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Could the existing Commonwealth ever evolve into the federation it long ago gave up trying to become? This has become so implausible that Canada has opted to cosy up to the EU instead. As for us, if we want closer union with polities that hate everything about Britain except the money we send, we might as well do the same. So perhaps before Our Andeh says something we all regret, on our affiliation with either of these august societies, we should start the campaign to decolonise the Commonwealth by removing Britain from its ranks. If it really is a club of equals, it’ll be fine without us. As for Charles, we can club together and get him a package holiday for next year. Read more from @moveincircles:

Labour has announced new deals that strengthen ties with the EU. Yet these agreements overwhelmingly favour Europe over Britain, writes @peterfranklin_ 👇

Harmeet Dhillon, who headed up the Trump DoJ’s civil rights division, boasted of bringing about the ‘downfall of illegal DEI’. Yet she ended up weaponising the law for pro-Israel causes, writes @Nikos_Mohammadi 👇

I was a writer who had learned to make men ejaculate with just my words; after which I went home, curled up in my leg warmers and watched Cheers on the TV. Read more from Polly Clark on her time spent working for Paul Raymond:

Harmeet Dhillon was a key figure in the Trump administration’s pro-Israel crusade. Her resignation is a setback for GOP Zionists, writes @Nikos_Mohammadi 👇

Andy Burnham is negotiating a string of deals to bring Britain closer to the EU. But he is capitulating to Europe’s unfair demands, argues @peterfranklin_ 👇

‘Meloni rightly fears that the EU — which bears the financial brunt of supporting the Ukraine war — risks being “condemned to irrelevance”.’ William Nattrass 👇

Last week, Donald Trump joked that $5,000 could at most buy you a hamburger and “maybe a small dessert” at Mar-a-Lago. “It’s not a good place if you’re price conscious,” he said about his Florida beach club. It was a typically tone-deaf comment. The price of beef is a particular sore spot for Americans, since it is a key ingredient in the fast food that defines the American way of life, and its price has soared by 22% since Trump took office last year. When he was re-elected in 2024, Trump promised to bring down prices; instead, he raised them with his tariffs and his ill-fated war in Iran. The inflation rate, which had been running at 3% when he took office, is now approaching 4%. No wonder Trump’s Republican Party suffered a crushing defeat in Tuesday’s mid-term elections, in large part due to the nation’s worsening cost-of-living crisis. This week, even his own past supporters turned on him. Read more from @jarapley:

RT @MoustacheClubUS: over at @unherd, my new story analyzes the end of @Salon ... a once-important publication that gave me my first major break as a writer nearly 13 years ago

One can envision a near future where much lawyering is undertaken by AI. Perhaps clients interact with an interface, which then turns their conversation into a formal submission to the court. Human judges, retained for tradition, then provide desk-based assessments, with neither counsel nor client required to appear. If this premonition is accurate, lawyers are looking increasingly obsolete. Read more from @JarrydBartle:

RT @BarneysRubble0: The Mystery of What Befell in the Ditch sounds like a line out of Beckett, and I do love Beckett. Could be an intriguing novel…

Much of the discussion surrounding the current inflation spike focuses on the impact of Trump’s war on the price of energy. The assumption is therefore that the high prices are temporary. The OBR assumes that by 2028, the UK inflation rate will be close to the Bank of England’s 2% target once again, making this inflation shock transitory. Ahead of the mid-term elections, Trump made much the same argument: that the price surge will prove fleeting. Unfortunately, we’ve heard this before. The word “transitory” doesn’t have great currency among economists these days. The original inflation surge of 2021 was initially waved off by central bankers as a brief aberration, but here we are, in the sixth year of above-target inflation that we keep hearing is about to come down. Other than during a brief period in 2024, inflation has not returned to the 2% target Western central banks have set for it. Read more from @jarapley:

Giorgia Meloni has argued this week that the EU’s fragmentary approach leaves it powerless in Ukraine negotiations. The bloc has an authority vacuum, writes William Nattrass 👇

RT @SohrabAhmari: Democratic centrism just died. Must-read midterm assessment from the inimitable @ryan_zickgraf

Salon has ceased publication after years of decline. Online general-interest magazines are going extinct, writes @MoustacheClubUS 👇

James Talarico is set to become the first Democratic senator for Texas since 1988. But the GOP’s losses in the state run much deeper, writes @DanielKalder 👇

