Stratford used to be a commercially successful manufacturing centre. Now, it tries to get by on tourism, retail therapy, sport, sport science, postgraduate education and leisure. Is this Britain's future, asks J Sorel?
J Sorel reviews The Right to Rule and The Plot for the Daily Sceptic and is unconvinced that Britain is ruled by schemers and intriguers. They're no match for the courts, the Civil Service and the Ministerial Code.
The problem with Jordan Peterson's 'anti-woke Davos' ARC conference was its air of surrender, says J Sorel. "The unspoken assumption behind most of the speeches was that a flight to the hills would be necessary."
English architecture has now reached a consensus, says J Sorel. "That is: that there can be no escape from the madding crowd. Every public place is to become a walkable, human-scaled sitting area-cum-playground."
Every Parliament for the last 30 years has had a mandate to cut immigration. Add a referendum result and it's the largest democratic mandate for any measure in modern history. So when will it happen, asks J Sorel.
J Sorel is perplexed by Rory Stewart’s memoir. The presence of an overbearing, rampant Civil Service is mentioned throughout, but Rory’s solution to 'Broken Britain' is a massive reduction in Parliament's powers.
The British people have had enough of their seemingly endless 'obligations' to impoverish themselves for the sake of others, and belatedly politicians are waking up to this, says J Sorel.
The intervention of the RSPB in the housebuilding debate is the latest in a familiar pattern of 'cute' English institutions making partisan interventions against what they perceive as harmful populism, says J Sorel.
J Sorel dissects the recently unveiled portrait of the Speaker of the House, finding it to be the perfect expression of a ruling class that believes it's under siege and asserts its authority with hysterical earnestness.
Using the term 'geopolitics' conveys an air of world-weary cynicism that its users believe makes them look like they're carrying the weight of history on their shoulders. But it's an empty cliché, says J Sorel.
The Monster Raving Loony Party bills itself as a brilliant piece of satire, taking the Mickey out of politicians. But according to J Sorel, it's actually a tool for the enforcement of Establishment orthodoxy.
Is it time to retire Britain's 'national treasures'? Most now seem to disappear down the plughole of sexual incontinence and scandal.
