Dominic Green | The Spectator columnists & writers

Putin is unpicking the frayed bonds of Nato and the EU

Vladimir Putin doesn’t need to send troops into Ukraine. He has already achieved his strategic goals — for now. The leading European Union powers, France and Germany, are competing against each other for Putin’s ear, while Britain is competing against them by shipping arms to Ukraine. The United States is exposed as an unreliable protector, unable to defend its overextended position on Russia’s doorstep in Ukraine. Nato is divided and powerless, a shadow of imperial overreach. A decrepit caste of corrupt leaders is incapable of managing a controlled retreat from imperial overreach. America today, or Russia the day before yesterday? Putin witnessed the decay and collapse of the Soviet Union, and the subsequent expansion of Nato up to Russia’s borders.

Joe Biden is asleep at the wheel

Did Joe Biden fall asleep during the opening speeches of the COP26 climate jamboree in Glasgow? It’s hard to blame him if he did. A conference dedicated to saving the planet is generating nothing but hot air, some of it carboniferously heavy with the exhaust of the armada of private jets that brought the guests. But it’s Biden’s job to stay awake, look lively and remember his lines. The footage shows a frail man who’s jetlagged, pushing eighty and trying his best to absorb the torrent of heated eco-bilge that’s being pumped into his ears. But he’s only human. The presidential eyelids start to flutter as a speaker pleads 'on behalf of everyone, disabled and non-disabled…to stop the destruction of this magnificent planet.

Why does Kamala Harris refuse to confront anti-Semitism?

Kamala Harris’s pandering to anti-Semitism in a photo-op at George Mason University last week confirms that when it comes to the Democrats, the fish now rots from the head. What should a vice president of the United States say when a foreign student ambushes her with boilerplate lies – in this case, lies which fit her State Department’s own definition of how the more fantastical forms of anti-Zionism are in fact anti-Semitism? You don’t need to be a genius like Joe Biden to know the answer. Speak the truth. Push back against the corrosion of fake news and identity politics which is pulling American society apart. The student, who described herself as part-Yemeni, part-Iranian, objects to last week’s subsidy of American arms manufacturers, which is what last week’s somehow controversial Iron Dome funding bill amounts to.

Biden is losing Nato

The forming of the Australia-UK-US (Aukus) military alliance in the Pacific shows how everything Trump can say, Biden can do. The problem is, Biden isn’t doing it very well. Biden’s administration, like Trump’s, is committed to building its Pacific alliances while sustaining Nato. Yet on Australia as in Afghanistan, the Biden team are doing exactly what they accused Trump of: unpicking the frayed bonds of Nato without a clear idea of what might replace it. The government has three tasks: to keep American workers at work, win contracts for American exports, and secure America’s interests overseas. Two cheers for Biden for getting the Trump memo on the first two points. But the Aukus deal is deaf to the third point, which is likely to harm America’s foreign interests.

The buck stops with Biden

Joe Biden is unfit to be President of the United States. It was obvious when he was running for office that he lacks the physical stamina and mental acuity for the job. It has become increasingly obvious since January that the part-time President has either hidden from the media or stumbled through the kind of scripted press conferences that Americans rightly used to deride as the hallmark of banana republics. The handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan has exposed Biden's incapacity. The painful truth is now undeniable. He must go — even if that means Kamala Harris, who has been similarly wrong about Afghanistan and much else besides, taking over. They say success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan.

Heroes and villains of the pandemic in America

The most alarming aspect of living in America is the recurring sensation that no one is in charge. This is much more disconcerting than recognising that the people in charge are incompetent and corrupt: that is merely a sorry fact of everyday life. Three times in two decades the world’s most powerful state has failed its people: on 9/11, in the crash of 2007-8 and in the Covid-19 pandemic. Once is unfortunate, twice is carelessness, thrice is recklessness, and after that you’re on your own. My basement now resembles a nuclear bunker: food, water, medical supplies, a gym, a lifetime supply of lavatory paper. I live in an affluent, blue-state suburb with hardly any crime, but at night I wonder whether it’s time to go native and get a gun.

