We estimate they can launch within ten minutes. As commander-in-chief, what are your orders?” “Look, I grew up in a middle-class family, we didn’t have much, but our neighbours’ lawns were manicured – the real threat to democracy is Donald Trump.” “President Harris, ma’am, will you authorise launch of interceptor missiles?
Alex Salmond: a clever career but a toxic legacy
The death of a politician is guaranteed to provoke a frenzy of tributes and hagiography. On the part of his devoted followers, it is sincere; in the case of his rivals and opponents, it is often hypocrisy, performed to placate public opinion and to conceal relief that a competitor is no longer a threat. In other words, it is a posthumous continuation of the dark art of politics, executed on the same calculations as obtained when the departed was still active in the public square.
Alex Salmond: a clever career but a toxic legacy
The death of a politician is guaranteed to provoke a frenzy of tributes and hagiography. On the part of his devoted followers, it is sincere; in the case of his rivals and opponents, it is often hypocrisy, performed to placate public opinion and to conceal relief that a competitor is no longer a threat. In other words, it is a posthumous continuation of the dark art of politics, executed on the same calculations as obtained when the departed was still active in the public square.
Starmer and his sleaze-ridden rabble are not fit to govern
So farewell then, Sue Gray. Keir Starmer’s sacking of the woman who allegedly mapped out the plan for his first months of government (Baldrick could have done better), who acted as his gatekeeper and appeared to alienate everyone in Number 10, down to Larry the cat, has departed on an important mission as Starmer’s envoy to the nations and regions.
Time may be up for Tehran's terror-sponsoring ayatollahs
For a third time, Israeli troops have entered Lebanon, as the latest escalation in the current round of Arab-Israeli conflict initiated on 7 October last year. In fact it has, for the past 45 years, been inaccurate and misleading to employ the term “Arab-Israeli” to the impasse in the Middle East, since the prime instigator of terrorism and war is a non-Arab nation: Iran.
Reform is going from strength to strength
“The return of the sausages”: Keir Starmer accurately characterised the Labour conference, a collection of freeloaders, deadbeat socialists and “progressive” zealots, with a sizeable representation of human hamburgers from the trade union movement. If the platform party was unprecedentedly well dressed, it had Lord Alli to thank for that.
Starmer’s government of service turns out to be self service
Service. That is the leitmotif of the Starmer regime. “This is a government of service.” The British public was repelled by the sleaze attached to the previous administration, from Partygate to Bookiegate. Sir Keir Starmer shared that disgust: when Boris Johnson splashed out £88,000 to install golden wallpaper in 11 Downing Street, the humble toolmaker’s son denounced him as “mired in sleaze, cronyism and scandal”.
Germany and France are twin examples of the EU's dramatic decline
Brexiteers may be watching with suspicion and dismay as Keir Starmer, the fanatical Remainer who wanted Britain to vote a second time on leaving the European Union (and to come up with the correct answer when revisiting the polling stations), has made no delay in initiating his scheme for a “reset” (code for regression) in UK relations with the EU. Their suspicion is well justified, but not their dismay.
Surrendering the strategically crucial Chagos Islands to China's ally would be a dangerous mistake
Daily, we see growing evidence of the extent to which crass virtue-signalling priorities, both among governments and large corporations, are inflicting serious harm on national and economic interests from the squandering of taxpayers’ money on net zero, to the ravages of discredited ESG and DEI intrusions upon businesses.
RFK Jr has exposed the Democrats as deeply undemocratic
“In the name of democracy, the Democratic party has set itself to dismantling it.
Putin plays chess on the South Caucacasus chequerboard
If anyone thinks it strange that Vladimir Putin should have visited Azerbaijan this week, while an enemy army is advancing on Russian soil, the answer is that it suited his narrative perfectly to go to the Azeri capital of Baku, for that very reason. Although the visit was arranged in advance, Putin will have regarded it as fortuitous.
Elon Musk's victory against GARM is a big win for online freedom
It is difficult these days, in any area of human existence, not to encounter Elon Musk. Suddenly, the richest man in the world has become ubiquitous. His energetic presence is increasingly making itself felt, to the displeasure of those who had assumed they had carved out for themselves unassailable niches of authority and now find themselves challenged by one of the few men on earth with the material resources to combat the power blocs that globalist entities have constructed.
