‘There is a roving male cast in the centre — Mr Bennet, Willoughby, Wickham — but they don’t dare have Mr Darcy for fear he might be groped by Janeites.’ | Tanya Gold unherd.com/2025/12/inside-the-jane-austen-theme-park/

Britain can still become a leader in AI — but we'll need more data centres | Henry Hill

‘It seems the progressive mindset is now so flexible that it can accommodate an attitude to labour relations that would be familiar in an autocratic Gulf petrostate.’ | Jonny Ball unherd.com/2025/12/britains-bargain-basement-social-care/

Over the weekend it was reported that Andy Burnham is eyeing a return as an MP before challenging Starmer for leader. Make no mistake — this is a party leadership on notice | David Littlefair

'Jews know well what Maccabean defiance looks like: it looks like Israel.' | Samuel Rubinstein unherd.com/2025/12/jews-dont-feel-safe-anywhere/

‘Rob Reiner worked within Hollywood genres that were made for a broad mass audience, not a fragmented archipelago of niches’ | Ralph Leonard

Western governments have shied away from fully confronting Muslim extremism in fear of appearing ‘Islamophobic’. Jihad of all flavours has flourished as a consequence | Kyle Orton unherd.com/newsroom/aus...

‘These days, the entire counterfactual domain struggles to escape from the interminable “what-if-the-Nazis-won” accounts of an alternative Second World War.’ | Boyd Tonkin unherd.com/2025/12/what-if-napoleon-had-won/

‘Wes Streeting has waited until the trolleys are backed up to the sliding doors.’ | Dr Emma Jones unherd.com/2025/12/wes-streeting-should-stay-in-his-lane/

Over the weekend, Volodymyr Zelensky dropped the demand that Ukraine be allowed to join Nato. The door was never open in the first place | Bethany Elliott unherd.com/2025/12/zele...

‘Not every Christian in attendance was willing to take Tommy Robinson’s change of heart at face value.’ | Felix Pope unherd.com/2025/12/meet...

John Cena existed in a space where political neutrality remained commercially viable. Now WWE feels it has to play to its MAGA-coded base | Oliver Bateman unherd.com/newsroom/joh...

Twelve people have been killed in a terror attack at a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney. Australian Jews have been sounding the alarm for years | Limor Simhony Philpott unherd.com/2025/12/sydn...

‘Dive bars are the defining third spaces of the last century — and nothing comparable has emerged to replace them.’ | Ryan Zickgraf unherd.com/2025/12/losi...

‘The idea of a deliberate, premeditated Russian attack on Nato “within five years” is simply nonsense.’ | Anatol Lieven unherd.com/newsroom/mar...

Is this year’s flu season particularly bad or has it just begun earlier than usual? | David Paton unherd.com/newsroom/is-...

‘By crafting a documentary where Left and Right can all feel ‘represented’, Ken Burns deftly avoids dealing with the roots of America’s problems.' | Duncan Moench unherd.com/2025/12/america-was-never-inclusive/

The Europeans have, unfortunately, manoeuvred themselves into a bad position, with no realistic plan for war or peace. Only Russia and America would benefit from a peace deal in Ukraine | Wolfgang Munchau

‘The worried teenagers of Islington have little option other than to remain fearful.’ | Max Daly unherd.com/2025/12/gangs-are-menacing-londons-schoolchildren/

We know that puberty blockers cause physical harm and stunt healthy development. So why is the Government allowing a trial to go ahead? | Josephine Bartosch

‘I am afraid I have no quick answer as to how to make Fuentes’ white nationalism less appealing to masses of young men, but Morgan has shown us that old-school tactics have absolutely had their day.’ | Kathleen Stock unherd.com/2025/12/does-nick-fuentes-have-daddy-issues/

The US is trying to make Nicolás Maduro’s fall feel inevitable. Seizing oil assets and showcasing military force undermines his authority | Tom Rogan

‘What has puzzled some is that a Leftist president has been able to establish the semblance of a working relationship with a neighbouring hostile administration.' | Edwin Ackerman unherd.com/2025/12/clau...

Candace Owens and Tim Pool are fighting with each other because it makes good content. Don’t confuse 21st-century light entertainment for actual politics | Mary Harrington

‘Simon Cowell knew precisely how to pierce the souls of his auditioners because he was, like them, hungry for fame.’ | Sarah Ditum unherd.com/2025/12/simo...