Americano

Is the War on Terror finally over?

13 min listen

Americano

Is the War on Terror finally over?

13 min listen

American troops have all but left Afghanistan, months ahead of their 11 September deadline. The country looks ready to fall into a full-scale civil war, with the Taleban overrunning government forces and seeing off local pockets of resistance. Will Biden keep America out, and will he walk away from Iraq too? Freddy Gray speaks to Dominic Green.

The Green Room

Ayaan Hirsi Ali: I Call It Criminal Race Theory

21 min listen

The Green Room

Ayaan Hirsi Ali: I Call It Criminal Race Theory

21 min listen

In this week’s edition of The Green Room, Deputy Editor of The Spectator World edition Dominic Green meets human rights activist, campaigner for classical liberal values, research fellow, founder of the AHA foundation and prolific author Ayaan Hirsi Ali, for a chat about her article in the new edition of The Spectator World edition. In it, she examines the perceived flaws in Western civilisation today, the toxic creep of those who push for a totalitarian ‘woke’ agenda and reflects on how tertiary education in the US is in danger of smothering students with critical race theory. ‘You have to drill down on what it is the woke want. They want to dictate what you eat and don’t eat. They want to dictate who you fraternise with or what your children are learning at school.

The Green Room

1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything

16 min listen

The Green Room

1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything

16 min listen

In this week’s edition of The Green Room, Deputy Editor of The Spectator's world edition Dominic Green and co-host Arsalan Mohammad take a look back half a century to 1971, a year currently being explored in a magnificent eight-part documentary series on Apple+ TV. The series goes deep into that epochal year’s music and social upheavals around the worldand is highly recommended. However, Dom and Arsalan soon veer off into a debate on nostalgia, the whys and wherefores of the corporatisation of rock music, the astonishing impact of Black artists such as Marvin Gaye, Sly Stone and James Brown versus the pomp-rock of West Coast hippies like Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. And then there’s the mind-boggling questio

The Green Room

Hawkwind: a very British tale

18 min listen

The Green Room

Hawkwind: a very British tale

18 min listen

In this week’s edition of The Green Room, Deputy Editor of The Spectator's world edition Dominic Green meets DJ Taylor, who writes in the June edition of Spectator World, about Hawkwind, unlikely champions of the British rock underground. Less a band, more a way of life, the fascinating story of Hawkwind veers from the radicalism of the late 1960s, through the rise and fall of countercultural forces in decades to follow, to the present day. It’s a soap opera of Spinal Tap proportions, a very British tale of inspiration, madness, dreaminess and otherworldliness. Dominic and DJ Taylor have collaborated on a special Hawkwind playlist over here at Spotify, so don’t forget to check it out and let us know what you think! Meanwhile, do share the love in a suitably free love style, by sharing the The Green Room with your social media channels for a weekly dose of books, arts and everything else that makes life worth living.

The Green Room

The ultimate Dylan mixtape

47 min listen

The Green Room

The ultimate Dylan mixtape

47 min listen

In this week’s edition of The Green Room, Deputy Editor of The Spectator's world edition Dominic Green and journalist Arsalan Mohammad celebrate Bob Dylan’s 80th birthday by debating a good old-fashioned mixtape of tunes spanning the old master’s 60-year career (with some background sound effects by Arsalan’s dog). To listen to our selection, head over to our special Dylan Spotify playlist here and perhaps let us know what would make your top ten. Don’t forgot to subscribe to the The Green Room for a weekly dose of books, arts and everything else that makes life worth living. Presented by Dominic Green and Arsalan Mohammad.

The Green Room

Has liberalism gone too far?

27 min listen

The Green Room

Has liberalism gone too far?