Venezuela's crisis is just part of Latin America's leftist myth
At the end of the 20th century, three Latin Americans – the Colombian writer Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza, the Cuban writer Carlos Alberto Montaner and the Peruvian writer Álvaro Vargas Llosa, son of the famous novelist, collaborated to produce a book entitled Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot. The work was an epic denunciation of the cult of the Latin American messianic strongman and its supporters, at home and abroad.
Blasphemy: the latest olympic event as the games lose their way
The blasphemous parody of the Last Supper, deeply offensive to Christians, featured at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris, marked a new level of aggression in the cultural Marxist attack on Christianity. Even by the standards of recent demonstrations of hatred and vulgarity, this was an outrage.
If Labour rejects the principle of hereditary passage, it must abhor the monarchy
There are moments in parliamentary politics when the hypocrisy and lack of self-awareness of its practitioners are encapsulated in a single act of monumental contradiction. Such a moment occurred at the recent State Opening of Parliament, when the announcement that the remaining 92 hereditary peers would lose their seats in the House of Lords was read out by the occupant of the 93rd hereditary seat in that chamber: the throne.
The Tory modernisers' project has reached completion
“The thunder had long grumbled in the air; and yet when the bolt fell, most of our party appeared as much surprised as if they had had no reason to expect it.” In those words, Henry St John, Viscount Bolingbroke, the Tory leader and philosopher of Queen Anne’s reign, described the confusion and passivity with which his party allowed itself to be destroyed when the long-foreseen death of the Queen in 1714 enabled the Whigs to execute a coup d’état, on the model of 1688, and implement the...
Nigel Farage and Reform have changed UK politics forever
“They have nowhere else to go”. For generations, that was the smug mantra of self-reassurance uttered by Tory grandees as they promoted some initiative that was a slap in the face to their constituents and supporters, their interests, hopes, ideals and principles. So ingrained was the aversion of Conservative voters to Labour that Tory MPs could confidently implement leftist policies in the entitled expectation that their resentful voters would have no alternative but to return them to office.
First Past the Post has delegitimised British governance
When British politicians begin to spout a lot of empty rhetoric about “democracy”, it is a sure and certain sign that an election campaign is under way and that the weasels who have spent five years defying the public will and destroying the country are groping for a mantra to distract attention from their criminal mismanagement. “Democracy”, as a cynical slogan rather than a political reality, is the last refuge of the scoundrel.
To Scots, a UK election is now as remote as an EU election
Is the general election getting you down? Do you feel your mental health is threatened by the relentless proliferation of election news on television, online and in the print media? Is the wall-to-wall chatter about polls, NHS funding and internal party strife causing you, heedless of the state of the piggy-bank, to consider taking a continental break (not in equally election-ridden France, obviously) to preserve your sanity and get away from it all? In that case, calm down.
As the EU moves right, how long can Labour remain remainer?
It was Matt, the Daily Telegraph cartoonist, who most accurately captured the significance of the European Union elections, showing his classic British bungalow-dwelling couple commenting: “If the EU moves any further to the right Nigel Farage will want to rejoin it.” In fact, the more realistic corollary to that hypothesis is: how long can Labour maintain its aspiration to rejoin a Union that is rapidly moving far to the right of Keir Starmer’s leftist comfort zone?
The problem is not just the SNP but the disaster of devolution
Subscribe to Reaction here. The departure of Humza Yousaf from office as First Minister of Scotland was as gruesome and embarrassing as every moment throughout his occupation of the post. It was clear from Yousaf’s demeanour at the Bute House podium that he felt humbled to deliver an announcement more significant than the abdication broadcast of Edward VIII and that he was weighed down by the awareness of the magnitude of his place in history.
The cashless society: a dystopian loss of privacy and personal autonomy
“You’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy”. That aphorism which, in every context except the lives of voluntarily enclosed monks and nuns belonging to contemplative religious orders, invites scepticism originated in a video published in 2016 by the World Economic Forum (WEF). The video was a summary of an essay written by Ida Auken, a Danish politician, originally entitled “Welcome to 2030.