‘Underpinning some well-taken points about the iniquities of the porn industry is an utterly bonkers theory of human psychology dressed up in the reassuring language of neuro-jargon.’ | John Maier unherd.com/2025/12/the-...

If Nigel Farage and Jordan Bardella both gain power, Britain could be more influential in Brussels than it has been in decades | Peter Franklin unherd.com/2025/12/shou...

‘If our grandparents made gifts, and our parents purchased them in person, we simply press “buy now” in a frictionless act of globalisation.’ | Aaron Bastani unherd.com/2025/12/the-...

David Lammy and Richard Hermer yesterday went to Strasbourg calling for human rights laws to be ‘constrained’. Even if they succeed, it won’t change Britain’s politicised judiciary | Chris Bayliss

Why do 43% of Scottish schoolchildren have additional support needs? | Nina Welsch unherd.com/newsroom/why...

‘Rising food, gas, and rent prices hit working-class Hispanic families especially hard, turning economic anxiety into political anger’ | Michael Lind

'Home Office mandarins will continue to exercise control over forces without accountability for any crises, scandals or mistakes’ | Dominic Adler

‘Vibe apart, he was a socialist, if one allows a very English, decidedly unstrident, institution-loving, patrician declension of socialism.’ | Pratinav Anil unherd.com/2025/12/kenneth-clark-unlikely-socialist/

‘Whatever way you look at it, the country is changing — and not necessarily in a direction Rupert Lowe will welcome.’ | Rakib Ehsan unherd.com/2025/12/are-muslims-britains-future/

The trend of increasing bisexuality among Britain’s young people looks to be over. What lies behind the decline? | Eric Kaufmann

The fact that Keir Starmer’s embraced an American-based blogging platform is more newsworthy than any of the words posted there so far. | Mary Harrington unherd.com/2025/12/the-...

'Modern Britain is often described as a secular, liberal, and pluralistic society, but we cannot simply wish away the country’s Christian inheritance' | Jide Ehizele unherd.com/newsroom/sho...

Jasmine Crockett has announced her candidacy for the US Senate. A divisive firebrand won’t help the Democrats in Republican-leaning Texas | Michael Baharaeen unherd.com/newsroom/jas...

Feisty anti-Trump podcaster Jennifer Welch has successfully railed against the Democratic establishment. But she’s too contemptuous of GOP voters to build bridges | Emily Jashinsky

‘Mamdani and his crowd have tumbled out of the cynical fantasy of his campaign and into the real world.’ | Lee Siegel unherd.com/2025/12/is-m...

China’s goods surplus has reached a record $1 trillion but this reflects a dangerous dependence on exports | Miquel Vila

‘Labour must remember that this is at heart, a gigantic state failure to protect the very people the party was founded to represent.’ | David Littlefair unherd.com/2025/12/labo...

‘Somewhere in the bowels of Washington’s 3801 Nebraska Avenue, a teenage boy is snickering as he posts ragebait on behalf of the Department of Homeland Security.’ | Poppy Sowerby unherd.com/2025/12/meme...

Is nurse Sandie Peggie transphobic for refusing to share a changing room with a biological male? A tribunal’s ruling certainly seemed to suggest so | Joan Smith

‘Christmas offers an unlikely cast for a British Christian nationalist.’ | Giles Fraser unherd.com/2025/12/tomm...

'How have we ended up in a situation where school closures, lockdowns and masks are increasingly seen as a normal response to seasonal infection?' | David Paton unherd.com/newsroom/sch...

The US Supreme Court today heard arguments regarding the firing of FTC commissioner Rebecca Slaughter. Can any arm of the American government truly be independent? | Kyle Sammin

Martin Parr was a chronicler of the twin English spirits of dourness and eccentricity, but too many skirt over the shameful way in which he was cancelled in 2020 | Flo Read

‘Given time, Syria could yet become a commercial hub with a distinct cultural life, just as it has been for much of its epic history.’ | Tam Hussein unherd.com/2025/12/will-civil-war-return-to-syria/

Could Nigel Farage help John Swinney hold onto power in Scotland? | Iain Macwhirter