Salon magazine used to publish some of the most interesting essays on the internet, before it went down the clickbait route. Its demise is a cautionary tale for other publications, writes @MoustacheClubUS 👇

RT @stellaomalley3: Anyone can call themselves a counsellor or a psychotherapist. Yet instead of tackling this scandal, the Government is pushing a Conversion Practices Bill that threatens to censor what therapists can say. My latest for @unherd 👇

RT @kathleen_stock1: A difficult topic, but I wrote for @unherd about unnamed celebrity "PPT"'s strange attempt to stifle media criticism by forecasting his own death

Texas Democrats have won historic gains in this week’s midterms. Republican dominance of the state has come to a definitive end, writes @DanielKalder 👇

RT @MsPollyClark: Today legislation comes into force banning realistic images of some extreme pornography. It shows how limitless pornography has become since the days of men’s magazines. I enjoyed writing for Paul Raymond. Until I glimpsed the punter in my boyfriend.

RT @jo_bartosch: Latest! Blake cannot rebuild trust with the people his organisation defamed while it clings to the fiction of the “male-bodied lesbian” and refuses to own the damage it has done.

RT @valerie_reads: "The “story” that Lund tells ... is a 'mystery' story in the old sense, one that summons the greatest questions and doubts about ourselves." @gustophagus for @unherd on Norwegian cycle to rival Knausgard.

In the UK, anyone can adopt the label of ‘therapist’ and begin practicing. The industry desperately needs regulation to protect patients, argues @stellaomalley3 👇

‘Ronaldo had become a liability for Portugal in recent tournaments, a statuesque presence in a game now defined by youthful intensity.’ But we should remember his brilliant talent, not his petulant end. @draper_rob 👇

RT @JeffDudgeon: Unflinching analysis of the Commonwealth and Britain's role in the world (and the US).

‘The distinction between the mainstream centre-right and centre-left on immigration is largely one of tone.’ @baylissbaghdad 👇

Cristiano Ronaldo has retired from international football. His descent into self-parody shows us that superstars are human too, writes @draper_rob 👇

Therapists in the UK are calling for overdue regulation of the industry. But can the Government be trusted to decide how counsellors practice? @stellaomalley3 👇

On my first day, the Managing Editor looked up briefly from his lightbox, hemmed in by towers of contact sheets. He was a young man, but had the world-weariness of someone who had seen it all. “If you miss a deadline, you’re sacked,” he said. He oversaw the frenetic production schedules of all the magazines, but his main job was choosing the photographs. His days were spent peering through his eyeglass, parsing the “pinkness” and “neatness” of the girls’ genitals, and the “happiness” and “filthiness” of their faces. Read more from Polly Clark:

Only a true populist like Marjorie Taylor Greene could potentially save the GOP’s chances in 2028. That is presuming she and Tucker Carlson don’t go through with their recent threats to start a new political party. Regardless, Greene is probably shrewd enough to sit the next election out. All of which means that whether it’s AOC or some other Democrat taking the Oval Office in 2029, wokeness as an ideological imposition is far from dead. The NGO class and the DEI administrative apparatus will ride back into power on the Democrats’ surrogate economy — and Trump will turn out to be the worst thing that ever happened to the anti-woke cause. Read more from @DuncanMoench:

RT @cosiadair: I wrote about the latest John Lewis ad👇👇👇

Centre-right politicians from both Britain and France like to talk tough about illegal immigration. Yet this increasingly looks like posturing rather than action, writes @baylissbaghdad 👇

Kemi Badenoch has claimed she does not have full confidence in the police watchdog, ahead of a review of officers’ response to Henry Nowak’s murder. @RobLownie reports 👇

The annual John Lewis Christmas sermon has arrived. This year, Britain is reminded that generosity is best expressed through retail spending, writes @cosiadair 👇

To ground lawyering in rhetorical artistry necessitates a shift in legal education. If AI can handle the drudgery of locating authorities and assembling arguments, then the human element becomes even more central. Future generation of lawyers will require a capacity for cultivated passions, what C.S. Lewis called the chest: the seat of “emotions organised by trained habit into stable sentiments”. It also requires a magnanimity of character sufficient to captivate and seduce an audience. Literature, history and poetics deserve a place alongside doctrine. An education devoted exclusively to producing correct answers prioritises “technical knowledge” over the sensitive, well-rounded soul required for legal practice. We can leave the grunt work to AI, in short, but the delicate business of civilising conflict still calls for a human touch. Read more from @JarrydBartle:

Half a century after Bowie was ploughing through London, the beat goes on. A friend told me the other day of a teenage boy evicted from her daughter’s friendship group for pulling a routine straight out of the play-gay playbook. Now, Brand has been unmasked and carries a warning: some men don’t actually want to borrow your mascara and listen to your Glee soundtrack. The forest is darker and scarier than ever, and the beast really is behind you. Read more from @BoozeAndFagz:

"President Trump and the GOP broke their pledge of peace, launched an ill-conceived war with Iran, and thus exacerbated an affordability crisis they’d been elected to solve." @SohrabAhmari says "It's the War, Stupid."