Brussels' forced closure of NatCon conference ends "democratic" pretences
The forced closure of the National Conservatism Conference in Brussels by Belgian police on Tuesday, acting on the orders of Emir Kir, the socialist mayor of the municipality of Sint-Josse, is a landmark moment in the advance of leftist tyranny, intolerance and suppression of free speech in the Western world. It crosses a new red line in the Left’s increasingly shameless and aggressive drive to deny public expression to any opinions that contradict the cultural Marxist consensus.
The King recognises the need to restore beauty to our environment
“There is a deep human need for beauty and, if you ignore that need in architecture, your buildings will not last.” So wrote the late Sir Roger Scruton, a philosopher gifted with an exceptional insight into the significance of aesthetics and their influence upon the human character. He might have added that not only would such buildings not last, but neither would the communities they were supposed to serve.
The referendum must become a vehicle for British democracy
Richard Tice and his Reform UK party have sent another shiver of dismay running up the Tory spine (or would have, if such an anatomical item existed) and that of the rest of the political class, as part of their programme. Reform is demanding a Brexit-style poll on the lunatic 2050 climate target. In doing so, it is driving a further wedge into the crumbling authority of the elites, aimed at their systemic power base.
The Shroud of Turin: scientists explore secrets of one of the world's most enigmatic objects
Holy Week is the obvious time to consider what we know so far about one of the most enigmatic objects in the world, the Holy Shroud of Turin, alleged by some to be the burial cloth of Christ. Modern scholarship has increasingly opted to examine it in conjunction with the other claimed sepulchral object associated with Christ, the Sudarium of Oviedo.
Milei's economic chainsaw massacre has significance far beyond Argentia
When Javier Milei first swam into the consciousness of global media, proclaiming the gospel of free markets, tousle-headed and wielding a chainsaw, he was regarded as good copy, but a libertarian eccentric of no serious political significance. Today, he is president of Argentina and he began this year by providing economically basket-case Argentina with its first monthly budget surplus in 12 years, and the first surplus for the month of January since 2011.
Ireland's referendum results signal seismic change
It is a measure of how fast political control is slipping away from the elites that, over a period of just four days, the Irish government was heavily defeated in two referenda designed to progress its liberal agenda, the right-wing Chega party increased its number of parliamentary seats from 12 to 48 in the Portuguese general election and Lee Anderson defected from the Conservative Party to Reform UK.
The Tory modernisers' project approaches annihilation
Who is advising him? Who on earth is giving advice to Rishi Sunak? Who thought it was a good idea to send the Prime Minister out to stand isolated, in darkness, on a wet street, behind the lectern that everybody knows he will stand behind within a few months to concede defeat and resignation – to describe as “beyond alarming” the winning of a by-election by a man who could be mistaken for one of the Blues Brothers? Already a subscriber? Login to your account Continue Reading Already a subscriber?
Time for a peace deal in Ukraine before it's too late
“This month marks the second anniversary of the war in Ukraine,” some commentators have been chorusing over the past week. In the phraseology of rebuttal favoured in the recently ended pantomime season: “Oh, no, it doesn’t!” We have just been noting the second anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine, not of the war there, which dates from 2014. We shall mark (or, more likely, ignore) its tenth anniversary in April. Already a subscriber? Login to your account Continue Reading Already a subscriber?
Labour may now follow the Tories into unelectability
First one legacy party made itself unelectable, now the other is following suit. The Tweedledum/Tweedledee see-saw of Conservative and Labour which, over the past three-quarters of a century of complacent managed decline, has brought Britain to its present state is coming to an end.
The brief reign of the slimmed-down monarchy is over
As reigns go, that of the British nuclear monarchy, the minimalist “slimmed-down” institution dreamed up by the present King, was exceptionally brief. It was never feasible, but even those of us who knew it was impractical did not expect it to implode quite so quickly.