27 min listen

In this week’s episode of The Green Room, Deputy Editor of The Spectator's world edition Dominic Green meets the author Sohrab Ahmari for a chat about his new book, The Unbroken Thread: Discovering The Wisdom Of Tradition In An Age Of Chaos. In it, Ahmari, a writer and New York Post op-ed editor, makes a compelling case for seeking the inherited traditions and ideals that give our lives meaning, via 12 fundamental questions that challenge our modern certainties. Among them: Is God reasonable? What is freedom for? What do we owe our parents, our bodies, one another? Exploring each question through the life and ideas of great thinkers, from Saint Augustine to Howard Thurman and from Abraham Joshua Heschel to Andrea Dworkin, Ahmari invites us to examine the hidden assumptions that drive our behaviour and, in so doing, to live more humanely in a world that has lost its way.

Americano

Can Democrats criticise Israel?

12 min listen

Americano

Can Democrats criticise Israel?

12 min listen

Apart from former nominee-candidate Andrew Yang, the Democratic Party has remained relatively quiet about the latest escalations in Israel and Gaza. Why won't the Party comment? Freddy Gray talks to Dominic Green.

Spectator Out Loud

Philip Eade, Dominic Green, Anshel Pfeffer and Lionel Shriver

32 min listen

Spectator Out Loud

Philip Eade, Dominic Green, Anshel Pfeffer and Lionel Shriver

32 min listen

On this week's episode, Philip Eade, biographer to Prince Philip, reads his obituary of the Prince. We're also joined by Dominic Green, Spectator USA's Life and Arts Editor, who reads his article on Prince Harry's new job. Anshel Pfeffer reports on life in Israel under the vaccine passport; and Lionel Shriver on the West's self-doubt and who stands to benefit.

How Prince Harry became celebrity frontman for a very questionable industry

Prince Harry is now chief impact officer for BetterUp, a Californian corporate consultancy whose ‘mission’ is to sell online life coaching with — in his words, — ‘innovation, impact and integrity’. Harry may not realise it, but he is the latest celebrity frontman for the rapidly growing, broadly unregulated and frequently dubious corporate ‘coaching’ industry. And you might not realise it, but Harry, Duke of Malibu is your future, because California’s today is America’s tomorrow and Britain’s next week. BetterUp is one of a group of Californian companies on the growing, corporate edge of life coaching. Its competitors have names like Workbot, Hone and Clear Review and they all claim to have discovered the secret to improving motivation and productivity at every level of corporate life — using data modelling and artificial intelligence to target what BetterUp calls ‘hyperpersonalised coaching’ at every employee.

The Edition

Roadmap to nowhere: will life ever return to normal?

38 min listen

The Edition

Roadmap to nowhere: will life ever return to normal?

38 min listen

Americano

Is Marjorie Taylor Greene the future of the Republican party?

13 min listen

Americano

Is Marjorie Taylor Greene the future of the Republican party?

13 min listen

The House of Representatives has removed Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene from two committees for promoting incendiary conspiracy theories about paedophile rings and Jewish-controlled space lasers. Does she represent the future of the GOP, and are both parties losing their grip on reality? Freddy Gray speaks to Dominic Green, the Spectator's deputy US editor.

Joe Biden’s Big Tech takeover

Twitter’s banning of Donald Trump is like bolting the stable door after the QAnon shaman has gone. The damage was done long before the assault on the Capitol was planned on social media. Long before Donald Trump tweeted his way to the White House, social media had reduced American democracy to a lurid freak show. The ban also shows how far the big-tech oligarchs are prepared to go in order to retain their absurd and damaging monopolies. After the 2016 elections, social media promised to clean up their act. The digital fiascos of the 2020 election and its aftermath confirm that Big Tech is incapable of being the value-free guarantor of the modern public square. Instead, it has been heavy-handed and incompetent: blatantly intervening on behalf of the Democrats (the silencing of the New York Post for running the story of Hunter Biden’s laptop, the pompous tagging of Trump’s tweets as unverified), yet incapable of stemming the tide of cross-party incitement and lies.

