A recent Financial Times column on the Iran war exemplifies how the Western elite worldview is more concerned with strategy and power than legality or human life, writes ANDREW MURRAY
Horatio Bottomley: a warning for populists
The hugely influential newspaper editor, politician, orator and crook had a remarkable journey from poverty to Westminster and back — he was well ahead of his time, writes STEPHEN ARNELL
Horatio Bottomley at a WWI recruiting rally in Trafalgar Square, September 10 1915
STEVE BISHOP considers the prospects for a settlement of the conflict and how the demands of both sides are being viewed
The PM is drawing cautious distance from Donald Trump over Iran – but history suggests Britain’s support may run deeper than it appears, just as it did during the Vietnam war, says KEITH FLETT
Years of austerity and political failure have left classrooms overcrowded and staff overstretched – now educators are organising across roles to demand change, says ED HARLOW
While US restrictions tighten economic and social pressures on Cuba, international allies and grassroots campaigns are stepping in to support the island’s resilience, writes BERNARD REGAN, secretary of Cuba Solidarity Campaign
Labour’s approach to Scotland reveals a long-running tension between rhetoric and reality, warns PAULINE BRYAN
THIS year marks the 90th anniversary of the death of the jingoistic populist leader, MP, newspaper journalist, editor and proprietor, serial adulterer, borderline alcoholic, gambler, financier, and convicted fraudster Horatio William Bottomley (1860-1933).
While his name and notoriety are largely forgotten, he cuts a surprisingly modern figure in the age of Nigel Farage, Lee Anderson, GB News, Boris Johnson, and TalkTV.
Politically, his views were mutable, geared to whatever benefited him in terms of career advancement and opportunities for financial speculation — hence his journey from Liberal radicalism to nationalist populism. Bottomley’s incredibly successful “patriotic” weekly paper John Bull and recruitment rallies during WWI gave him access and influence over millions.
Similar stories
STEPHEN ARNELL casts a critical eye over the sudden rash of challenges to the two-party system on both sides of the Atlantic, noting that today’s performative populist politics sadly lacks Roosevelt’s progressive ‘Bull Moose’ vision of the early 20th century
While Spode quit politics after inheriting an earldom, Farage combines MP duties with selling columns, gin, and even video messages — proving reality produces more shameless characters than PG Wodehouse imagined, writes STEPHEN ARNELL
