Which, if any, expert estimates should we take seriously? by Theodore Dalrymple I never listen to the radio, but back in 2008 I was in a taxi when I could hardly avoid doing so. A world-famous economist was being interviewed about the effects of the collapse of Lehman Brothers. ‘There might ...Read More...

If the epidemic, or rather the response to the epidemic, destroys thousands of small businesses, what then? by Theodore Dalrymple One should never underestimate the power of amnesia in human affairs. Even catastrophes on a vast scale are often soon forgotten, at least by those who were not ...Read More...

A costly and unnecessary high-speed rail project is emblematic of the country’s cultural decline. by Theodore Dalrymple The difference between investment and expenditure seems often to escape British politicians, as does the fact that, while expenditure is certain, returns are not. Former ...Read More...

Why does the Government say ‘your NHS’ rather than ‘your country’? by Theodore Dalrymple It is time, surely, to change the name of our country from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the United Kingdom of the National Health Service. When the Chief Medical Officer ...Read More...

by Theodore Dalymple I have a habit—whether good or bad, I cannot say, though my wife does not fully approve—of buying books almost everywhere I go. I do not necessarily read them, though I always intend to do so: and good intentions are, of course, an important component of the moral life. Recently, ...Read More...

by Theodore Dalrymple The late Professor Joad, a popularizer of philosophy rather than a philosopher in the true sense, used to preface his answer to any question by saying, “It depends on what you mean by…”—in this case, “doomed.” The word “doomed” implies an ineluctable destiny, against ...Read More...

by Theodore Dalrymple The first casualty of war is truth. It is also the first casualty of epidemics. When serious epidemics make their presence felt, a dialectic between complacency and panic is set up in the minds of both the public and the political class. Only after the epidemic is over ...Read More...

by Theodore Dalrymple I was only twice in a room with the famous, or infamous, British politician Enoch Powell, both times without speaking to him. Sitting on his own, he had a disconcerting expression of passionate intensity, an intensity that was probably characterological and attached itself ...Read More...

by Theodore Dalrymple Like many persons possessing limited insight into the future, I had supposed that, with the collapse of the Soviet Empire, utopianism would die out in the Western world. I was mistaken. Identity politics in the West is veering in the direction of totalitarianism. A book ...Read More...

by Theodore Dalrymple Listening to the Liberty Law Talk podcast “Liberalism and the Death Penalty” leads me to offer my own thoughts on how its abolition in Great Britain has had much broader consequences for crime and punishment. If I had been a prison doctor while the death penalty was still ...Read More...

Far from being dictatorial, the order is profoundly liberating for clients, architects, and public alike. by Theodore Dalrymple In 1962, the man who was to become famous as Senator Daniel P. Moynihan wrote his “Guiding Principles for Federal Architecture.” These mandated that “major emphasis ...Read More...

by Theodore Dalrymple The British criminal-justice system once again exposed its elaborate and ceremonious frivolity. This frivolity is serious in its effects, not only for its immediate consequences on Britain’s crime rate but also because it undermines the legitimacy of the state, whose first ...Read More...

by Theodore Dalrymple Hubris is an occupational hazard of politicians, but it is not completely unknown in the medical profession. The less certain the knowledge, the more likely the hubris: it is as if certainty were inversely proportional to its evidential justification. Psychiatrists who ...Read More...

by Theodore Dalrymple It is human nature to be fascinated by dramatic events and to invest them with more significance than they warrant. First we take them as being more typical than they are, and then we take them as the shape of things to come. We forget the wisdom of Ecclesiastes, that there ...Read More...

by Theodore Dalrymple In the department of economy, an act, a habit, an institution, a law, gives birth not only to an effect, but to a series of effects. Of these effects, the first only is immediate; it manifests itself simultaneously with its cause — it is seen. The others unfold in succession ...Read More...