The farce of the Nobel Peace Prize

Betraying the Nobel opens with a detonation from Michael Nobel, Alfred’s great-grandnephew. The vice-chairman and then chairman of the Nobel Family Society for 15 years, Michael believes that the Nobel Peace Institute has betrayed the ‘original conditions of Alfred Nobel’s will and intentions’. Its selection process is ‘very sketchy’ and its committee of Norwegian parliamentarians reflects the balance of power in their parliament. Its awards follow ‘personal interests’, ‘political and national considerations’ and ‘human rights or global warming’, all of which have ‘little or nothing’ to do with Alfred Nobel’s bequest. The Prize was a dynamite idea when it was founded in 1900. What better way to avoid war than to recycle the profits from explosives into an incentive scheme for perpetual peace? But, as Unni Turrettini describes in her efficient and quietly devastating account, the Peace Prize soon fell to secret horse-trading, moral grandstanding and what one Norwegian parliamentarian calls ‘the privatisation of foreign policy’.

Trump’s gangster affectation was always part of his appeal

Finally, some real evidence of electoral fraud. After weeks of claims and court dismissals, Donald Trump at last has solid evidence that this is a country where elected officials can pick up a phone and try to fix the results, and that, as the mobsters used to say, the fish rots from the head. Unfortunately for Trump, he’s the one on the line — and the hook. Call him The Codfather. The leaked recording of Trump trying to strong-arm Georgia’s secretary of state Brad Raffensperger confirms that The Godfather movies aren't just an immigrant parable, but also a handbook to how to get on and up in American life. If something’s broken — the political system, for instance — then fix it. ‘There’s nothing wrong with saying that y’know, er.

Spectator Out Loud

Spectator Out Loud: Dominic Green, Tanya Gold, Lionel Shriver and Bruce Anderson

33 min listen

Spectator Out Loud

Spectator Out Loud: Dominic Green, Tanya Gold, Lionel Shriver and Bruce Anderson

33 min listen

On this week's episode, the Spectator's deputy US editor, Dominic Green, argues that if Joe Biden departs from Donald Trump’s foreign policy, American interests will be harmed. (01:00) After, Tanya Gold reads her interview with Belle Delphine, the 21-year-old who earns more than $1 million a month from videos she posts online. (13:25) Lionel Shriver features next; she says that nobody wins from identity politics. (20:00) And finally, Bruce Anderson explains why you can’t trust supermarket cheese. (28:45)

Biden’s burden: can he save the free world?

Joe Biden talks a lot about restoring America’s standing in the world. But the truth is that if he now has the chance to reshape America’s relationships for a new era, it’s because Donald Trump has already done the awkward stuff. The question is: can Biden and his team swallow their collective pride and build on Trump’s legacy, or will vanity and partisanship send the American Atlas tumbling to his knees? Trump won the 2016 election by forcing the difficult questions on to the national agenda. In office, he developed an alternative to the spent consensus of the 1990s. Call it vulgar realism, the lowest common denominator of American interest. He named and shamed the self-dealing swamp creatures of Washington, DC: corrupt politicians, complacent bureaucrats, thoughtless think-tankers, the bottom-feeding media.

The Edition

Biden’s Burden: can he save the free world?

42 min listen

The Edition

Biden’s Burden: can he save the free world?

42 min listen

Biden would be a fool to reverse Trump’s foreign policy wins

‘We’re going to be back in the game,’ our presumptive and somewhat previous new president tells us. ‘It’s not America alone.’ But America was never out of the game under Donald Trump and never alone. Look who is also back in the game: Tony Blinken, Barack Obama’s deputy secretary of state, will be Biden’s secretary of state. Jake Sullivan, once one of Hillary Clinton’s closest aides, is going to be Biden’s national security adviser. John Kerry, the disastrous diplomat who gave us the Iran nuclear deal, is Biden’s climate emissary. And it was all going so well. Trump might not have built his wall, but he had the first successful foreign policy of any president since Ronald Reagan told Gorbachev to tear down that earlier wall.