Live in New York City🇺🇸 Join The Dish’s @sullydish and UnHerd’s Editor-in-Chief @freddiesayers at the UnHerd Clubhouse in NoMad for a live dialogue about the future of America after the Trump era, with drinks to celebrate the start of the holiday season. 📅Tuesday 1 December 📍UnHerd Clubhouse, NoMad ⏰Doors open 6pm 🎟️Book now:

‘It seems that no degree of progressive failure can have a negative impact on politicians in states like California.’ @joelkotkin 👇

In a new interview, Kemi Badenoch has claimed the police covered up officers’ response to Henry Nowak’s murder. @RobLownie reports 👇

The Republicans have lost control of both Houses of Congress. Donald Trump may have done irreparable damage to the GOP brand, writes @mbaharaeen 👇

RT @peterfranklin_: Labour couldn’t even stand up to Mauritius – so, naturally, they’re giving in to the EU’s trade blackmail. From me for @UnHerd:

‘No one, witnessing Brand boast about his gargantuan sexual appetite, should have seen anything but a series of enormous red flags.’ Yet the more outrageously he behaved, the more he was lionised. @polblonde 👇

According to Dr Jekyll, “man is not truly one, but truly two”. The unnamed celebrity in the news this week would perhaps agree. In the High Court Judgment that ultimately rejected his injunction application, we were offered a fascinating portrait of two souls fighting it out in a single body: a sadly resigned victim (him), prophesying his own demise at the hands of a crazed and implacable killer (also him). The goal of “PPT” — still his official name as this goes to press, pre-appeal — is to stifle allegations of inappropriate sexual activity, some of it potentially criminal. PPT asserts that publication of this material by the Guardian and ITN will very likely trigger a suicide attempt in him, thereby causing devastation to his son. “The claimant contends that publication would expose him to a real and immediate risk of serious harm or death,” the judge was told, as if the man were running from the mafia rather than his own demons. Read more:

This month: Live in London👇 @holland_tom and Malcolm Guite will be joining us at the Emmanuel Centre on Friday 27 November for an enlightening live dialogue on Arthurian legend, myth-making and the task of re-enchantment 🎟️Subscribers enjoy discounted tickets to all UnHerd events. Not a subscriber? Book your ticket now and receive a free six-month subscription which unlocks access to and preferential ticket rates for future events. BOOK NOW:

RT @polblonde: Me on Russell Brand for @unherd

Donald Trump’s MAGA movement has suffered a crushing defeat in the midterms. The GOP needs to find a new strategy to survive in 2028, writes @emilyjashinsky 👇

RT @baylissbaghdad: Edouard Phillippe's statement on the small boats crisis is the latest in a long tradition of hollow theatrics from centre-right politicians on both sides of the Channel around illegal migration. My latest for @unherd

‘One thing is clear from these midterms: residents of blue states such as California have an enormous capacity for pain.’ These elections have failed to start a debate about the problems plaguing the Golden State, writes @joelkotkin 👇

RT @moveincircles: If Britain is serious about reckoning with our historic Empire, we should exorcise its spectral aftermath: the Commonwealth

RT @MsPollyClark: On Nov 6th, a new law takes aim at realistic and extreme pornographic images. When I wrote ‘confessions’ for Paul Raymond, the women were real but everything else was invented. For UnHerd, on what happens when fantasy is presented as fact – and believed.

‘All the people who excused and indulged Russell Brand for so many years should reflect on their own part in his career of pitiless predation.’ @polblonde 👇

Democratic "Third Way" centrism just died. Welcome to the age of Left populism. ✍️ @ryan_zickgraf

RT @BoozeAndFagz: Beware the fauxmosexual via @UnHerd It's me in UNHERD!

The Democrats have won a resounding victory in the midterm elections. But Trump’s fragile coalition was always doomed to collapse, argues @mbaharaeen 👇