We must abandon the net zero cult or face ruination
“Do we continue down this path to ruin? Or do we finally wake up and prioritise true British energy security?” That condemnation of the lunacy known as net zero was voiced by Craig Mackinlay, MP, chairman of the Net Zero Scrutiny Group in the House of Commons. Since it is increasingly rare for the voice of sanity to emanate from the Westminster asylum, Mackinlay’s words were welcome, but almost certainly futile. Continue Reading Already a subscriber?
Davos man is a fossil: reality is about to dethrone the elites
Davos Man is an increasingly disregarded fossil, dating from the Palaeolithic period of aspiring global social control. This year’s assembly of the Entitled at the World Economic Forum was the most subdued in the 54 years’ history of that circus. Even its theme was uncharacteristically defensive: “Rebuilding Trust.” Continue Reading Already a subscriber?
Iowa may be first step on Trump’s long march back to the White House
It begins. More accurately, it has begun. In fact, in Iowa, it is already over. The quadrennial turmoil and madness that attends an American presidential election commences with the primaries or caucuses that enable voters, not to select a president, but to choose a presidential candidate to carry their party’s colours in the November election.
Postmastergate: Britain's Dreyfus case exposes the failure of elites and legacy parties
“They didn’t realise they were playing with my life, a mum’s life, a wife’s life. Even someone with a heart of steel wouldn’t do that. They cannot be human, and yet they kept doing it.
America must reverse the infantilisation of its universities
During April and May 1945, American troops liberated a number of Nazi concentration camps, including Buchenwald, Dachau and Mauthausen. What those soldiers witnessed there, recounted in letters home and broadcast in newsreel film, gave the American public a traumatic insight into the depths of human depravity and the ultimate consequences of promoting a cult of anti-Semitism.
Christianity before the first Christmas
Two years ago, my Christmas feature on Reaction was an examination of recent scientific developments in determining the correct date of Christ’s birth, with the most state-of-the-art research arriving at 25 December, 1 BC as the likeliest candidate, leaving a gap of just one week before the commencement of the Christian era. That is a smaller discrepancy in the Gregorian calendar calculation than had long been allowed for, both by the Church and scientists.
The SNP budget is a further stumble towards failed statehood
And it’s disaster for Scotland… If anyone wanted, for illustrative purposes, to devise a caricature scenario of the worst kind of fiscal policy that would destroy an economy, that template would be the latest devolved Scottish budget. It fits in seamlessly with all the other far-left policies implemented by the SNP/Green administration at Holyrood, a cumulative undermining of Scotland’s economic and social well-being over 16 years.
Doomed Tories celebrate keeping the Rwanda albatross around their necks
No victory was ever more Pyrrhic than the Prime Minister’s 44-vote majority securing a third reading for the Rwanda Safety Bill – more accurately the Rishi Sunak Safety Bill.
Tory failure to scrap the BBC licence fee is another nail in the party's failure
Shamelessness and entitlement are the chief features of today’s elites, but even the worst instances lag badly behind the BBC.
Capitalism is emerging as the culprit for mass immigration
The mask is off. After years of the Tories dissembling with the British public on the subject of immigration, prattling disingenuously about getting the figures down to the “tens of thousands” and “stopping the boats” – this latter mantra being a distraction from the real menace of legal, rather than illegal, immigration – Rishi Sunak finally showed his true colours in a speech to the Global Investment Summit at Hampton Court on Monday.
Nothing Sunak or Hunt can do will save the Tories
Rishi Sunak is taking up space that might more profitably be occupied by a vacuum. This Conservative experiment in nonentity-politik has predictably failed, though Sunak’s incumbency is an appropriate prelude to the final demise of his party. Combined with the Dracula-style return of “Dave” Cameron, it makes a clear statement of the situation: there is nothing left, no ideas and no beliefs, no talent, the last dregs have been drained. It is over.
The return of moderniser Dave completes the Tory cycle of self-destruction
“As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.” (Proverbs 26:11) That biblical text is apparently now the guiding inspiration of the Conservative party. The dogs in the street (to continue the canine metaphor) knew that the Tories were in a death spiral, as bereft of talent as of principle, but the conjuring of David Cameron as a revenant from the disastrous past gives that perception a chilling reality.
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