The Democrats’ civil war has already begun

There is, as our presumptive and somewhat presumptuous president Malaprop told us on Sunday, a time to plant and a time for the other thing. There is a time for healing, and a time for massing your advisers in a garden centre and taking your enemies to court for stealing the election. A time for introducing your granddaughter as your dead son, and a time for calling upon the endorsement of ‘General Stanley McGeneral’. As it is written in the Book of Roger McGuinn, ‘To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.’ Turn, turn, turn: Now it is time for the Democrats to turn on each other before their triumph is certain. Within hours of Biden claiming victory, the Democratic left was trading Twitter snark with the centrists.

Win or lose, Donald Trump has remade American politics

It’s not over till the senile guy talks gibberish. It might not be over for days. The election may shift to the courts, to be contested like history’s most important parking ticket. Regardless of who wins — and the true professionals of prediction, the bookmakers, now have Donald Trump odds-on — Donald Trump has already done the impossible. He has won the moral high ground. Since 2016, the Democrats and most of the media have told us that Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton was an electoral and moral aberration. That Trump was not Hugh Hefner, but ‘Drumpf’ the white supremacist. That the voters, chastened by four years under the orange flag of fascism, would recognise their error as a sin and repent. That in 2020 the United States would return to the old normal, and the permanent class of professional politicians could get back to its statesmanlike duty of soliciting cash in brown envelopes, signing off on idiot policies like invading Iraq and dismantling the industrial base, and telling the trash not to cling to guns, religion and other symbols of chronic whiteness.

Hunter Biden and the Big Tech information coup

There is nothing to see. In 2014, Hunter Biden joined the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma on a reported salary of $50,000 (£40,000) a month. Hunter knows nothing about the energy business, and he doesn’t seem to speak Ukrainian. ‘I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings,’ Joe Biden said in 2019, though he had been photographed playing golf in the Hamptons with Hunter and another Burisma board member, Devon Archer, in 2014. But there is nothing to see. On Wednesday, the New York Post published an email from Vadim Pozharskyi, an adviser to the Burisma board, from April 2015. Pozharskyi thanks Hunter for ‘inviting me to DC and giving an opportunity to meet your father and spend some time together’.

The dazzling, devious, doomed sound of James Booker

Dr John called James Booker ‘the best black, gay, one-eyed junkie piano genius New Orleans has ever produced’. Booker died in 1983 at 43, ruined by drugs, drink and madness. Though he appeared on plenty of other people’s records and stages — Dr John, Aretha Franklin, B.B. King — Booker recorded only three studio albums in his lifetime. Classified, recorded in October 1982 and now re-released on vinyl, was the last of them. It might not be the best of them, but it shows why Booker was one of the greats. The studio was booked for three days, but Booker had a breakdown the week before and couldn’t get a good take in the first two days. He revived on the third and recorded Classified in four hours. He sounds dazzling and devious, mournful and ecstatic, lyrical and doomed, all at the same time.

What’s the real reason behind Joe Biden’s Brexit threats?

Is Donald Trump taking the Democrats’ line on Brexit and the Irish border? We might think so from the Financial Times. On Friday, the FT quoted Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s special envoy to Northern Ireland, saying that the Trump administration, the State Department and the US Congress ‘would all be aligned in the desire to see the Good Friday Agreement preserved to see the lack of a border maintained’, and that no one wants ‘a border by accident’. Does this mean that the Trump administration agrees with Joe Biden? No, it doesn’t. Biden, along with House of Representatives leader Nancy Pelosi and a gaggle of Democratic committee leaders, is siding with the EU. ‘We can’t allow the Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland to become a casualty of Brexit,’ Biden tweeted on Wednesday.

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